The South Carolina Department of Natural Resources headquarters now officially calls Lexington County home.

Gov. Henry McMaster, new SCDNR Director Tom Mullikin and SCDNR Chairman Mark Hartley spoke at the Aug. 21 flag raising and ribbon cutting ceremony celebrating the new 66,754-square-foot facility that has a West Columbia address and will serve as the department’s headquarters, where executive officers, divisional leadership and statewide programs will be housed. This is also where the main licensing and watercraft service office will be.

Mullikin, in his remarks to the public, said that SCDNR officials are the guardians of environmental sustainability in the state. He also said that the “narrative that we have to choose between economic and environmental sustainability” has been dispelled.

McMaster told the public that South Carolina’s land and environment are leading factors for economic development.

“A lot of people have now realized that you can have this great economic growth and great environmental protection and nourishment at the same time,” McMaster said. “In fact, if you don’t have both, you won’t have the other.”

The new headquarters, located at 260 D Epting Ln. in West Columbia near the state farmers market and the state department of education, includes five conference rooms, one board room, one training room, two interview rooms, 147 private offices and 105 workstations. Additionally, according to SCDNR, the landscaping around the building is “designed with sustainability in mind. … The grounds feature exclusively native plant species.”

“This is a big step up from the former facility at the bottom of the Attorney General’s building over at the Capitol,” Hartley said. “The most conservation-oriented governor in America [is] Henry McMaster.”

In the governor’s State of the State address on Jan. 29, 2025, he said South Carolina preserved around 96,000 acres of land using more than $143 million in state, federal and private money, adding that he plans for more preservation work using $15.5 million from the executive budget.

“South Carolina’s future prosperity requires us to enhance our efforts to respect and protect our land, our history, our culture and our environment,” McMaster said in the State of the State address earlier this year. “I do not think that it’s a coincidence that previous years of economic growth have followed our efforts to conserve, preserve, and display our unique gifts of nature’s abundance.”