Governor Signs Two Landmark Child Safety Bills Into Law

Gov. Henry McMaster and Lt. Gov. Pamela S. Evette were joined May 29, 2024, by members of the General Assembly and other community leaders to ceremonially sign two child safety bills into law: H. 4624, the Help Not Harm Bill, and H. 3424, the Child Online Safety Act. 

"Protecting the innocence of our state's children is our shared responsibility, and as threats to our children emerge, we must adapt our laws to ensure their safety," McMaster said.

He added, "These signings reflect our commitment to ensuring the health and well-being of all our state's children from damaging influences online and off. I am grateful for the support of the General Assembly and all those who have worked to bring these critical pieces of legislation to my desk."

Help Not Harm Bill (H. 4624) 

The Help Not Harm Bill prohibits healthcare professionals from knowingly providing gender transition procedures to a person under 18 years of age. Gender transition procedures are defined as puberty-blocking drugs, cross-sex hormones, or genital or nongenital gender reassignment surgery, used for the purpose of assisting an individual with a physical gender transition.

The bill also prohibits public funds from being used directly or indirectly for gender transition procedures and precludes the South Carolina Medicaid Program from reimbursing or providing coverage for these procedures. 

Child Online Safety Act (H. 3424) 

The Child Online Safety Act protects minors from harmful online content by mandating websites containing 33.33 percent or more material deemed harmful to minors implement an age verification system to ensure that users under 18 years old cannot access the material.

Harmful online content is defined as material or performances that depict sexually explicit nudity or sexual activity that an average adult applying contemporary community standards would find that the material or performance has a tendency to appeal to a prurient interest of minors in sex. This portion of the bill is effective January 1, 2025. 

“The average age that a child is first exposed to this material online is eleven years old. The state clearly has a compelling interest to protect our children, and that is what this bill does," said State Rep. Travis Moore. 

The bill also makes websites that produce obscene material or promote child pornography or child sexual exploitation liable to an individual for damages, court costs, and reasonable attorney fees as ordered by the court and is open to class action suits.

“A tremendous body of work was developed for the promulgation of this legislation. We have put the guardrails in place to keep our children from going into digital destruction," said State Sen. Danny Verdin. 

Builder Capital, 400 Capital Management Close $400mm Land Banking Arrangement with Dream Finders Homes

Builder Capital and 400 Capital Management LLC announced the closing of a land banking arrangement with Dream Finders Homes (NYSE: DFH), acquiring over 4,000 residential home sites in Charleston, S.C., Greenville, S.C., and Nashville, TN.

Officials said the $412mm transaction occurred in connection with DFH’s acquisition of the core homebuilding assets of Crescent Homes and will enhance DFH’s ability to deliver affordable housing products to these markets.

The acquired home sites, spanning over 25 active selling communities, will ultimately serve entry-level, as well as first and second time move-up homebuyers with finished home price points starting in the low-$300,000s, the officials said.

“We are pleased to execute this transaction and acquire a great portfolio of home sites at significant scale,” said Bill Southworth, managing partner at Builder Capital. “This transaction shows our ability to meet the needs of our homebuilder partners, in this case a repeat customer.”

“With the closing of this transaction, our strategic partnership with Builder Capital has grown to over 11,250 lots of inventory and over $1.4 billion of total project cost,” said Chris Schiavone, head of Private Credit Strategies at 400CM.

Schiavone added, “Builder Capital and 400 Capital have positioned themselves as leading providers of acquisition and development capital solutions to the residential housing market as evidenced by this large and important transaction.”

“The housing market is competitive and having strong partners allows us to be nimble and make better strategic decisions,” said Patrick Zalupski, CEO and founder of Dream Finders Homes.

Zalupski added, “This transaction is a reflection of the strength of our partnerships and we look forward to exploring future opportunities together.”

Builder Capital was formed in 2017 with a mission is to provide capital for finished lot inventory to production homebuilders.

The Builder Capital team has established relationships with production homebuilders throughout the U.S. and over the last 25 years has provided over $1.7 billion in funding for the acquisition and development of more than 30,000 residential lots across 275 projects.

Founded in 2008, 400CM is an alternative credit asset manager led by a management team with over three decades of experience investing and trading in credit markets.

Officials said the firm is an established, process-oriented platform with a demonstrated ability to consistently generate competitive returns, develop capital markets businesses and create innovative solutions utilized throughout the market.

The firm said it offers investors a global platform that accesses differentiated credit investment opportunities through total and absolute return strategies in flagship funds and customized portfolio solutions.

The team consists of 65 professionals across offices in New York and London, who collectively manage $6.4 billion for global institutional investors.

Dream Finders Homes is a homebuilder based in Jacksonville, FL.

Dream Finders Homes builds single-family homes throughout the Southeast, Mid-Atlantic and Midwest, including Florida, Texas, Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Colorado, and the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area, which comprises Northern Virginia and Maryland.

Through its financial services joint ventures, DFH also provides mortgage financing and title services to homebuyers.

Expandable, LLC Selects Greenville County For First North American Operation

Expandable, LLC, a supplier of expandable, movable spaces, said it selected Greenville County to establish the company’s first North American operation.

The $3 million investment will create 10 jobs, according to Gov. Henry McMaster’s office.

“Greenville, S.C. was the perfect location for our first foreign expansion. The North American market has been an important growth area for us over the past few years, so we needed to establish a local presence. With its strategic location, infrastructure and available talent pool, this is the place where we wanted to be,” said Expandable, LLC Managing Director Sander Scholten.

Based in the Netherlands, Expandable designs multifunctional and customizable expandable, movable spaces.

The company’s expandable trailers and pods are used in a variety of applications from small events to large exhibitions.

The 40,000-square-foot facility at 7120 Augusta Road in Piedmont serves as a showroom, warehouse, and the company’s head office for North American sales and service.

Operations are online. Those interested in joining Expandable should go to the company’s careers page.

Farmland Partners Promotes Susan Landi to CFO

Farmland Partners Inc. (NYSE: FPI) said Susan Landi has been appointed to the company’s executive team as chief financial officer and treasurer.

Landi, the senior accounting professional at FPI for over four years, assumed her new role on May 28, 2024.

Landi’s responsibilities will include overseeing the company's finance, accounting, treasury, and SEC financial reporting functions.

Landi succeeds James Gilligan, who has stepped down as CFO upon mutual agreement with the company and will remain as an employee with the company through June 30, 2024, to ensure a smooth transition.

Farmland Partners Inc. is an internally managed real estate company that owns and seeks to acquire high-quality North American farmland and makes loans to farmers secured by farm real estate.

As of May 28, 2024, the company owned and/or managed approximately 177,400 acres in 17 states, including Arkansas, California, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and Texas. 

Landi has been an accounting and audit professional since 2002, serving at Moss Adams and Hein & Associates prior to joining the company in 2019.

She received a bachelor’s degree in accounting from Saint Vincent College and a M.B.A. from the University of Colorado. She is a CPA.

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