BIG MONEY FLOWING INTO THE GRAND STRAND …
|| By FITSNEWS || In case you missed it, Chinese investors have been snatching up property on the South Carolina coast – buying nearly thirty of the eighty public golf courses in the Grand Strand region of the state. The latest deal? A 22-course purchase from a subsidiary jointly owned by Myrtle Beach National Company and Burroughs & Chapin.
Price tag? A rumored $357 million: The largest one-time purchase in the Grand Strand’s history … and comes on top of nearly $60 million in previous golf course purchases.
According to The (Myrtle Beach, S.C.) Sun News, politicians on the coast say another $200 million in Chinese investment is coming … this year.
The buyer in the latest big deal? Founders Group International – a subsidiary of Yiqian Funding, which is represented by New York immigration attorney Xian “Nick” Dou.
There’s plenty of speculation on the coast as to the motivation of the Chinese investors – who insist their only goal is to make money off of these assets.
“We have made a substantial investment in the Myrtle Beach community and look forward to a bright future here,” Dou said in a statement following the most recent round of purchases.
Good … private investment is the lifeblood of any economy, and we don’t especially care where it comes from as long as it’s green (and as long as taxpayer funding isn’t used as an inducement).
All we ask? That the Chinese – and other coastal businesses – pay their own freight for tourism marketing.
Every year, South Carolina taxpayers spend tens of millions of dollars subsidizing the tourism industry via state-sponsored marketing campaigns – money we have consistently argued is about as effective as the money it spends pumping sand into the ocean. Even if such investments were effective, though, they are not core functions of government.
Again … how can state lawmakers raise taxes on South Carolina motorists (who already spend a disproportionate percentage of their income on fuel) when they are also subsidizing tourism ads?
It makes no sense …
It’s past time South Carolina’s leaders – and government officials in Myrtle Beach – stopped wasting tax dollars on tourism marketing. If South Carolina’s tourism industry wishes to market itself nationally or to the rest of the world, it can pick up the tab for those efforts. That’s how business works – or at least how it’s supposed to work.
Besides, the Chinese clearly have plenty of money to burn …
38 comments
how long until the these new landowners start pushing for gambling. not long i hope
resettlement of exiled prisoners? setting up sweatshops for their cheap beach goods and souvenirs? Asian ‘honeys’ relocating to our shores (see ads on Fitsnews)? buying North Korea and moving it here? —- all of the above aided by “Incentives by Nikki)
This will not end well for China.
Japan? I was thinking the same thing. Pebble beach. Times square. Add Dubai also to the list and the Sultan of Brunei.
They could buy 5 Points — that would be nice.
“Besides, the Chinese clearly have plenty of money to burn”
They have a pile of printed up US dollars, and now they are using them to do corporate raider style asset acquisition with them state side.
I suppose even the Chinese were tired of using them to build ghost towns.
It’s probably better to buy up US tourist traps that at least generate some kind of revenue instead of using all the constantly debased US currency to buy gold.
Diversity it good. Who knows, once they aquire enough US assets and gold reserves they might be able to topple the US dollar as being the world’s reserve currency.
This, all brought to you by 44 years of gov’t unbalanced budgets and Federal Reserve monetization, might be a better/easier fiscal death than decades of unchecked and sustained debasement a la Japan.
In the end, we might actually consider China a weird fiscal liberator once the history is written, which is an irony considering they are commie in some ways.
While many Asians are obsessed with golf. Particularly the Japanese, I suspect the possibility of gambling in the future is also an impetus to invest now. Of course that has not worked out well for Atlantic City.
The Chinese may have plans to establish a new golf tournament — “The Masters – of Po and Kan” …
Why would anybody in their right mind worry about this? The Chinese communist elites are the best capitalists in the world. They pollute at will, pay less than peanuts, rip off patents from all over the world without shame and have no business scruples whatsoever.
There should be no concern if the ChiCom investors are connected in some way with the government or with the People’s Liberation Army. That will mean more defense for us if we are ever invaded by a foreign power.
The assumption that the Chinese investors are communistic in temperament is probably wrong … They already know that communism does not work at all well.
The assumption that the international Chinese business folks are greedy capitalists is probably right … They already know what does work well and in a longer time frame, this will work for the state and the Citizenry.
There is a lot of pluses for South Carolina … Mostly because of the influx of new, wealthier taxpayers.
As for the U.S. Dollar$ and Bonds, what would anyone suggest the Chinese do with all of that filthy lucre? Burn it? Convert it to Chinese money and pay Chinese taxes on it? Invest it in Venezuela?
Is thus and ever shall be.
They are classic communist elites. Champagne and caviar for them. Bathtub baijiu and sweet’n’sour rotting sardines for the masses. not sure how that is not like the capitalist elites of the USA today, tho. Maybe that is your point?
‘Bathtub baijiu and sweet’n’sour rotting sardines’ — is that a snide reference to our revered Idolatress Haley?
The Chinese could buy out Boeing, repay SC for the past incentives, and no future worries about (whisper).. unions!
A Chinese company also owns Sweden based Volvo.
They bought it from Ford because it was a money-loser.
Similar stories were rife in the eighties when the Japanese were going to buy up America.
I live in Florence and go to the beach a lot. I read one story about this that had a quote from “The Myrtle Beach President of the Chinese Chamber of Commerce.” I kept reading that over and over. It never stopped saying the same thing no matter how many times I read it. I am not sure but I don’t think we are supposed to ask questions about that. New masters at the beach no likee.
Paranoid much?
Folks is still on his “South Carolina motorists (who already spend a disproportionate percentage of their income on fuel)” kick. If SC income levels are low, then what SC residents pay for most commodities is “disproportionate” to their income.
Speaking of motorists, I think that the Chinese should not be allowed to drive vehicles. Anybody else notice their bad driving?
SC “lawmakers” fund the tourism industry because the tourism industry donates right back to the “lawmakers” campaigns. See, it’s easy to figure out. You’re welcome.
They have been trying to corner the real estate markets all over North America since they have successfully driven the Aussie housing market into the stratosphere. They have done he same in Vancouver, where no one can afford to live anymore. Soon half the country will be like london, where foreign capital has bought all the housing and it sits empty while locals are forced deep into the burbs.
Some friends with expertise on Chinese culture and investments assure me that this is a good thing. One of them is quite liberal, the other a staunch conservative. They offer a balance assessment of the situation. The Chinese are here to make money. What they’re doing will stimulate tourism and create more jobs. Not just in the golf industry, but across the board. This is not Pollyanna talk. It’s based on a clear-heading assessment, by people I trust. I’m hoping against all hope that they are correct.
Again here: The Chinese may have plans to establish a new golf tournament — “The Masters – of Po and Kan”
Buzzy-Bozzie when you do suck up to power you don’t fool around do you? You planning to take your cross-dressing act to China soon?
pogo flippy, it figures that you see it that way. Lord knows you have spent enough time, yourself, kissing the asses of those I once opposed at City Hall. So that’s how you think. Sad for you, that your thinking is that shallow. But it’s not my problem.
Any jobs they create will be shit jobs. The plum jobs will go their families. They’re here to make money for themselves, not you. And as the other commenter noted, they will drive up the price of real estate.
It’s not a good thing.
It may not be just the golf courses they want. I suspect a fair amount of this is about the land the courses sit on and future development of said land.
but-but-but- what about our ‘mini golf’ and ‘crazy golf’ courses? what will be their fate?
Wonder how they will factor in the debate of offshore oil drilling?
Since they want to protect their investments, I’d say they’d oppose it. Fracking, too. Therefore, they’d bring their influence to bear on the side of none of that.
Pollution has hurt China in many ways, and while it has the reputation of being one of the biggest polluters in the world, it is also moving quickly and decisively in the direction of implementing wind and solar power on massive scales. They may well help bring about that same change in the US.
“All we ask? That the Chinese – and other coastal businesses – pay their own freight for tourism marketing.”
I’m pretty sure that non-primary residences/properties pay 6% property tax as opposed to 4% and do no receive the local sales tax credit, essentially tripling the property taxes of non-owner occupied property. Seems like those triple taxes should more than cover the tourism expenditures.
Don’t worry. Off-shored drilling and oil spills will stop that.
Well, you give the Chinese Billion and Billions of our dollars.
Then you get upset when they spend them.
That’s what the money’s for: spending.
Unfortunately, now they are our Landlords and own our homes.
That’s what DC calls FREE TRADE AGREEMENTS.
We agree to give our jobs, incomes, and futures away for FREE.
Possession is 9/10s of the law…..Dumb@$$..
They may buy it…but if they ever try to bring the Communist brand of government that FITS and Co. so admire….That note won’t mean a D*#n thing….except when you get it crammed up your @$$…
I’m for letting them run it too.
Then we can make them run the schools in the Pee Dee “corridor” hinterland.
As long as we get better Chinese food at the beach, I’m all for it.
[…] Previous The Coast Of China … Is In South Carolina? […]