Proposed casino could bring boom to Orangeburg County town
SANTEE, S.C. - South Carolina could be getting its first and only casino in the small town of Santee in Orangeburg County.
Santee Development Corp.’s impact study shows it could bring an economic boom to the small, underdeveloped community.
Santee Development Corp. estimates the development of the casino and resort to bring over 4 million annual visitors from in and out of state. Mega donor Wallace Cheves plans to fund the project off of I-95.
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Right now, abandoned buildings that used to be a part of the Santee Outlet Mall in Orangeburg County are where the development would go. They have been sitting for more than a decade.
A recent economic development study shows that the investment in the Santee area would the underdeveloped Orangeburg County community. The study found it would generate over $75 million in annual tax revenue according to Santee Development Corp. The same study says it would create a total of 4,618 in the state annually.
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College of Charleston Professor of Economics Frank Hefner says with a town that small he thinks they’d need to bring in others from outside the community for some of those jobs.
“In that community of that size, where are the people going to come from? And that again could change the dynamics of the community, but that’s true for every community. Growth changes things in a community and that’s going to happen. To a large extent, that corridor has been left behind on economic growth for quite some time and so they need it,” Hefner said.
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“In addition to the $1 billion construction cost, independent economic projections estimate an $8 billion impact on South Carolina’s economy within the first 10 years, creating thousands of good-paying jobs, driving tourism and expanding business opportunities for local communities,” Cheves said in a statement.
The Santee Development Corp. said not a dime of public money would be used. There are not any state or county incentives and it would all be privately funded.
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In order to make this happen, the group is working with legislators to get a bill ed to amend the South Carolina Code of Laws. Rep. Chris Murphy is the lead sponsor. It aims to establish the ‘South Carolina Gaming Commission’ to award casino licenses in certain counties.
If you want to take a closer look at that bill, click here.
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