USC high bidder for nearly 300 acres on riverfront

The University of South Carolina ended up the surprise high bidder for 300 acres of clear-cut riverfront property in U.S. bankruptcy court Thursday, after a nearby mining company decided not to ante up.

USC plans to put in intramural playing fields, a practice golf course and other amenities for students on the flood-prone land — perhaps by next school year, said Russ Meekins, director of the USC Development Foundation.

Early in Thursday’s daylong hearing before Judge David Duncan, it was clear that Vulcan Materials Co. had backed off the expected bidding war with USC for the land just a quarter-mile from its Columbia quarry.

Meekins was surprised by the turn of events, he said.

He came to court expecting an auction for the property behind Gamecock Park, a tailgate destination off Bluff Road. Then he was informed Vulcan was sticking with its original $3 million bid, which USC had bested by $250,000.

“We were at our max. They were at their max. We’re very happy,” Meekins said.

A third bidder was deemed unqualified.

Vulcan’s Jimmy Fleming said the company used the past 45 days to explore the site and found it “a hard site” to mine.

“There were a number of technical constraints on the property . . . we’d have to contend with,” he said, among them access into the site and environmental issues.

The property owner, Bill Gregg, objected to the sale price.

Gregg maintained the tract was worth $326 million, based on a study he commissioned of potential granite revenue over a 30-year period, said his lawyer, Geoffrey Levy.

“That’s just not realistic,” trustee Bill Metzger said. “You’ve got a mining company right here only willing to pay $3 million.”

It was Woody Moore, a local commercial real estate developer, who set the asking price at $3 million, based on recent sales of flood-prone land nearby.

The judge ruled USC’s bid for the 298 acres to be fair and reasonable.

As he noted, the quarry was not guaranteed the regulatory permits it needed and faced a certain fight over a change that would have been required in the land-use designation in a part of town increasingly used for student housing and recreation.

“At some point, having a quarry there would not be acceptable to anyone,” Duncan said. “Environmental groups, neighborhood groups often have a great influence over land-use planning, so those things have to be taken into account as well.”

It’s the largest tract Meekins could recall the university purchasing in modern times, bringing to 383 acres land it has bought around the stadium in recent years. That includes the former State Farmers Market; ETV studios, now being dismantled; and the riverfront tract where USC built its baseball stadium.

The closing on the property is set for Nov. 14.

Still to be decided by the court is an easement into the property extending National Guard Road.

Meekins said the university hasn’t had time to draw up a plan for the property. “What we’ve had are back-of-the-envelope type things,” he said.

They include a short-game golf facility for the men’s and women’s teams, which likely would be open to all students, and intramural fields — soccer, football, softball, flag football. “Just for kids to play,” he said.

There also could be a running track or trail and the potential for water recreation.

This story was originally published September 18, 2014 at 7:40 PM with the headline "USC high bidder for nearly 300 acres on riverfront ."