Would $10M Bond Deal Benefit Public College Donor?

In 2003, the College of Charleston announced the creation of a $100,000 endowed scholarship in honor of the late John M. Rivers Sr., a “C of C” alumnus who made his name in Charleston as an owner of radio and television stations. 

The generosity of the Rivers family to the public liberal arts and science college, which has a campus museum named after the late Rivers, is well documented in annual donor reports. John M. Rivers Jr., for example, and a foundation named after him contributed at least $25,000 to $50,000 last year and $15,000 to $35,000 in 2011 to the school, according to those reports.

“John Rivers Jr., successful businessman, avid golf fan and loyal ‘C of C’ advocate, provided the leadership and the network that enabled the women’s golf team to purchase a new Mercedes Sprinter Van,” reads an entry in the 2011 donor report. “Rivers championed the $100,000 effort in less than six months by securing support from women’s golf fans, both in the Lowcountry and around the United States.”

What college officials don’t want to talk about publicly, however, is the connection of Rivers to a downtown Charleston office building that the school is proposing to lease for seven years at a projected total cost of nearly $9.9 million. The proposal includes an additional seven-year renewal period.

The building's landlord, R.E.R. Investments, Limited Co., was registered, according to records at the Secretary of State’s Office, in 1999 by John M. Rivers Jr., who is listed in those records as the company's principal manager. The address of the building is 360 Concord St. – the same address listed for R.E.R. Investments in online business directories.

The College of Charleston is proposing to lease approximately 41,000 square feet of space in the building, located within walking distance of the campus, to use primarily as temporary classrooms with the planned renovations of the Rita Hollings Science Center and Simons Center for the Arts within the next year, records show.

For the second time this year, the proposed lease is on the agenda of the state Joint Bond Review Committee (JBRC), which meets Thursday. The committee, made up of five senators and five House members, is chaired by Sen. Hugh Leatherman, R-Florence.

The committee at its June 5 meeting approved the lease proposal, though at the time, the total estimated cost was $9.1 million – $785,402 less than the current projection. Under the most recent estimate, the “maximum basic annual rent” over the seven years would range from $1.29 million in the first year to $1.54 million in the final year, and would include, in contrast to the the initial projection, utility and janitorial costs, documents show.

The initial proposal hit a snag at the June 18 meeting of the S.C. Budget and Control (BCB), which has the final say. The board voted 3-2 to deny the lease proposal, with Gov. Nikki Haley, who chairs the panel, Comptroller General Richard Eckstrom and Treasurer Curtis Loftis voting no; and Leatherman, who is the Senate Finance Committee chairman, and House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Brian White, R-Anderson, voting yes.

Haley questioned Stephen Osborne, the college’s executive vice president for business affairs, about the absence of an “RFP” – request for proposal – for the lease. A request for proposal is a solicitation by a government agency to potential suppliers of goods or services to submit business proposals.

Read the full story at TheNerve.org.