A secret agreement effectively killed Jasper Ocean Terminal plans

A decades-long and politically charged plan to bring South Carolina and Georgia together to build a container ship terminal in Jasper County appears to be dead in the water.

Port leaders in both states agreed to “stand down” all work related to the Jasper Ocean Terminal planned for the South Carolina side of the Savannah River, according to a previously unreleased agreement between the ports authorities for the neighboring states.

The agreement was codified in a May 19 letter to leaders of both maritime agencies, but it was never made public. Its existence came to light as a one-sentence note in a financial audit of the South Carolina ports agency. That audit was approved Sept. 29, and the SC Daily Gazette obtained a copy of the letter this week.

Micah Mallace, president and CEO of the South Carolina State Ports Authority, could not be reached for comment. A spokesman for Georgia’s ports did not respond to a request for comment.

The letter, signed by both ports directors as well as their key board members, states both maritime agencies have been challenged by persistent disruptions following the pandemic.

“These industry trends have caused both South Carolina State Ports Authority and the Georgia Ports Authority to focus on their core businesses, growth opportunities and cost pressures,” the letter states. “Thus, it appears that the time spent, and expenses incurred by both authorities related to the Jasper Joint Venture should be more appropriately utilized elsewhere for the foreseeable future.”

Roughly $20 million has been collectively spent on the project by both states since 2015. That’s a far cry from the $5 billion price tag estimated for the container terminal, which was to handle 7 million cargo boxes a year.

The letter further states that all work and obligations both authorities might have for the project is on indefinite hold “until such time as both authorities revoke this ‘stand down’ letter agreement in writing.”

SC Ports getting behind Jasper warehouse project as that county’s cargo terminal remains in limbo

It adds that the Army Corps of Engineers also halted all environmental work toward permitting the Jasper terminal.

Although the decision to put the terminal on ice was not publicly disclosed or discussed, Mallace hinted that there were problems during a Jan. 28 meeting with state legislators.

At that meeting, he asked legislators to transfer $1.8 million from a fund for the Jasper Ocean Terminal to a group that’s looking to bring a cold-storage warehouse facility to land adjacent to the proposed terminal’s site.

“I think that the Georgia Ports Authority has been clear in their intention that they wish to deliver more infrastructure, more capacity that they control individually on the Georgia side of the river,” Mallace told a House Ways and Means subcommittee.

“We remain committed to delivering something in Jasper at the right time but certainly don’t have the funding nor the demand to do so in the short term,” Mallace added.

A spokesman for Georgia’s ports also said in January that the agency “remains committed to the Jasper Ocean Terminal Joint Venture and to regional economic development.”

Less than four months later, however, the project was shelved.

Sen. Tom Davis, a longtime proponent of the Jasper terminal, said Friday he was not aware of the letter. But the Beaufort Republican said the decision makes sense as southern Jasper County is “being drawn into the orbit of the Port of Savannah” and Georgia’s Hutchinson Island, where three container ship berths are planned.

Economic forces have overtaken decades-long planning, Davis said, and the idea that a jointly operated port serving both states is dead “is probably right.”

Jasper County leads nation in growth as newcomers move to coastal regions

In the meantime, Jasper County has become a magnet for warehouses and distribution centers serving port operations across the state line.

The county on South Carolina’s southern tip is also experiencing a building boom as a popular retirement destination. Between mid-2024 and mid-2025, Jasper County was the fastest growing nationwide by percentage, at 6%, according to census data released earlier this year.

The terminal would have been located on roughly 10,000 acres the Georgia Department of Transportation bought in the 1930s to store debris removed from the Savannah River during dredging.

The idea for a joint-operated terminal dates to 2007, when then-Gov. Mark Sanford teamed up with Georgia’s then-Gov. Sonny Perdue to announce a plan to give ports in both states’ additional capacity. Before that, both states had been embroiled in lawsuits with Jasper County over who had the right to develop the site.

In the years that followed, ports authorities in both states downplayed the urgency of the Jasper terminal while adding capacity at their own sites.

Davis, who was Sanford’s chief of staff before voters elected him to the Senate in 2008, has been a harsh critic of the South Carolina State Ports Authority’s handling of the Jasper project. He once filibustered a measure to give $550 million to the authority for a new rail yard and other improvements unless control of the Jasper terminal was turned over to the county.

The entity charged with making the terminal a reality — the Jasper Ocean Terminal Joint Venture — was formed in 2015 but progress continued at a glacial pace as ports authorities in both states said they wouldn’t need the facility for decades to come.

The six-member joint venture board of directors last met in October 2024.