Darlington County Seeking to Purchase Property in Lamar for Economic Development
Recently, Darlington County has been in discussion about the purchase of property in the Lamar area. The purchase of this property in Lamar would help Darlington County be competitive in the economic development market while not having to go so far as to spend money to construct a speculative building. Having land assets, such as a greenfield site, to promote for industrial purposes gives Darlington County a competitive advantage.
What is a “greenfield site”?
A greenfield site is undeveloped land with no prior construction or infrastructure, offering a “blank canvas” for new projects. In economic development, these sites are often chosen for initiatives because they allow for full design control, minimal constraints, and the potential for innovative layouts.
Greenfield sites are used to attract businesses and industries. These sites have undergone due diligence, which many companies require before even starting conversations on acquiring the land for industrial use. Due diligence is having some sort of combination of surveys, wetlands delineation, cultural resource identification, protected species assessment and geotechnical exploration for suitability done on the front end to minimize time constraints and the assessment of a site to meet development standards.
Although the county has several identified “sites” on our economic development website, the county does not own any of the identified “sites” on our economic development website. These are opportunistic sites that have been identified as potential industrial sites. It is much easier to have a greenfield site that the county owns, has completed required due diligence for the site and is in control of the purchase price and contract negotiations to complete a deal to incentivize the location of a desired business or industry in the county. This is a standard economic development practice of counties in South Carolina.