Rudolph Bell

dbell@greenvillenews.com

Greenville County taxpayers appear to be out at least $4.7 million in a failed plan to develop a downtown visitors center and a related education and adventure center in the Blue Ridge Mountains.

Dream Big Greenville, a nonprofit organization formed to develop the projects, spent about $8.7 million in hospitality tax revenue trying unsuccessfully to bring them about, according to county financial records.

It recently informed county officials that the visitors center is no longer moving forward.

That means the outdoor education and adventure center isn’t moving forward, either, since the two projects were interrelated, consecutive phases of a single plan to boost tourism.

The county expects to recover some of the spent money when it sells a downtown property that Dream Big Greenville bought as a site for the proposed visitors center.

But the sale is not likely to yield anywhere close to the spent $8.7 million, according to one real estate expert.

Earle Furman, a longtime commercial real estate executive with deep knowledge of the Greenville market, estimated that the 1.2 acres with an old industrial building at 301 River Street would fetch between $2.6 million and $3.9 million.

The property is located across River Street from where an Embassy Suites hotel is under construction at RiverPlace. It’s next to Linky Stone Park and the Swamp Rabbit Trail.

Even at the higher sale price, about $4.7 million of the spent funds would not be recovered.

County Council Chairman Bob Taylor said he doesn’t think the projects were handled very well.

“Obviously, we don’t have much to show for some of that money,” Taylor said, adding, “What’s done is done. We’ll go from here.”

The proposed centers were part of a plan to boost tourism that began with a 2006 consultant’s study.

The study by Tourism Development International of Ireland was commissioned by what was then called the Greenville Convention & Visitors Bureau and is now known as VisitGreenvilleSC.

As the plan developed, Greenville County contributed $5 million for the visitors center and $5 million for the outdoor education and adventure center.

The funding came from a bond issue backed by revenue from the county’s 2 percent tax on prepared food and drink – money that must be used for tourism-related projects.

The city of Greenville made a conditional pledge of $3.5 million for the visitors center but never released the money, said City Manager John Castile.

The Convention and Visitors Bureau formed Dream Big Greenville to oversee the development work and raise additional money.

The nonprofit planned to call the visitors center Reedy Square and the outdoor education and adventure center the Blue Wall Center.

Under an option that was part of Dream Big Greenville’s purchase of the downtown property, the county had the right to buy the site for $1 if the visitors center hadn’t been developed in seven years. That seven-year period expired on Nov. 17.

Dream Big Greenville also hired the firm of a well-known Chicago architect, Jeanne Gang, to draw up a 15,000-square-foot design for the visitors center.

It also got permission to develop the outdoor education and adventure center on 175 acres at the former Camp Spearhead along State 11 in northern Greenville County. The owner of the property, Naturaland Trust, offered the site at no charge.

Now that plans for that project have fallen through, Naturaland Trust will continue to protect the scenic acreage from development for the benefit and use of the public, said Greenville lawyer Frank Holleman, chairman of the trust.

Of the $5 million that the county allocated to Dream Big Greenville for the visitors center, $2.4 million went to buy the downtown property, according to Joe Kernell, county administrator, John Hansley, deputy county administrator, and county financial records.

The rest went to vendors such as the Chicago architectural firm and a Charleston-based project management firm called RhodesDahl.

Of the $5 million designated for the outdoor education and adventure center, $1.32 million was never spent.

The other $3.68 million went to vendors such as the Chicago architectural firm and to demolish buildings and repair a dam at the former Camp Spearhead.

Kernell and Hansley said no public money was used to pay the salary of Patti McAbee, president of Dream Big Greenville.

Her base compensation was listed as $120,000 for the 2013-2014 fiscal year in the nonprofit’s most-recent 990 tax return.

McAbee, a Clemson University trustee and professional fundraiser who collected $13 million for the Salvation Army’s Kroc Center, couldn't be reached.

Greenville hotel developer Andy Cajka, chairman of the Dream Big Greenville board, said the nonprofit was not able to line up a major private donor.

Absent that, “it was just best to pause and then allow the county to exercise their option,” he said.

“I still believe that the vision was well conceived,” Cajka said.

Chris Stone, president of VisitGreenvilleSC, said local officials spent years trying to develop the Peace Center and what is now the Bon Secours Wellness Arena before they became reality.

Greenville will develop a “showcasing opportunity at some point,” Stone said.

“We’ve got a lot of wonderful assets all around us, and we need to show that off,” he said. “We need to put that on display. Today we’re not quite there, but we’ll get there.”