COASTAL OBSERVER

The county’s largest employer announced it would close, leaving behind a 350-acre site on the waterfront in need of environmental cleanup.

“They were entertaining several different potential purchasers of that property,” Kelly Robertson-Slagle said. “It takes the right partner, the right buyer that has the capacity to be able to do that kind of work. And that really limits the pool.”

The fate of the site in Charles County, Md., was still evolving when Robertson-Slagle left as its director of economic development to take the same position with Georgetown County. Now she has three waterfront sites facing redevelopment: the Liberty Steel mill, the International Paper mill – both of which closed last year – and the former state port that sits between them on the Georgetown waterfront.

“I looked at it as a really exciting opportunity and a challenge that I’m up for,” Robertson-Slagle said.

She is in the first month of a self-imposed 90-day listening phase.

Robertson-Slagle was among the local officials who listened to an update from IP last week on the status of the sale of its property. A statement from the county said the company confirmed what many already knew: that it is handling the sale internally, has received multiple bids and is reviewing them now. IP also said it would keep the community updated “to the fullest extent possible.”

At least one bidder wants to restart and expand the paper mill’s power plant to burn biomass to fuel a sawmill, a data center and two other wood products operations. 

Another, who has a contract to buy the steel mill site, wants to redevelop the paper mill without any smokestack industries. Those proposals have fueled debate in the community over the IP site’s future with groups lining up in support of each one.

That’s a familiar scenario for Robertson-Slagle. The mills were “legacy projects,” she said.

“At the time, they transformed the community and were able to get it to the place where we are now,” Robertson-Slagle said. “And now it’s like, what are those next legacy projects that are going to bring us into this next generation here in Georgetown.”

She sees her role as preparing the county to work with whoever acquires the IP property.

“They’re going to have to touch government at some point,” she said. “So if there’s any way where there may be a way to kind of steer or guide, it would be during that process. That’s been my experience.”

Along with 26 years of economic development experience in Maryland, Robertson-Slagle has a view of community values shaped by being one of seven generations of a family who lived in rural Maryland.

“I come from a family of entrepreneurs,” she said.
“The core business is seafood.”

Beyond harvesting and serving the state’s popular blue crabs, her family also  had interests in automobiles and hardware.

“My philosophy overall in economic development is it’s a balance,” Robertson-Slagle said. “You want to pay homage to and really respect the history of a community. And you want to make sure that you are targeting what I like to term ‘appropriate’ economic development.”

That’s important because she adheres to the maxim that 80 percent of economic growth is going to come from 20 percent of the community’s existing businesses. She started out in economic development working with a state grant program to improve workforce quality.

“So that’s why I said it’s extremely important to make sure that our local businesses are healthy before we can even recruit a business,” Robertson-Slagle said.

As she moved into management, she worked on recruitment and even ventured into tourism and agriculture.

Georgetown County was a draw for Robertson-Slagle and her husband, Jeff, because they already owned a second home in Murrells Inlet. They bought it when their daughter, Morgan, decided to attend Coastal Carolina University. She now works for the city of North Myrtle Beach.

While much of the focus on economic development in the county is on the Georgetown waterfront and the fate of the mill sites, Robertson-Slagle said the county is well-positioned to draw new employers to its industrial park in Andrews, its still-undeveloped Pennyroyal park on the Sampit River and the airport industrial park, which is still in the planning stage.

“I’ve said this more than once. I’m like a kid in the candy store,” Robertson-Slagle said.