Published September 21, 2006
A lease the Miss South Carolina Organization pays to its own president and CEO for office space in Pickens County appears significantly higher than area market values.
In 2004, the last year for which tax filings are available, the state pageant paid $63,000 to rent part of an 1,896-square-foot, one-story brick building at 124 W. Main St. in Liberty, a small town that's home to about 3,000 people. The building is owned by pageant president Joe Sanders III through the now-defunct Sanders Financial Group LLC and also houses the Sanders family business, American Family Mortgage Services.
Complaint
The nonprofit pageant organization, run for years by the Sanders family, is under investigation by the S.C. Secretary of State's Office after a complaint alleged that promised scholarship funds were never disbursed. Tax records indicate the pageant paid out $32,620 in scholarships in 2004. The office rent was almost twice
as much for the same period.
While tax returns show no sign of office expenses from 1996 through 1999, the lease costs total $245,000 between 2000 and 2004. The lease amount for 2004 equates to more than $33 per square foot per year, assuming pageant offices filled the entire building.
"That's a generous amount of money for that space," said Century 21 real estate agent Eddie Beaver of Easley, an agent for 28 years.
The building was constructed in 1962 to house medical offices and has a taxable market value of $158,173, according to records from the Pickens County Assessor's Office. Beaver estimated that the property and building -- furnishings excluded -- could be leased for a maximum of $15 per square foot per month after viewing the building from the street.
"I can't see $63,000 a year," he said. "I can see ($34,000), I can see ($32,000), but I might not be seeing something inside."
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