SC’s Ag-Tech Campus has been a work in progress for over 2 years Business

Little progress has been made in bringing about an “agricultural technology campus” coveted among South Carolina’s poorest counties, but supporters of the deal insist it will become a reality.

“We’re still moving forward and should see significant work done in the next few months,” said Danny Black, CEO of the South Carolina Regional Development Alliance, which owns the Hampton County industrial park where the $350 million project will be built.

In the year When the project was announced in September 2020, it drew state and federal officials to the small primary branch. Billed as the country’s largest Opportunity Zone investment, it was planned to bring more than 1,500 jobs to a 1,000-hectare high-tech greenhouse producing tomatoes and leafy vegetables.

Since then, however, it has been nothing but failures.

The three original partners in the deal — Mastronardi Produce, Clear Water Farms and LiDestri — pulled out shortly after the deal was announced. They did not respond to a request for comment.

With initial job estimates down more than 11 percent, the SC The Commerce Department’s Economic Development Coordinating Council reduced its commitment to $8 million from the original $9 million. It also extended the project’s eligibility for incentives until 2030.

The SC Department of Agriculture has blamed the coronavirus for the ongoing delays, but said last September that a new tomato grower — Dutch Harvest House — had secured a bond to build 10 greenhouses. Construction has not started and the Dutch company did not respond to requests for comment.

Black said Harvest House is still involved, but the project is “slightly hampered by the extent of the wetlands and infrastructure financing issues.”

Despite the delays, the project is “still on track to complete the first phase by the end of the year,” he said.

That’s when the first workers are expected to be hired, he added.

Zeb Portanova, whose Columbia-based GM Opportunity Zone Fund is developing and securing investors for the project, said his team is focused on design and construction preparations, which could take the next six months.

Black has applied for a grant from the local water and sewer authority to pay for the site improvements, and is confident that the application will be approved soon. Grants for road construction have been sanctioned, engineering is underway, he said.

South Carolina Union paid $438,350 last month for the 90-acre first phase of the project, which Black said would provide rights-of-way for roads, broadband and water and sewer lines. He said the developer will buy the property in the next week or so, but the deed will remain in the name of the economic development group until $25 million is spent on the site.

“They have five years to reach investment and employment commitments, but they have milestones to reach before incentives kick in,” Black said. “The first payment will be compensation for the work of the station, which will not happen until the end of the summer.”

A Commerce Department spokeswoman said $7 million in federal rural infrastructure grants that were supposed to go toward the project had not been distributed. A separate $1 million grant to help LiDestri set up a joint packaging plant has been canceled because the company is no longer part of the project.

The lack of development has also delayed an agreement announced two years ago in which cryptocurrency mining company Core Scientific was to provide ag-tech project blockchain and artificial intelligence services.

The Austin, Texas-based company filed for bankruptcy protection in December to reorganize its finances. As part of that case, the firm has been embroiled in a dispute with another company that Portanova owns, GEM Mining — a Greenville-based cryptocurrency company.

Portanova’s ag-tech campus still plans to use Core Scientific for its services, although that could change depending on the outcome of the bankruptcy case.

“Our plan is to come back with a blockchain design with core scientific when we know our build and completion time,” Portanova said. “If there are issues like the recovery from bankruptcy in the next few months, we have a number of other providers that can replace Core Scientific.”

At its unveiling, the ag-tech campus was advertised as a first-of-its-kind project, where pesticide-free berries and vegetables are grown year-round in greenhouses using sustainable practices to harvest rainwater for irrigation. Proponents say the development will reduce dependence on food imports from Mexico, allowing consumers to buy fresh vegetables regardless of the season of production. Located in an economically depressed part of the state, the project qualifies for tax breaks under the federal Opportunity Zones program.

“This is the exact type of investment that we’ve been looking for to create opportunity zones and it’s a great example of how zones can exist across the country,” U.S. Sen. Tim Scott, R-Charleston, said when the project was announced.

Scott, who is now exploring a run for the White House, He helped create the Opportunity Zone Act on the 2017 tax reforms.