The appraisal for new land that a South Carolina middle school district purchased didn’t take into account the poor soil associated with that land. The land appraisal dated Feb. 4, 2015 by Myrtle Beach-based Beckham Appraisal Service, LLC showed the land for the new Socastee-area middle school valued at $1.725 million or $75,000 per acre.
The 24.28 acres of land for the new school was bought from a larger 206-acre tract that the tax assessor’s office appraised for $7,230,500. The district paid The Jackson Companies (JACO Property Investors, LLC) a total of $1,978,258.62 for the 24.18 acres of land for the school according to the property deed.
“The land will require an additional $2.5 million in change orders for additional work to reinforce the soil to make it suitable for building,” First Floor Energy CEO Robbie Ferris told the Myrtle Beach Sun News. “The change orders have not yet been approved by the board.”
“If I knew we had a soil problem, I would state that,” Beckham Appraisal Services appraiser Henry Beckham told the paper. “That’s really something outside of my expertise. The appraisal that was done a year before the soil testing did not include an analysis of the quality of soil.”
The delay could push the completion date for the school into December 2017.
Beckham said that the appraisal took into account wetlands, but that there was only a “limited amount” of wetlands on the property.
The district bought the land June 1, 2016, despite a geotechnical analysis dated Jan. 28, 2016 showing that the soil wasn’t dense enough to support a two-story school.