Bluffton News

Posted 12/07/2007 by Ryan Bassett - story from the Island Packet

Want to know how county staffers might link Bluffton Parkway and US 278?

County staff and consultants agreed Thursday to recommend sticking with the original $60 million proposal for the parkway extension, rather than recommending an alternate route as some residents living near the path of the extension had sought.

Those homeowners voiced their opposition to the Buckingham Landing intersection at public hearings over the summer. They argued that the parkway and U.S. 278 should connect at Moss Creek. Hilton Head Island Mayor Tom Peeples suggested that the county buy up properties in the Heritage Lakes neighborhood -- which is on the west side of the bridge -- where the parkway would come up against some residents' backyards.

"We've already spent over $700,000 researching this project, and I needed to get some of this out to the public and get debate going among council members," county administrator Gary Kubic said Thursday.

David Beaty, vice president of civil engineering consulting firm Florence and Hutcheson, said that after public hearings, "We did evaluate suggested alternatives, and we studied those options."

But scrutiny of those alternatives merely strengthened his belief in the earlier set of designs, said Beaty, whose Columbia-based firm was hired by the county in 2006 to studythe road project.

Designs for the project include a two-lane bridge at the end of the extension that would span wetlands between The Gatherings neighborhood and Buckingham Landing.

Cars headed east on the parkway toward Hilton Head would merge onto U.S. 278 shortly after the BP gas station. They could either continue to Hilton Head or exit at Buckingham Plantation Drive.

Cars headed west from Hilton Head could get on the parkway by moving onto an overpass ramp from the right lane of U.S. 278 immediately after the bridges.

The design also would include straightening the 2-mile section of the parkway between Buck Island Road and Buckwalter Parkway.

Beaty said construction would begin no sooner than mid- to late-2009. Before work on the parkway could start, the County Council has to approve the project. Council could still cut the extension short at Moss Creek.

The county also must take care of two other issues before the proposed project could be built:

• Santee Cooper would need to agree to relocate power lines, which Beaty said could cost the county $6 million to $10 million.

• The county must purchase nonresidential property in the path of the parkway, a process that Beaty estimated could take a year and a half or longer.

Despite the remaining hurdles, Beaty said Thursday's recommendationfrom county staff was a major step.

An additional public hearing on the parkway is scheduled for early next year.

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Posted 10/26/2007 by Ryan Bassett - story from the Island Packet

CareCore National opens a 48,000 sf facility in Bluffton, South Carolina

Firm to offer high-paying, professional jobs in the Bluffton Area.  

Health consulting firm opens doors in Bluffton

• Photo: Tour groups make the rounds Thursday inside CareCore National's 48,000 square foot facility at Buckwalter Place in Bluffton. Employees started operating out of the facility Sept. 24.
  Kristin Goode/Island Packet
  

The opening of CareCore in Bluffton doesn't mean the town will become the next Silicon Valley, Bluffton and company administrators say, but it is the first step in bringing non-service industry jobs -- and higher wages -- to the area.

CareCore, a health insurance consulting firm whose South Carolina operation was formerly located in Hardeeville, opened its new facility in Bluffton's Technology Park at Buckwalter Place on Thursday. It's a move CareCore National CEO Donald Ryan says could start a trend to bring more white-collar industry to the area.

"It's always hard to be the first," Ryan said, noting technology-based industries often "feed off" one another. "But once you build a base, it's easier for the second and third companies to do it."

Mayor Hank Johnston said the town has received "a couple" inquiries from other technology-based firms interested in the land, but declined to discuss the details publicly.

The mayor said he hopes these tech jobs, in conjunction with a proposed residential area at Buckwalter Place, will attract non-service industry jobs -- and young people -- to Bluffton.

Ryan said he believes the Lowcountry lifestyle will help attract executives as well as young people. Beaches and golf courses, however, are not the only bait Bluffton will set.

Johnston said he hopes Buckwalter Place will become a pseudo-urban setting once residences and retail shops move into the 94-acre tract.

Twenty-somethings like Allen Aimar Jr. are interested.

Aimar, a Beaufort native who attended college in Seattle, has since returned home and now works for Republican Rep. Joe Wilson. He likes what he hears about the project.

"You wouldn't have to drive all over town to get to and from work," he said. He also likes Bluffton's proximity to the beach and to larger cities. "You might even be able to go four or five days without getting in your car at all."

CareCore's facility is presently the only operation at the Buckwalter Place site. It employs about 200 people, but will take on about 150 more by the end of 2008, said Mary Smith, a senior vice president for the company.

Smith estimates 50 percent of CareCore's staff is clinical -- doctors and nurses who act as consultants. The other half of the jobs are mostly in information technology and finance.

CareCore will own its four-acre Buckwalter tract at the end of its ten-year lease with the town. The firm will pay property taxes throughout the lease.