Nucor Corp. pledges $2.5 million to IAAM

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Nucor Corp., a steel company with a facility in Berkeley County, has pledged $2.5 million to the International African American Museum, slated to break ground later this year.

Half of Nucor’s donation will be cash and the other $1.25 million will be a donation of steel for museum construction, said Michael Boulware Moore, the museum president and CEO.

“There are a few times in the life of an organization where you can look back in hindsight and look to specific moments that really help to propel an organization forward toward completing their goals or achieving great things,” Moore said at a news conference Friday. “I think today, there’s no question, will be one of those days.”

John Ferriola, Nucor’s chairman, CEO and president, said as the leader of a company that likes to build things, he’s proud to be a part of building the International African American Museum.

“We have a responsibility to invest in the community in which we do business and where our teammates live and work and call home,” Ferriola said.

Nucor has about 2,000 employees in South Carolina.

Moore said the museum is getting close to its goal of an additional $10 million to offset rising construction costs, but he was unable to say exactly how close the museum is to the goal.

“It’s tough to tell because our construction manager — a joint venture between Turner Construction and Brownstone Construction — they’re still out pricing things. … So we don’t have a total price yet, which means we don’t know exactly how much we’ll need to raise,” he said.

He added that the museum has raised a lot of money this calendar year and expects to make more announcements about donations.

Site work for the museum is expected to begin on the former site of Gadsden’s Wharf late this summer, with an official groundbreaking ceremony expected to take place in the fall.

“We have to sort of wait out the hurricane season, so maybe the end of October, we’ll have a public event,” Moore said.