Town of Port Royal, county eyes new Coast Guard training facility

PORT ROYAL, S.C. (WTOC) -The future home of a Coast Guard training facility could be at the Beaufort Naval Hospital in Port Royal.

Possibly bringing an economic boost and increasing the military footprint already in the county.

For the last two years, the Beaufort Naval Hospital has been under the microscope.

“The Naval Hospital site within the Town of Port Royal is a very large area, over 120 acres, on deep water,” Mayor of Port Royal, Kevin Phillips, said. “There’s a lot of space; there is a lot of opportunity there.”

Beaufort County has been looking to utilize it better after the VA clinic moves to its own location, and an opportunity presented itself late last year.

“This endeavor is really our first time in the batter’s box with this project,” Executive Director of the Beaufort County Economic Development Corporation, John O’Toole, said.

The Coast Guard is looking for a new training facility to support a projected growth of over 15,000 service members over the next few years.

Over 30 communities submitted applications to house the new facility.

It’s believed that the Beaufort Naval Hospital made the shortlist in leading spots.

“One of the real advantages we have is that it is a hardened, secured installation, which avoids a lot of cost,” O’Toole said. “It’s owned by the federal government again; you’re avoiding a lot of cost.”

It’s a move that O’Toole believes would be a good one.

“We’re coastal,” O’Toole said. “We think that if you are the Coast Guard, it might make sense to look at a community that is on the coast and that also has the infrastructure and talent to support your mission.”

If chosen, over 2,000 jobs and an economic boost of over $300 million could be coming to Port Royal, which sits near Coast Guard installations in Charleston and Savannah.

An area already rich in military population, with Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort and Parris Island.

“It would bind our connection to the military even tighter and even closer,” Phillips said.

The push for a training facility in Port Royal has already received support from lawmakers and from the governor.

Now, it’ll be up to the Department of Homeland Security and the Coast Guard to make the final decision.

“At this point, it is out of our hands; the decision will be made at a much higher pay grade than us, but we thought it was something worth taking a shot at,” Phillips said.

All the sites being considered had to have expressed their interest in housing the training facility in early December of last year, with the intention of the chosen site becoming operational within 12 months of acquisition or lease.