At the much-anticipated Monday, May 9, Beaufort County Council meeting, the purchase of the ailing Beaufort Commerce Park for $2.5 million was formally rejected.

The Island Packet has a nice report on the meeting that you can read here.

So what now?

The lenders seeking to recoup the loan for the park that was borrowed by the county's public-private Lowcountry Economic Network have, essentially, two options: 1) Accept the deed to the property, or 2) Attempt to sell the property at auction. 

But the big question is: If the funders don't get the full value of the loan at auction (which will likely sell for less than the loan value), will they come after the network and the county backer for a deficiency judgment?

Should that happen, the network would likely be dissolved, and it's unclear whether the county has the wherewithal to restart the network under a new name — the network has proved a local hotbed of resistance to the many in South Carolina who don't think highly of economic incentive deals, results or not.

There will likely also be some question as to whether the county will be allowed to start a new cloned copy of the old network without first paying up on the last one's debts.