Horry County Schools purchases $1.9 million land for new Socastee middle school

Horry County Schools finally has all the land needed to build five new high-performance, energy-positive schools.

The 23.6-acre tract, where the new Socastee middle school will be built, is located in the Sayebrook West development near the intersection of U.S. 17 Bypass and S.C. 544. The Board of Education approved the $1.9 million purchase Monday night during its regular board meeting.

It was the last parcel needed for the plan to build five new schools.

The new school will be situated near the intersection of U.S. 17 Bypass and S.C. 544, behind the plaza with Target and Marshalls. The initial entrance to the school will be off U.S. 17 Bypass, but there are plans to create a secondary entrance on S.C. 544 in the future, said Mark Wolfe, executive director of facilities.

The board agreed to purchase the land from The Jackson Companies for $75,000 per acre plus a one-time common area maintenance payment of $160,987, for a total of $1.9 million.

The Jackson Companies owns several area enterprises, including Prestwick Golf & Country Club, Ocean Lakes Family Campground, Ocean Lakes Properties, Crystal Lake Mobile Home Village, Ocean Lakes RV Center and SayeBrook, according to its website. The company also owns several hundred acres of undeveloped land in the Myrtle Beach area.

School officials picked this spot for the new school after deciding earlier this year another site it was planning to buy wouldn’t work. In June, the school board voted to cancel a purchase of 30 acres off S.C. 707 and Big Block Road in Socastee.

The district discovered drainage issues on the land that “deemed it not suitable for school construction,” said Teal Harding, spokeswoman for the district. The district took advantage of an option written into the contract to cancel the purchase, she said.

Joe DeFeo, board chairman, said excessive rain over the last four months gathered on the property since the previous owners did not install ditches, which left only eight or nine acres of useable land.

“It could clear up in the future but we couldn’t afford to wait,” DeFeo said. “It’s possible we could have fixed it but we did not want to buy a property on only the thought that we could fix it.”

The district was refunded its deposit for the site, according to John Gardner, chief financial officer.

The cost to build the schools by First Floor Energy Positive – a firm based in Raleigh, N.C. – is $220.6 million, but emergency and work funds brings the total up to $240.3 million, according to documents from the district. The new figure comes from including “owner’s contingency” costs and estimated off-site work costs, which must be factored into the final price.

All five schools are expected to open by August 2017.

This story was originally published December 15, 2015 at 2:25 PM with the headline "Horry County Schools purchases $1.9 million land for new Socastee middle school."