Fort Mill officially broke ground on a new Operations Center this past Wednesday, kicking off construction on a 33-acre campus that will relocate the town's utilities and public works departments out of a 1938 National Guard Armory that the Utilities Department has used for more than a decade and the public works department has occupied more recently. The ceremony marks the start of a roughly 15-month build meant to finally give the town's roughly 85 public works and utilities employees a modern home suited to a community that has outgrown its old infrastructure.
Mayor Guynn Savage opened the groundbreaking ceremony, according to the Fort Mill Sun. The new campus is on Banks Road, according to WRHI, well outside the downtown core where the current armory-based operation has sat for generations. Town Council had purchased the 33 acres for the new center several years earlier, positioning the town to act once state funding came through.
Town Manager Cary Vargo told the crowd the project is about the people who do the work as much as the buildings themselves, per the Fort Mill Sun. That sentiment echoed comments from Town Council member Allen Garrison, who noted in May that public works employees had been operating out of work spaces built in the 1940s and 1950s, back when Fort Mill had only 3,000 to 5,000 residents, according to WRHI.
A Campus Built for a Booming Town
The new facility will include an administration building, vehicle and equipment storage, warehousing, a fleet maintenance building, and a fuel and wash depot, per the Fort Mill Sun. Architectural plans from DP3 Architects spell out the specifics: a 17,000-square-foot administration building, a 14,000-square-foot fleet maintenance facility, a 16,900-square-foot warehouse, and nearly 39,000 square feet of covered equipment storage. DP3 designed the industrial-modern campus using materials selected for a 50-year operational lifecycle, the firm says.
That kind of long-range planning reflects just how fast Fort Mill has grown. The town's population climbed from roughly 11,800 residents in 2011 to an estimated 38,673 in 2026, according to Charlotte Stories, placing severe strain on public services never designed for a town of this size. Public works and utilities crews now collect trash from nearly 9,200 properties, maintain roughly 84 lane miles of roadway, and look after 35 or more town properties, per the Fort Mill Sun.
Aging Armory Simply Ran Out of Room
The departments' fleet has swelled to more than 225 vehicles, and crews maintain the town's wastewater, stormwater, and water distribution systems, along with its fire hydrants, according to the Fort Mill Sun. Utilities Director Adam Jones said his crews respond to water and sewer emergencies overnight, work that has only gotten more demanding as the town has expanded. A 2022 town facilities assessment found the armory was too small for the departments, needed significant repairs, sat poorly located in the middle of town for that kind of operation, and had no room to expand on its landlocked site.
The armory at the corner of Unity and Elliott streets was built in 1938 for military training ahead of World War II and is one of roughly 30 armories across South Carolina, per the Fort Mill Sun. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1992, and the building's federal Works Progress Administration funding makes it the town's only Art Deco-styled structure, according to the Post and Courier.
How the $38 Million Got Financed
Fort Mill Town Council approved a guaranteed maximum price of $34,858,984 with Hood Construction in May, with total project costs expected to reach $38.25 million once IT, soft costs, design, and furnishings are included, WRHI reported. Former state Representative Raye Felder secured a $25 million state allotment for the facility, a sum the Post and Courier notes was the single largest earmark sponsored by an individual legislator in South Carolina's state budget in 2023. Felder has said the armory needs substantial work but is worth preserving, adding that the building will turn 100 years old in 2038.
To close the funding gap, the town combined that state appropriation with $10 million in installment purchase revenue bonds and $3.25 million from town cash reserves and earmark investment earnings, according to WRHI's report. WRHI reported that the budget amendment's first reading passed and that a second reading was scheduled for the June business meeting. The construction contract with Hood Construction carries a liquidated damages penalty of $1,000 per day if completion runs past 450 days, WRHI noted, after the official construction duration was extended from 14 months to 15 months prior to final signing.
What Happens to the Old Armory
Public Works Director Brian Harris used the groundbreaking to thank his employees publicly rather than only in staff meetings, according to the Fort Mill Sun. Project partners on the build include Hood Construction as general contractor, along with DP3 Architects and Goodwyn Mills Cawood. The town expects to hold a ribbon cutting at the new site in about 14 months.
In the meantime, Fort Mill has already taken some interim steps to ease the crowding downtown, purchasing two buildings on White Street and renovating the old Bank Street gym, per the Fort Mill Sun. What ultimately becomes of the historic armory once crews move out remains an open question, one likely to draw continued attention given the building's Art Deco pedigree and its place on the National Register of Historic Places.
