Beaufort, South Carolina

BEAUFORT , SOUTH CAROL INA First of all, the University of South Carolina at Beaufort is expanding here. Just last year, they built 96 residential units for students to live, and under construction right now are another 96 units, with planned growth to, probably, double or triple that over the next five years. These are all honors program students coming from the campus in Bluffton. So, that is growing significantly, as well as the Technical College.” The other factor promoting growth in the downtown core involves the prominent role of Beaufort and the surrounding Sea Islands during the Reconstruction era after the U.S. Civil War. This period in history was memorialized in 2017 by the establishment of a Reconstruction Era National Monument in Beaufort and legislation is slated to be passed by the Federal Government to make it a National Park. Also in the area is The Penn Center, site of one of the first schools for African-American slaves in the country, now a cultural and education center. With the increased interest in Reconstruction history, Beaufort has seen greatly expanded tourism in the commercial and retail/restaurant sectors. As for redesigning the downtown to be walkable and bikeable for a younger generation, Prokop admits, “We don’t have to because we’re already laid out that way. During the Civil War, the North protected Beaufort, and all the homes built in the 1700s and 1800s are still there. It’s become what’s called “The Point” and all the architecture, the layout of the streets, are the way the ‘new’ modern planning statements say. What we’re doing now is infill; trying to get development for vacant lots, or houses that need to be upgraded.” Beaufort is also home to Commerce Park. At 196 acres, it’s the largest industrial area in Low Country, Beaufort County. Prokop reports, “Two new companies have moved there in the last year and we’re in discussions to build a large spec building that could be, depending on which way you want to go, 60,000 to 120,000 square feet, to attract industry. Because we’re located right between Charleston and Savannah – 20 minutes off I-95 – we’re looking at a targeted recruitment of businesses in technology,