SANTEE — A developer and conservative megadonor is seeking approval from the state Legislature to build its first legal casino just months after his high-profile exit from a Catawba Nation-led project in North Carolina.
In a statement to The Post and Courier, Wallace Cheves — an upstate casino developer who played an early role in the development of a new casino in Kings Mountain, N.C. — confirmed he is eyeing the possibility of constructing a $1 billion casino in Santee just off of Interstate 95 at the former site of the Santee Outlet Mall in Orangeburg County.
The vision, his development organization said in the statement, is to construct a destination resort anchored by the state’s first and only casino.
In addition to gaming, the site would include amenities such as a hotel, spa, restaurants and retail spaces, all of which Cheves said can be funded without using taxpayer dollars.
"We strongly believe that this investment should be driven by private enterprise, not taxpayer dollars, ensuring no financial risk to the public sector," Cheves, who was out of the country March 10 and could not be reached for comment, wrote in a statement.
The effort was first reported by The Orangeburg Times and Democrat.
The benefits could be huge, the developers said. In its first 10 years, internal numbers from Cheves' Santee Development Corporation estimate, the facility could generate approximately $8 billion in economic activity as well as the creation of more than 4,600 jobs in the heart of an economically disadvantaged area often derisively referenced as the "Corridor of Shame."
"For decades we’ve commissioned studies, convened task forces and made unfulfilled promises to better South Carolina’s most disadvantaged areas with few results," the development group said on its website. "It’s time to stop kicking the same can down the road and take a new approach — to think differently and with an open mind."
Doing so will require buy-in not only from local officials in Orangeburg County, but the even bigger hurdle of getting support from the Republican-controlled South Carolina General Assembly and Gov. Henry McMaster.
Casino gaming is still illegal in South Carolina alongside most forms of gambling, like horse betting and sports wagering. The landscape for legalized gaming is also unlikely to change any time soon. While the General Assembly has considered various measures to legalize games of chance in the past, most have been unceremoniously shot down.
This year's proposal, sponsored by Dorchester Republican state Rep. Chris Murphy, would be much more targeted than more recent proposals. Dubbed the "I-95 Economic and Education Stimulus Act," the bill would only allow the construction of casinos in so-called "Tier IV" counties containing a stretch of the interstate within their borders, essentially limiting possible candidates for development to Orangeburg, Marlboro and Dillon counties.
The bill would also establish a South Carolina Gaming Commission in Columbia to oversee the casino's operations and allow most recognized forms of gaming, including baccarat, chemin de fer, blackjack, slot machines and other games of chance currently considered illegal in South Carolina.
The proposal, Murphy said in an interview, made perfect sense for the area, which has long been coveted by private developers.
Santee sits approximately at the midpoint of I-95, which runs between Northeastern Maine and the South Florida metropolis of Miami, and is considered among the most busy highways in the United States. At one point, the town of Santee had even been rumored as a possible destination for Disney World before ultimately locating in Orlando. It is still considered a major stopping off point for travelers routing North-South.
"You're right there in an area that is just primed for growth based on its proximity," Murphy, who said he considers Cheves a friend, said in an interview. "But if you think about the lakes, the golf courses that are already there, hunting property that's already there, plus big names in the casino business ... this isn't something to sneeze about. This potentially could be a game changer."
Cheves enters the conversation at a time he is still smarting from his involvement in a Catawba Nation-run casino across the South Carolina border in Kings Mountain.
Once an early partner of the tribe with his Sky Boat Gaming, Cheves was bought out of his financial stake in the project by the tribe last summer after regulatory issues with the federal government essentially ground the production to a standstill for years.
But Cheves has significant political connections. A major player in Upstate political circles, Cheves gave the maximum allowable donation possible — $1,000 — to a dozen separate state lawmakers in last year's elections, as well as nearly a quarter-million dollars to various political action committees aligned with President Donald Trump, according to campaign finance reports.
Some legislators are already supportive of Cheves' proposal. In a statement furnished to The Post and Courier March 10, Senate Minority Leader Brad Hutto — an Orangeburg Democrat and a longtime advocate of legalized gaming — wrote he believed the project could shepherd in an "economic renaissance" for the region that could be as "important to us as BMW was to the Upstate region."
In the statement he wrote his constituents are tired of the "many years of talk and no action" by so-called "outsiders" to the region to address the problems facing the impoverished I-95 corridor.
A targeted bill like H. 4176, he said, could allow the state to take the region's destiny into its own hands.
"I supported the S.C. Education Lottery because I knew the profound effect it would have on our children's future," Hutto wrote in the statement. "I am just as confident that a privately owned resort casino owned by South Carolinians, properly governed with safeguards in place, will transform our county and region into an economic engine we can all be proud of."
