CLINTON, S.C. — Clinton City Council is set to cast its final vote Monday, Nov. 2, on selling more than 557 acres of former Whitten Center land to a private developer, and the meeting agenda does not include a public hearing on the sale before that vote.
The ordinance would let the city sell the property, identified on county tax maps as parcel 901-34-01-004, to ARK Management One Corporation for $2,500 an acre, a price that adds up to more than $1.3 million. Council has already given the measure first reading, approving it after coming out of a closed session.
According to the ordinance, the developer is planning the project in three phases: recreation facilities and fields first, then a residential subdivision, and finally a hotel, shops and other commercial space. The new ordinance would repeal and replace one from August 2025 that first approved selling the same tracts to the company.
Clinton acquired the land from the state Department of Disabilities and Special Needs, and covenants on the property require the city to send part of the sale proceeds to that agency. The city did not order an appraisal. The $2,500 price sits just above a $2,497-an-acre floor that the city and the state agency set in 2022, and the ordinance concedes the price may fall short of current market value. The ordinance states that the project’s expected benefits, development conditions written into the deal and a right of first refusal for the city make up the difference.
Under a separate post-closing supplement, the developer would place money in escrow. Those funds would be paid out only after the city confirms that set development conditions have been met, an arrangement the ordinance says is meant to protect Clinton if the project stalls, especially during its first phase.
Two other ordinances are also up for second reading. One carries out Act No. 213 of 2026 by shifting Clinton’s regular city elections to odd-numbered years, still held in November, and by handing the job of running and certifying those elections to the county’s voter registration and elections board. The other strips residential units from the list of uses allowed in the General Commercial (C-3) zoning district. Homes already in that district could remain as legal nonconforming uses.
Council is also slated to hear a presentation on the city’s Safe Streets (SS4A) project and a report from Kevin Smorgala of Southeastern Consulting Engineering on the health of Clinton’s electric system. New business includes a resolution, with the consent of DuBrook Properties LLC, that would let Clinton police enforce traffic rules on Commerce Avenue, a private road, along with 2026 accommodations tax committee recommendations and the 2027 meeting calendar and holiday schedule. An executive session is listed to discuss the PMPA sales agreement and a personnel matter in the municipal court department.
Council meets in its P.S. Bailey chambers inside the M.S. Bailey Center at 211 North Broad Street. The session will also stream on the city’s YouTube page.
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