The 325-acre project at Lake Hartwell, along the Georgia and South Carolina border, will add a veterans’ wellness center to the already-planned SC Great Outdoors Center complex, hotel and conference center, harbor with docks, and golf course. The target opening date for the facility is 2017.
Developers of the proposed 325-acre Sanctuary Pointe project at Lake Hartwell, along the Georgia and South Carolina border, announced this week they plan to add a veterans’ wellness center to the project’s already planned SC Great Outdoors Center complex, the Greenville, S.C.-based Upstate Business Journal reported.
The SC Great Outdoors Center complex is an initiative of the South Carolina National Heritage Corridor that promotes and protects the state’s natural resources. The 75-acre center is intended to be an element within the Sanctuary Pointe Resort development, and is set to include visitors’ services, environmental education, classrooms and meeting space, a café, indoor and outdoor archery ranges, a lakeside pavilion for flat-water recreation, an amphitheater and an adventure center pavilion with zip-lining, a ropes course and bike rental facilities, the Journal reported.
The design for Sanctuary Pointe, which has been in the planning stages since 2008, includes a resort hotel and conference center, harbor and resort docks, a limited-service hotel and a golf course in addition to the Great Outdoors Center, the Journal reported.
“With the Great Outdoors Center coming onboard, we decided to rethink our concept and make sure we’re doing it right,” said Sanctuary Pointe developer Bob Daffin. “Putting together the two concepts [The Outdoors Center and the resort] makes it a unique property where everyone can experience the great outdoors.”
The SC Great Outdoors Center now plans to add space for WhenLifeSucks.org, a nonprofit organization that serves veterans and their families suffering from trauma. In addition to having its core operations at the center, WhenLifeSucks.org will lead programs utilizing the natural surroundings and outdoor recreation for wellness, healing and renewal, the Journal reported.
The veterans’ initiative joins 18 other partners who will have facilities or programs at the Great Outdoors Center, including the state departments of natural resources, agriculture, forestry and transportation along with Clemson University, USA Olympic Archery and the National Parks Service, the Journal reported.
WhenLifeSucks.org founder Tim Wiles believes the partnership between WhenLifeSucks.org and the Great Outdoors Center will become a significant resource to veterans on a national scale. “The Great Outdoors Center aligns with our mission and is uniquely positioned to make a measurable difference in the lives of those who have sacrificed so much. This center could quickly grow to be the largest center for veterans’ wellness and renewal in the country.”
To make the Great Outdoors Center a reality, the Army Corps of Engineers must approve the center as an element of the already-approved Sanctuary Pointe master plan, McCollum said. Sanctuary Pointe developers have already embraced the concept and are hopeful the Corps approval will come quickly, the Journal reported.
“This project is taking place on Corps property that is leased to the South Carolina Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism and subleased to Sanctuary Pointe Resort,” said McCollum. “Once we receive approval from the Corps, we will immediately begin our capital campaign. We are hopeful that the public and private sectors will be willing to step up and become partners in this endeavor to truly do something meaningful for our veterans.”
McCollum said they would need to raise approximately $12 million in capital for the SC Great Outdoors Center, with a target opening date in 2017, the Journal reported.
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