5 firms vie to sell property

A large expanse of land on Daniel Island once eyed for a container terminal should be on the real estate market soon.

A State Ports Authority team soon will review proposals from five commercial real estate firms vying to sell the 495-acre property. The agency's board must approve the hiring before it lists the land.

A port restructuring bill signed into law over the summer requires that the SPA have the land under contract for sale by the end of 2012 and sold by the end of 2013.

Daniel Island residents offered $25 million for the SPA's entire 1,300 acres last year to turn the site into recreational space. The SPA rejected the offer as too low and opted to keep two of its three land cells as a dredge disposal site.

The SPA has completed an appraisal of the property but has refused to disclose that value, citing an exemption from the state's Freedom of Information Act. It plans to re-evaluate the appraisal once it hires a firm to market the land.

Jimmy Bailey Jr., vice president of community services for Daniel Island's property owners association, keeps watch on the process and maintains a curiosity about the SPA's asking price.

"I think right now we're willing to sit back and see what happens," Bailey said. "If the opportunity presents itself we may re-emerge as a potential bidder."

The SPA acquired the site in the early 1990s and planned to turn it into a container terminal called Global Gateway. Opponents, primarily Daniel Island and Mount Pleasant residents, rallied lawmakers, who then steered the new terminal to the former Navy base in North Charleston.

In 2006, the SPA put the land up for sale and stirred interest from 18 developers, but then took it off the market to re-evaluate the site and its options.

In this most recent action, the SPA sought proposals from national firms with South Carolina offices. It received responses from three firms with Charleston-area real estate offices: CB Richard Ellis/Carmody; Coldwell Banker Commercial Atlantic International; and Colliers Keenan Charleston.

The other firms to submit proposals by the deadline were Grubb & Ellis|The Furman Co. of Greenville and NAI Avant in Columbia.

Reach Allyson Bird at 937-5594 or abird@postandcourier.com.