The well-traveled entrance to Hilton Head Island is going to the dogs | Opinion
Memorial Day is nearly upon us and with it will come the exalted unofficial start of summer and all the extra traffic it brings to Hilton Head Island. Tourists will fill their cars with families and golf clubs and bring their glorious sale tax rev-, I mean appetites, to this beautiful setting that fewer than 40,000 South Carolinians call home but which 2.5 million travelers visit each year.
Wouldn’t it be great if the first thing tourists and residents alike saw when approaching the island wasn’t a dilapidated gas station whose windows and doors are covered with plywood, whose walls are losing a war with graffiti and whose collapsed roof nails the zombie apocalypse vibe?
Imagine if people didn’t drive onto Hilton Head Island thinking, “This place is going to the dogs.”
It’s been nine months since Tropical Storm Debby’s rainfall damaged the well-known minimarket and gas station on U.S. 278 just west of the bridges onto the island, causing a roof collapse.
As The Island Packet reporter Evan McKenna summed up succinctly: “Built in 1984, the store is well-known for its location at the base of the Hilton Head bridges. It’s the last possible stop before U.S. 278 turns into the J. Wilson Graves Bridge that crosses Skull Creek onto the island.”
There’s always a lot of pressure on any last possible stop to be an enticing spot for passersby.
McKenna reported in August that the enterprise has had a difficult time. Bluffton Parkway flyover project construction in 2016 meant fewer customers, increased traffic made the turn into the parking lot trickier, and Beaufort County’s eviction of a popular produce stand that had been a magnet for many gave everyone one less reason to stop instead of forging ahead to the island.
As McKenna reported in February, the market’s best days may be behind it.
Beaufort County served an “unfit dwelling notice” to the property owner Jan. 9, claiming the damaged, defaced structure was unfit for human habitation and kicking off a series of deadlines to make changes or else. The county has the power to demolish the building if the owner won’t repair it. Whether the county would use that power if push comes to shove is an open question.
The owner of the site didn’t return a voice mail I left for him, and Beaufort County spokeswoman Hannah Nichols shared some good news but not a lot of it when I asked about the property a few times in recent days. She said county officials are talking with the owner’s representatives.
“Our Building Codes department has been in contact with the Engineering Firm representing the owner of this property,” she emailed me Tuesday. “In response to the unfit dwelling notice, they have secured the windows and doors with plywood. The graffiti markings on the building were covered with fresh paint, but it seems the building has been marked again recently. The firm representing the owner has also been working with our Planning and Zoning department, and they are in the planning stages to work towards either a demolition or renovation.”
That doesn’t exactly paint a clear picture of a building that needs far more than a coat of paint.
I asked Nichols if the county knew if the owner intended to keep operating the business.
“At this time we do not know the answer to this question,” she replied.
If nothing major happens, will the community clamor for site improvements, one way or another?
At this time, I do not know the answer to that question.
The dilapidated structure has also caught the eye of columnist and longtime Lowcountry resident David Lauderdale, though. He wrote in March, “It stands in such a visible place that it could easily be seen as a symbol of who we are. It stands where a grand new half-billion-dollar bridge complex to the island was planned. And planned. And planned some more. But apparently will never be what it was intended to be. Is this who we are? I don’t think so.”
Former Beaufort County Councilman Steve Baer equates the gas station to all the area’s abandoned boats. Baer represented a Hilton Head Island district on the council and still gives as much thought to the region’s transportation flow and future as anyone on the island.
“People leave their problems for taxpayers to clean up!” he told me when I asked what he thought of the site. “Like the boats, it impacts us all in many ways, including beauty and costs.”
He suggested two better possible uses for the property if it ever became something other than a gas station and a minimarket. One would be as a venue for high-speed electric car chargers that would be a draw for long-distance travelers like the many that Hilton Head Island attracts. Another would be as a setting for a Trader Joe’s market, another wish of many islanders.
Will anything happen to substantially improve the rundown site before Memorial Day?
Probably not.
But maybe something can be done before the zombie apocalypse arrives.
This story was originally published May 12, 2025 at 6:00 AM with the headline "The well-traveled entrance to Hilton Head Island is going to the dogs | Opinion."