by Kelly Cornelius
October 31, 2023
On September 25, 2023, the not-for-profit Aiken Corporation voted to recommend to the Aiken City Council their own recently purchased property for the site of the $20M Savannah River National Lab (SRNL) “mixed-use“ office building. The 1.01 acre parcel was acquired in July of 2022 for $650K by its for-profit arm called LED of Aiken. The parcel sits adjacent to Aiken Corp President Buzz Rich’s law office, it sits outside of the defined area of the contracted study and the seller was represented by Aiken City Councilman/real estate broker Ed Girardeau. In a town where recent events have revealed a very blurred line between public service and self-service, the path of how this winning parcel came to be put forth is certainly worth a look.
A Brief History
On Jan 23rd, 2023, four months after Project Pascalis failed, the City of Aiken announced their partnership with SRNL to build a $20M “Workforce Development Center” on three or more of those same ill-begotten Pascalis properties. The properties were still owned at the time, by the Aiken Municipal Development Commission (AMDC), who lacked a quorum. The announcement did not include the fact that the Aiken Corporation had been secretly involved in the project for two months at this point.
On March 13th of 2023, despite the fact that the city still had no signed contract with SRNL, Aiken City Council voted 4-0 to award a no-bid, $250,000 pre-development contract to the Aiken Corporation, which was recently described as a “cousin” of the City by Mayor Rick Osbon. The contract was specific, right down to the tax identification numbers on the properties to be included in the feasibility study, yet the parcel the Aiken Corp ended up recommending to City Council for the $20M “Mixed-Use” project did not even meet this very specific condition of the study – the location.
In addition to straying from the scope of the location, the feasibility study results curiously lacked the actual lab. The “workforce center“ had somehow morphed into being called a “Mixed-use project” by the overdue and long awaited study reveal. By this time, DOE/SRNL went from promoting it as the “Face of the Lab” in January of 2023 to “an expression of leasing office space should it become available” in July of 2023, in response to a story that Lauren Young of WXFG-FOX News aired featuring citizens questioning the project.
The would-be SRNL project still lacks a signed contract showing any commitment from SRNL, making it merely a speculative project at this point. The recent release of the feasibility study conducted by Aiken Corporation’s subcontractor McMillan Pazdan Smith (MPS) was five months past its due date and did not get a warm welcome from the citizenry. Considering the dismal track record of the Aiken Corporation’s other spec building, taxpayers should pay close attention to what their $250K has yielded thus far.
Specifics on the parcel
The winning Aiken Corporation parcel is actually three smaller parcels that combined occupy a total of 1.01 acres.
One parcel housed a two-story home (shown below) that had already been approved by the Design Review Board in Jan of 2021 to be relocated to another part of Aiken’s Parkway District. According to Design Review Board (DRB) minutes, that move would later be nixed due to the number of trees that would have to be removed to allow for this relocation. The picture below was found in the 2021 agenda packet (1).
Pave Paradise to put up a Parking Lot Mixed-Use Project?
May 3, 2022. Demolition Request
At that meeting, Aiken Corporation President Buzz Rich lobbied the DRB for approval to demolish the Newberry Street structure to make way for a parking lot. He mentioned that Councilman Ed Girardeau—who was the real estate agent representing the seller for the property sale—was in attendance that evening. Mr. Rich also noted the subject property is adjacent to property he owns. Aiken Corp meeting minutes (2) will show that the Aiken Corporation has the property under contract at this time but they would not close on it until July of 2022.
The home on the property was portrayed as unsafe by the applicant and the photos would have made one believe it was an eyesore, which at the time was true.
As it turns out, the building was only in a state of disassembly which was revealed in the meeting agenda packet as it had been donated to Mr. McGhee for relocation on Williamsburg St. The photo of the building sharply contrasts the photo one year prior when the relocation was approved. The move, however, would never happen because of the number of trees that would require removal. Instead, demolition was approved by the DRB at their May 3rd, 2022 meeting.
FOIA Request To the City on 9/26/2023
On September 26th, 2023, a Freedom of Information Act request was submitted for the purchase and sale agreement and settlement statements for this property recommended for a $20 million city project. The City responded on September 28th that:
The City of Aiken has determined that LED of Aiken, Inc. is a separate entity from the City of Aiken and that the City is not in possession of any of the requested documents.
A second FOIA attempt was made on Sept 28th, 2023 this time via the contact form on the Aiken Corporation’s website. Results from that FOIA revealed that ReMax Tattersall, where Ed Girardeau is listed as an owner/broker, received over $42,000 in commission from the sale; and that Security Federal Bank was the lender for the purchase. These are good cousins to have.
June 8, 2022. Aiken Corp Meeting – Financing
The meeting minutes for June 8, 2022, show that Aiken Corporation Executive Committee members Tim Simmons and Joe Lewis were present during a unanimous vote to approve the Security Federal project financing, a $650,000 loan with interest-only payments for six months and minimal closing costs. Mr. Simmons is listed here as Chairman of the Security Federal Board and Mr. Lewis is listed here as Vice President of Financial Services.
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Between the July closing and the January 2023 SRNL project announcement, the old home was demolished. No mention was made of the Aiken Corporation during that January announcement, even though the organization was deeply involved at that point.
The involvement of the Aiken Corporation was not revealed until February 6th, and its Newberry Street property was never identified or considered as part of the SRNL project feasibility study until that study was revealed on September 14th, 2023.
Sept 11, 2023. Closed-Door Executive Session
On September 11th, 2023 prior to the regular meeting, City Council held a closed-door Executive Session to discuss two items, one of which was “The proposed purchase, sale and /or leasing of property for the Savannah River National Laboratory.”
The closed-door meeting was attended by five Aiken Corporation Board members and McMillan Pazdan Smith representatives. City Council cited exemption#2 for excluding citizens from what is otherwise allowable at a public meeting: “Section 30-4-70 (a)(2) of the South Carolina Code to discuss negotiations incident to proposed contractual arrangements and proposed sale or purchase of property.” Yet, the Aiken Corporation’s lawyer responsible for helping to negotiate a lease is conspicuously missing from the attendee list.
No summary or announcement of what was discussed was presented to the audience and there was still no signed contract with SRNL announced at the next meeting on Sept 25th, 2023.
Once again, City Council met in secrecy, repeating the same conduct displayed during Project Pascalis.
September 25th, 2023. Aiken Corp Meeting – 10 AM
On September 25, 2023, the Aiken Corporation Executive Committee voted 10-0 to approve the recommendation made by subcontractor MPS to locate what was by then the “Mixed-Use” office building on the Aiken Corporation property
Aiken Corp President Buzz Rich abstained from voting on the recommendation since his law office was adjacent to it, an abstention that contrasts with his negotiations to purchase the building and the signing of the purchase contract. Aiken County property records show Rich owns four commercial properties on that block. (3)
Aiken Corp Board Member Joe Lewis also abstained due to his company holding the Newberry St property mortgage, although according to the minutes he voted to approve the financing in June 2022.
Neither abstainee left the meeting which can be seen here, (see minute 33:40), and Chairman Rich continued to speak during the discussion. The Newberry St property was ultimately voted on to be recommended to City Council for the would-be SRNL spec project. Rich would present the recommendation to Council later that same evening.
Sept 25, 2023. City Council Meeting – 7 pm
Aiken Corp President Buzz Rich presented the Aiken Corp Executive Committee recommendation to the Aiken City Council even though he abstained from the recommendation vote. During his presentation, Rich never mentioned any of the public comments taken since Feb 6th.
Rich did describe to City Council all the extra hours that Aiken Corp members have put in on this project and the fact that they are volunteers. However, their monthly meetings are typically held at 10 am during banking hours, and there were no meetings in the two months preceding the release of the study and the Board’s discussion to vote to locate a $20 Million dollar project on their property.
Location Location Location
How did a site not within the prescribed scope of the study get included in the study? As documented in The Devil is in the Details, four out of the five sites in the bombed feasibility study release were actually outside the contracted scope of the project. In the May 10th, 2023 Aiken Corporation meeting there was an update on the project with no mention on the record about additional sites, however, when the Feasibility Study was finally released, presto change-o we magically had five sites.
Could it be that shoe-horning a 36,000 square foot building, reduced from the original 45,000 square foot building, over top of historic downtown was not only unpopular with taxpayers, it just wasn’t feasible? Somewhere along the way (and outside of the sunshine) they added four additional sites without divulging this to taxpayers until after the fact who are footing the bill for the study. Information obtained through FOIA requests show that $148K has been spent to date of the $250K approved.
One of those four additional sites was the old hospital site, which seemed to many the first sign of common sense displayed regarding this project so even Pascalis weary citizens were hopeful. The nine-plus acre site has plenty of room including parking and nearby lunch options. In addition, it would save a beautiful historic building without changing the very soul of downtown. That common sense option was quickly eliminated by K.J. Jacobs of MPS but not before forgetting to tell the Aiken Corporation Members about it before their big Q and A with citizens. So as stealthy as it was added, it was also eliminated in favor of the just over one acre property on a tree-lined portion of Newberry St.
Ironically, after Mr. McGhee was denied the relocation of the home on the subject property to Williamsburg St because of trees, City Officials had eleven trees destroyed on Williamsburg St in the Parkway including directly in front of the homes that Mr. McGhee had restored.
A FOIA request has been submitted to the Aiken Corp for the Tree Survey on the Newberry St. property referred to by Mr. Rich as “about a 50 page report” regarding the 23 trees on the property at the Oct 11th Aiken Corp meeting, which, thanks to citizen footage, we now know included a Monkey in the Room. (Update: The FOIA request was fulfilled and the tree survey can be found in the DRB’s May 2, 2024 agenda packet; along with the rest of the application for the lab building design).
The Aiken City Council listened to the presentation from the Aiken Corporation on the evening of September 25th, 2023 but to date has not put the item back on the agenda for a public hearing.
Footnotes:
- Jan 2021 Design Review Board Agenda Packet https://edoc.cityofaikensc.gov/WebLink/DocView.aspx?id=540853&dbid=0&repo=City-of-Aiken-LF
- April 14th, 2022 Aiken Corp minutes confirm that Rich signed a contract to purchase the property as the Aiken Corp.
3. Map showing the commercial property Rich owns (in teal) on the same block according to Aiken County records with the subject property outlined in red.
