Briefs
by John Temple Ligon

Puttin' on the Ritz

With three hotels in Georgia and one under construction in Charlotte, the Tony Ritz- Carlton hotel chain is looking at Charleston for a site, reportedly near the aquarium, which is also where Charleston's new performing arts hall is planned.

Bank on it

Main Street's new bank, BankMeridian, after its first year of operations, reported it has $136 million in deposits and $178 million in assets.

Horse sense

Columbia businessman Don Purcell has secured use of the railroad tunnel and its adjacent grassy area at Lincoln and Lady for a horse park and for horse carriage storage. Purcell's business, Columbia Carriage Works, was operating at the old city fire station on Senate Street, which developer Tom Prioreschi is converting into shops, condos, and apartments.

Speaking of tunnels

Shareholders of Eurotunnel, the below- English- Channel connector between England and France, voted for a new structure recently that will hand control of the Channel Tunnel operator to its bankers. Eurotunnel has a sustainable financial structure with more than $11 billion in debt, according to The Financial Times . For the first time since the tunnel opened in 1994, the operator will be free of concerns about servicing its debts. Creditors will be handed up to 87% of the newly structured company.

Shell out

North Carolina recycles about 7,000 bushels of oyster shells annually, and South Carolina, 14,000. The State of S.C. pays $0.70 a bushel to shucking companies. The state prefers to return the shells to the water where oyster reefs develop, nurturing more oysters. Construction and landscaping firms pay $7.50 a bushel, and not surprisingly, more oyster shells are found in construction and fewer oyster shells are returned to the water.

Iraq War funding bill

The Defense Department just saw its funding go up another $99.5 billion, of which $94.5 billion is for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. S.C.'s Force Protection, based in Ladson, makes land- mine- resistant vehicles, and $3 billion of the funding bill is dedicated for new deliveries of land- mine- resistant vehicles. Even before the bill was signed into law in May, Force Protection was awarded an $11.9 million contract by the U.S. Navy to build and deliver 14 next- generation armored vehicles. In April, the company won a $400 million contract for 1,000 Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicles.

Gas tax compared with gas profit

The combined gas tax in South Carolina is $0.352 per gallon. New Yorkers pay $0.629 per gallon in combined taxes, and Californians, $0.60. Every man, woman, and child in the U.S. averages annually $271 in combined federal, state, and local gas taxes. The oil companies' profit runs about $0.13 per gallon, and the federal government makes $0.184. Ethanol producers receive a 51- cent- a- gallon subsidy. Ethanol produces less energy than it takes to make it.

Single family, detached

A one- house lot in East Hampton sold recently for $103 million. House is extra. The lot, a really big lot, is 40 acres, but zoning restricts the property to single family occupancy. On a per- square- foot basis, the lot sold for less than $60, about the price of some recently transferred property on Columbia's Main Street.

Huge hedge funds

The 100 largest hedge funds' combined assets total more than $1 trillion. At the top of the heap is JP Morgan with $33.1 billion, followed by Goldman Sachs with $32.5 billion and Bridgewater Associates, $30.2 billion. According to Chicago- based Hedge Fund Research, the hedge fund industry managed almost $1.5 trillion by the end of 2006.

AirTran serves Charleston

Orlando- based AirTran Airways began Atlanta service to Charleston on Thursday, May 24. From its Atlanta hub, AirTran offers non- stop service to 61 cities, including New York, Los Angeles, Dallas, Washington, and San Francisco.

Make your own

Santee Cooper, the state- owned utility, approved a plan last week to buy excess electric power from customers who make their own. The arrangement is on a trial basis for the summer, and a decision is expected in September if the offer is permanent. Santee Cooper has not declared how much it will pay for the excess electric power, but the price is anticipated to be below retail rates.

Nation's oldest

The nation's oldest school bus fleet, S.C.'s, is about to get replaced at a rate of 375 buses a year, and at a cost of $30 million a year. The Charleston Post and Courier cited 12,000 breakdowns of school buses during the 2005- 2006 school year.