The State Ports Authority began debate Tuesday on whether it should buy land to spur large retailers to set up distribution centers in South Carolina instead of neighboring states.

SPA board chairman Harry Butler said ports officials in Georgia have been more successful than South Carolina in luring the job-rich retail centers, in part because they've taken on the responsibility for marketing some super-sized commercial properties.

"I'm just wondering if, as a ports authority, should we be more proactive and be seeking out these properties," Butler said during the SPA board meeting in Charleston. "I don't know if we should be looking at acquisition, but I certainly think these are the kinds of things we should be considering."

Several state economic development agencies, trying to capitalize on the Port of Charleston's status as the fourth-largest container port in the country, have lost recent bids for distribution centers to Georgia and Virginia. When retailers such as Home Depot, Wal-Mart and Toys "R" Us look to build facilities, those other states have offered more lucrative tax incentive packages.

Bills now before the South Carolina General Assembly would help the state compete by giving tax breaks to companies that locate here and increase their cargo through the state's ports.

Fred Stribling, vice president of marketing and sales for the SPA, said one West Coast-based retailer was in South Carolina this week looking for potential properties, while a few others have passed through the state in the past month on similar searches.

All of them want to build warehouses at least 800,000 square feet in size, and they all need port access to move products, Stribling said.

"One of the difficulties has been that there aren't these mega-sites available (near the Port of Charleston)," he said.Most retailers want to locate either very close to a seaport or slightly farther away where facilities can be surrounded on all sides by interstate highways.

Although no plans were made to make any acquisitions, the SPA will start working to identify 100- to 150-acre properties in the Upstate, specifically in the Orangeburg area near the junction of Interstate 95 and Interstate 26.

SPA officials said there's no guarantee state lawmakers will sign off on the tax incentive program, so they'll have to find other ways to get retailers interested in South Carolina.

In examining the rest of its legislative agenda this session, SPA members brushed off concerns that the state House declined to take up a bill that would fund engineering studies for roads leading to a new North Charleston terminal.

SPA chief Bernie Groseclose said legislators have assured him the Senate will address the $5 million request, viewed by port backers as a crucial step in gaining public support for the $600 million terminal project.

The proposed site at the former Charleston Navy Base has no direct access to Interstate 26, raising concerns in the community that thousands of trucks would be forced onto residential streets each day to get to the port. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has made completion of the road studies a requirement before it approves the new terminal plans.

The SPA has said it's up to other government agencies to pay for and build those roads.

In other business Tuesday, port board members firmed up plans to push their own proposal for a new Jasper County terminal.

Jasper County officials on Tuesday urged the SPA to rethink its plans. The county agreed to accept a compromise laid out last week by some state lawmakers that would allow it to develop a new port funded by a private company. The deal would, however, eventually give terminal oversight to the SPA.

The two agencies are in the middle of a bitter court battle over which of them should develop a new terminal on the Jasper County side of the Savannah River.

Butler said he wanted to stress to people around the state that the SPA is committed to opening its own terminal in Jasper.

"One of the charges made by (Jasper County) is that we really aren't interested in developing the terminal, but instead in mothballing it," he said. "We have to make it clear that isn't the case."