The State Ports Authority is casting a wider net as it seeks prospective buyers for the site of its scuttled Global Gateway terminal on Daniel Island.

Earlier this year, 18 real estate development groups previously submitted information about their backgrounds and finances to qualify as bidders for the 1,300-acre waterfront tract.

Now, the SPA has notified them that it is changing the way it plans to sell the property.

"It is being modified, particularly with regard to the structure of the offer," Peter O. Lehman, the port authority's director of planning and business development, wrote in an Oct. 23 letter to potential bidders.

Lehman said the SPA is opening the land deal up to other would-be buyers.

Details about the changes are expected to be released in mid-November, he said.

Developers have said the SPA is revising the ground rules in an effort to attract multiple buyers and higher bids for its Daniel Island site, as opposed to selling the entire tract to a single group.

Lehman only said that the ports authority now plans to seek formal offers from the original 18 interested groups, as well as other qualified po- tential buyers. All prospective bidders were told from the outset that the sale process "was, and remains, subject to change," he said.

SPA spokesman Byron Miller said he would not comment specifically about how the terms will be restructured until they are released to the public later this month.

"There is a lot of different interest in the future of that property, such as neighbors and adjoining developments," Miller said. "There is lot of interest and there's been a lot of input in the process."

The site makes up the entire southern tip of Daniel Island, which is in the city of Charleston and Berkeley County, between the Wando and Cooper rivers. Not all of it is suitable for development.

The SPA acquired the land in the 1990s and intended to develop it as a massive container terminal dubbed Global Gateway. Amid a groundswell of opposition, that site was abandoned in 2002 in favor of the former Navy base in North Charleston, where an estimated $700 million port expansion is planned.

The proceeds from the Daniel Island sale are expected to be used for the development of the new terminal.

The SPA put out feelers last spring to line up developers with the experience and financial ability to handle large, complex waterfront projects. It requested a de- tailed profile and financial statements from each of the 18 unidentified teams that eventually submitted information by the deadline.

Gov. Mark Sanford has urged the SPA to "do something extraordinary" with the land before selling it, such as setting aside the entire tip of the tract for a massive public waterfront park. He has said the site has the potential of becoming "the Central Park" of the Lowcountry.

Negotiations between governor's office and the SPA over the amount of open space and other details "are still being hashed out," Sanford spokesman Joel Sawyer said Monday. "That's an ongoing discussion."

The SPA unveiled a conceptual plan this year showing a dense commercial development on the Cooper River side of the property, including retail space, condominiums and a marina, with an undetermined number of single-family homes lining much of the rest of the waterfront and inland parcels.

About 40 percent of the site would be public parks, open space or nature preserves in scattered locations.

The SPA said earlier this year it has had "favorable discussions" with the city about zoning changes for the Global Gateway tract and the creation of a development agreement, but no formal action has been taken.

It also said it will need about half of the site for five years for dredge disposal.

Contact John McDermott at 937-5572 or jmcdermott@postandcourier.com.