Via The Island Packet
By Dan Burley
University of South Carolina Beaufort students could be taking classes at a new $33.5-million Hilton Head Island campus by 2018.
The town on Friday released conceptual plans for the 6-acre campus on Office Park Road.
Drawings show leafy school grounds with a pond, small cafe and two academic buildings. About 400 students are expected to use the campus, according to town documents.
The campus centerpiece is a 38,000-square-foot main building that will house the university's hospitality-management program.
Also planned is a 6,000-square-foot building for the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute, which provides continuing-education classes. That building will have a 100-seat classroom.
The one-story cafe will sit behind the main building, next to a courtyard and beside a lagoon.
USCB officials have said the campus will place hospitality-management students in the heart of the island's tourism district.
The campus also could draw off-island visitors and bring business to the area, she said.
"Typically, businesses surrounding institutions grow due to the synergy that occurs between the students, faculty and surrounding community," she wrote in an email.
Town representatives have said the campus will replace outdated office buildings and is a potential economic driver.
The town has purchased or has under contract four little-used buildings on Office Park Road. The structures will be demolished to make way for the campus. The town paid about $4 million for the buildings.
But some have criticized the town's willingness to pay for the bulk of the $33.5-million project.
The town will spend about $22 million on the campus with funds it raised through a special tax district. That money will pay for the main building and site work. It also will pay about $1 million for road work near the campus.
USCB will chip in $2.5 million for the main building. It also will pay a projected $4 million for the other academic building and cafe, according to documents.
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