All in the Family: Lowcountry Lawmaker's Actions Benefit Relative in a Big Way

In 2007, longtime S.C. Rep. Chip Limehouse co-authored a bill that put himself on the Charleston County Aviation Authority, which owns and operates Charleston International Airport.

More recently, as the immediate past chairman of the aviation authority board of directors, the Charleston County Republican was at the forefront of a $200 million makeover plan for the airport and a separate $12.5 million deal to sell airport land to aerospace giant Boeing.

“This is a major Christmas present to the Lowcountry,” Limehouse said at a December board meeting about the proposed sale of 320 acres to Boeing, according to a Charleston Post & Courier article. “We’ve tied our hat to the rocket ship Boeing.”

The Boeing land deal and airport expansion also could be financially beneficial to airport-related businesses connected to a close relative of Limehouse, an investigation by The Nerve has found.

What the longtime lawmaker, who remains an authority board member though is no longer its chairman, hasn’t revealed publicly is that three hotels at or near the airport, along with a charter airplane service operating at the airport, are run by companies with ties to his uncle, George Fennell, according to state and local records reviewed by The Nerve.

One of the hotels was built after Limehouse became chairman and during the time he presided over the start of the airport-expansion project, records show.

Limehouse, 50, is the broker-in-charge at Limehouse Properties in Charleston, which was founded by his father, Buck Limehouse, a former director and board chairman of the S.C. Department of Transportation. The elder Limehouse and his wife bought and renovated three historic hotels in downtown Charleston – the Indigo Inn, Jasmine House Inn and Meeting Street Inn – that are managed by Limehouse Properties, according to the real estate company's website. 

In an interview last week with The Nerve, Chip Limehouse, who joined the S.C. House in 1995, denied he had any conflicts of interest with his membership on the aviation authority board.

“If I saw any conflict of interest, I wouldn’t be on that board,” he said.

Asked if plans to expand the airport would benefit his uncle’s businesses at or near the airport, Limehouse replied: “We are working hard to make the airport better.  … Whether his (Fennell’s) businesses benefit or don’t benefit is irrelevant.”

Later in the interview, though, he noted that “to my knowledge, there have been no actions (of the aviation authority board) that directly benefit any business (currently at the airport) one way or the other.”

Limehouse pointed out that until contacted by The Nerve, no media had ever questioned him about his uncle’s airport hotels, noting, “I have nothing to do with that company.”

But Limehouse and his uncle made news in 1997 over Limehouse's involvement in a controversy over competing proposals for a new or expanded landfill in the Charleston area; one of the proposals was made by a waste-removal company headed by Fennell, according to a Post & Courier story. Limehouse had requested a public hearing on the competitor’s proposal, the story said.

“Just because he’s my uncle does not mean he has to be treated any differently than anyone else,” Limehouse said then. “All I did was ask for a level playing field.”

Fennell did not respond to several phone messages left for him this week by The Nerve.

Limehouse’s latest state-income disclosure statement filed with the State Ethics Commission doesn’t list any of his private sources of income, though he is not required to do so under state law. As an unsuccessful candidate for the 1^st Congressional District seat formerly held by now-U.S. Sen. Tim Scott of Charleston, Limehouse was required to submit a federal income-disclosure form.

That form shows Limehouse received $69,435 in salary last year from Limehouse Properties; $33,629 from another company he identified as 173 Meeting Street Inn, Limited, which is the listed owner of the historic Meeting Street Inn in downtown Charleston and has the same mailing address as Limehouse Properties; and $86,000 from a third company known as 5L Holdings Inc. He also listed $16,194 in salary as a state lawmaker, bringing his total reported pay last year to $205,258.

In addition, records at the S.C. Secretary of State’s Office show another company registered under Limehouse’s name, known as ICT Solutions U.S. LLC, which isn’t listed on his federal income-disclosure form.

Limehouse said “there’s nothing going on with” ICT Solutions, though he declined to discuss specifics about that company or 5L Holdings.

“I’ve disclosed everything I have been required to disclose,” he said.

[Full story here.]