By: TUCKER MITCHELL
Published: July 20, 201
Florence County Council Chairman K.G. “Rusty” Smith said there are no major hurdles to Florence County signing off on its part of the proposal that would bring a 53-room, upscale boutique hotel to downtown Florence in the near future.
Although discussion of the proposal and the tangled knot of steps the county must take to bring it to fruition are not on the council’s official agenda for its meeting Thursday, Smith said he and his colleagues may take up the matter anyway. And even if they don’t address it this week, Smith said, the plan likely will gain county approval eventually.
“I don’t want to speak for the council,” Smith said, ‘but I would foresee us moving forward on this. I know I’m supportive of it. There are just a lot of legal details to work out. It’s pretty complicated from our end.”
The project, the brainchild of five Florence entrepreneurs, would bring the hotel and an accompanying 180-seat restaurant — the current Victor’s on South Irby Street would move to the new site — to the old downtown area. It would be located on West Evans Street, primarily in the old Schofield Hardware/Cosmos building. The estimated $5.6 million project is the first major private investment project in the downtown area, which city leaders hope to renovate and revitalize.
Smith said county leaders are hoping to do that, too, even though they represent a much larger area with a different constituency.
“I think we all understand that the sustainability of anything in Florence County is dependent upon what happens in our county seat (the city of Florence),” he said. “Hopefully we can become, are becoming, a business Mecca. A big part of that is providing the amenities. It’s one thing to get a job here. We want people to feel good about bringing their families here, too. You’ve got to make the place presentable.”
To help the local development group make downtown, and the city as a whole, more presentable, the city has proposed handing them a nice incentive deal that includes some direct city spending for the site and ongoing tax breaks that city models show would equal about $500,000. That’s based on current tax rates and projected land values.
Council took the first steps toward achieving that end last week when it approved a resolution stating its intention to invest in the project, and to undertake the process of removing the properties in questions from a special tax district in the downtown area. Removing the properties from that district, known as Tax Increment Financing district, would pave the way for the county to create a “Multi-County Industrial Park” at the site. The park is a state vehicle that allows for the greatest amount of tax incentives to be directed towards a particular economic development project.
Pulling properties out of the TIF is complex, however. Both the city and county must take action and each must be sure the other is going to cooperate before moving themselves.
The city plan for the developers is also aimed at future projects and suggests setting minimum thresholds for projects that could qualify for similar incentives. Smith said there was some concern over that clause. He said county council probably would want to consider make similar incentive programs available to other towns in the county that have historic downtown areas that might be ripe for some redevelopment.
“You know, like Lake City for instance,” Smith said. Smith is a native of Lake City and represents that district on council.
That’s not likely to create any kind of city-county controversy. Instead, Smith said, it will probably just make the final document more complicated.
Florence Mayor Stephen J. Wukela said last week the complexity of the legal process is expected to move approval of the project well into the fall.
Principals in the hotel/restaurant project include Florence attorney Ben Zeigler, architect Randy Key, the Pearce Land Co. LLC, the Raines Development Group and local restaurateur Tim Norwood.