I-73: Kiawah Resort owner will “cash in” when right-of-way is purchased

This week MyrtleBeachSC News highlights the set up for a coming “Big Flip” in Horry County. Business, Political, Education, and Government connections were required to make the future flip possible.

In this series, we have reported to date: Billionaire insider behind the Myrtle Beach Area future “Big Flip” plan and Big Flip – HOW A BILLIONAIRE “RIDE”(s) HORRY TAXPAYERS

We introduced you to this billionaire, who entirely owns Kiawah Resort. The accolades for William H. Goodwin Jr. are impressive. He served as Rector for the University of Virginia. On February 12, 2020, the Virginia legislation honored William H. Goodwin Jr. as Outstanding Virginian

He also has a knack for buying Horry County swampland for pennies and selling it for millions.

As MyHorryNews wrote last week: Horry County, Myrtle Beach ‘closer’ to deal on hospitality fees, but no agreement yet.

The dispute stems from a lawsuit the city filed against the county in 2019. The city’s case focused on the county’s hospitality fee, a 1.5% levy that had traditionally been collected countywide on hotel rooms, restaurant meals and admission tickets. City officials objected to the county collecting the fee in the city limits without the city’s consent. So far, the courts have generally ruled in the city’s favor. The county can only collect the fee in the unincorporated areas, not in any municipality.

The Hospitality Fee brings in $42 million annually. $25 million annually (of that) was set aside by former Horry County Council Chairman Mark Lazarus for funding the construction of I-73.

I-73 is a $2.4 billion dollar project. MyrtleBeachSC News considers I-73 a key component in a desired future “Big Flip” for Horry County tourism.

Should local cities and Horry County come to a resolution on Wednesday, August 19th, I-73 will be all clear to move forward.

Who cashes in when that happens? Our source writes:

PART 3 – I Need Me Some Swamp Land!

First up is the Legends Tract. The Legends Tract just happened to lie in the path of the Carolina Bays Parkway.

That required SCDOT to condemn a small portion of the Legends Tract
to build the road. 33.31 acres to be exact, which constituted about 2% of the total tract.

SCDOT offered a whopping $622,125.00 for the property on January 6, 2003. That equaled $18,676.83 per acre for land purchased for $350/acre.

What a generous offer!

But it obviously wasn’t good enough for Riverstone, because on March 11, 2008, SCDOT agreed to pay $1.1 million for those 33.31 acres. That equals out to $33,023.12 an acre.

Riverstone Properties made twice what they paid for the entire tract by selling a 2% sliver of that tract to SCDOT.

Next, we move to the Congaree Tract. Remember when U.S. Senator Fritz Hollings and U.S. Senator Strom Thurmond were trying to get more land for the Congaree National Park, but that pesky landowner wouldn’t sell?

Well, in 2003, Riverstone Properties was the owner of one of those parcels, and they had no problem selling to the US Government.

Considering the deal they got, I don’t blame them.

Remember, Riverstone purchased the land for around $600.00 an acre for part of the Congaree Swamp.

Well, Uncle Sam really loves swamp land because in two separate transactions, a year apart, Riverstone sold the Congaree tract to the US Government for $5,775,000.00.

That equals to $3137.90 an acre. I’m sure the guys they bought it from were just ignorant and didn’t realize just how valuable that swamp land was.

Georgia Pacific? Who has even heard of them? Probably a bunch of rubes.

Finally, we get to the shining star of South Carolina, Horry County.

In 2018, Horry County purchased 3754 acres of the Buist tract for $11,060,790.00.

Mark Lazarus, Horry County Council Chairman, said it was purchased to “conserve” the environment and set up a mitigation credit bank.

I’ll explain that in a little bit.

Anyways, Riverstone bought the property for less than $1000 an acre and Horry County paid nearly three times that much for, well, I really don’t know. Because nothing has been done on that land since it was purchased.

All of this money belonged to the taxpayers.

This money belonged to taxpayers in the counties, taxpayers in South Carolina, and taxpayers in the United States.

Nothing was done to those properties by Riverstone Properties or GCREC. No developments, no improvements, no environmental remediation, nothing was done to improve the sale price paid to William Goodwin Jr.

Where I come from, if you paid 3 times as much for something as the guy you bought it from, we called you a sucker.

Now you may be thinking, “why did you include that stuff about I-73? I don’t see anything about making money off of I-73.” Patience young padawan. Nobody has made money off of I-73.

Yet.

Let’s look at some pictures!

Hwy 22 – Future I-73

I-73 has changed more than Beyonce during a concert. Remember, it was supposed to start in Charleston until Sanford came along and consistently pushed it up the coast to Myrtle Beach.

We know that one thing has been decided at this point. The terminus will be the interchange of Hwy 22 and Hwy 17 in Briarcliffe Acres.

The map above shows that intersection. Looks a little swampy as Hwy 22 moves north, don’t it?

I wonder. What if we do a search for Ol’ Swampy’s Riverstone Properties, LLC and look at that map? I wonder what we will see.

Well I’ll be damned. Ol’ Swampy strikes again!

Another 2100 acres directly in the path of yet another government buyout!

This guy is like Nostrodamus.

He knows the future of infrastructure projects so he can buy the land the government needs!

I wonder how he knows?

Did he go to Hogwarts?

Is this the infamous “Tipmeoff- SoICanCashin” spell?

Or could there be a connection to some powerful people in Horry County?

In the next part of this series, we will delve into how Mr. Swampy is neck deep with the most powerful folks in Horry County.

Stay tuned….