Overview

The Beaufort Regional Chamber of Commerce has gone through the process of evaluating the possibility of developing a Conference Center in Northern Beaufort County. Below is the information regarding the Conference Center process, progress and results.

Process:
In the Spring/Summer of 2010: The Conference Center Committee, along with our selected partner LS3P Associates, Ltd., received land sites for consideration and held a public charette to determine feasibility and location of a conference center. LS3P Associates, Ltd. partnered with Ward Edwards and Hill Construction to guide and direct the process, develop the programming and to recommend a preferred site for the location of a potential conference center. The charette was held on July 29th, 2010. The charette presentation and input can be viewed here: Charette Presentation Report and Site Evaluations

Once the Charette was finalized, the Property Owners / Representatives were notified of the property Compliance Scores and their individual property rating.  The top three sites, based on the Compliance Scores, were further evaluated in conjunction with the feasibility and economic impact study.

In the Summer of 2011, PKF Consulting was contracted to conduct the Beaufort Area Conference Center Feasibility and Economic Impact Study.  On December 13, 2011 PKF Consulting released the results after 6 months of extensive research. They concluded that a conference center for our destination is not economically feasible at this time.  Their detailed presentation of findings can be downloaded here.

 

Media Coverage:

 

The Beaufort Gazette

 

Convention center idea needs details fleshed out - March 9, 2011

Beaufort visitors bureau seeks funding for conference center study - Feb 28th, 2011

 

Beaufort Chamber invites public for its thoughts on convention center sites - July 28th, 2010

Prospect of a conference center draws a large crowd on Lady's Island - July 30th, 2010

WSAV - NBC

Public Learns More About Proposed Beaufort Conference Center - July 29th, 2010