erm1981

Okay so I figured I could chime in here to give you guys a Ladson guys perspective. Most of the growth in Charleston is now occurring around Summerville and Berkley county. However there are many large apartment complexes being built around North Charleston. Quite a few are off I-26, and they are building a very large one over near Dorchester Rd. And Cross County Rd. I really think the hottest spot in the Charleston metro over the next 10 years will be the Nexton area, especially with Volvo moving in just up the road from there. Exit 194 area at Jedburg Rd. is booming and they are fixing to widen I-26 through that stretch of road. Real estate is just much cheaper in this area than around Mount Pleasant or downtown Charleston so there has been some migration within the metro as well. I officially live in Ladson, SC which is an unincorporated area between North Charleston / Summerville but has also seen a crazy amount of growth. Being from Greenville originally I always likened the land in Ladson(palmetto commerce highway) to being similar to the land in Verdae development. Sitting for all those years and is now getting developed. In summary it's very possible that North Charleston might pass Charleston in population which would indeed be strange to look at on paper. I think Mount P. Is more contained and according to their building department will cap out at around 115,000 people. We will see and it does seem that most of Mount P.'s growth now is to the north towards Myrtle Beach and also up Highway 41 where a widening project is in the works. There have also been some fairly large infill projects on Johnny Dodds Blvd. And Coleman Blvd in recent years. The area is changing rapidly from when I moved here from Greenville 10 years ago. Almost too much growth really. Just a local perspective. Sorry if I rambled on too much. ^^^This too.

Snapped a few pictures of the project. Almost topped out. .

I was downtown the other day and noticed quite a few floors have been added. Couldn't get a good picture because I was driving.

Going to get a few pics when I go down there tomorrow. Site is fenced in and construction has started. We have a project going on East Bay so I drive right by there. https://groundbreakcarolinas.com/construction-begins-on-charleston-tech-center-in-south-carolina-opportunity-zone/

Nice picture. Shows off just how large the footprint of this project is.

https://www.postandcourier.com/news/mount-pleasant-north-charleston-and-hanahan-lead-charleston-area-growth/article_187a6b16-7be4-11e9-a6cd-ab299f4cca83.html

It looks better in person....does that help? :-)

This is pretty accurate from my view of what's going on around Charleston metro. Heavy growth in the northern areas of the metro away from the Ocean. Berkeley county where the large neighborhoods of Cain Bay and Nexton are and it's also a short drive to the Volvo/Mercedes Plants. A lot of businesses here have moved from Mount P or West Ashley to the North Charleston area for beneficial reasons and purposes. What will be funny is when North Charleston passes Columbia as the states second largest city lol. Another thing that is interesting is Hanahans growth. I lived there when I first moved to Charleston area. It mostly lies in Berkely county but is very close to North Charleston city limits. The rail road tracks seperate the counties near Rivers Avenue in North Chas. So I can see why that area has grown so rapidly also. It's near everything and close to North Chas. City limits. Interesting.

Yes...this!

Im sure I come to the upstate way more than you come here. I drive though Greenville every couple of weeks. Recently went up I-385 and saw the nice new big interchange with I-85( I keep up with Gville heavily) My family is still up there. It's really l not that bad IMHO after dealing with traffic here. Are you saying you want Greenville to have Charleston like traffic? Please dont wish that on anyone! I can pretty much go wherever I want to in Greenville freely whenever I'm there during the week or weekdays. I do agree the road network is better in Greenville and Columbia. We have all these obstacles here when it comes to building(I'm in the construction industry myself.) I worked on a 80 million dollar expansion and widening of Johnny dodds Blvd in Mount P. when first moving here in 2011-2012. Its 6 lanes way up past McCllenville now but it backs up horribly. The new Nexton interchange just opened up at exit 197. Bacons bridge rd through Summerville and Bees Ferry were all widened along with Dorchester road. These were very massive road projects. I know the area well. So yes they are building plenty but just a lot more growth here. They have actually built or widened more roads here in the past couple years then Greenville or Cola has. Mount P. Had to cut back on building permits because they are now land locked. Almost facing build out. Just look at how long the new North Charleston port exit is taking to build because it's all elevated highway. You either have water to contend with or not enough land left anywhere. It's really a different animal. Gville and Charleston are both great but comparing them is like comparing apples and oranges and for good reasons. If you were to compress Anderson, Greenville, and Spartanburg into the area a little bigger than the tri-county area here you would probably feel something similar with the traffic. It's hard to compare them. Just really different scenarios but there has been more growth here when looking at it as a percentage of current the population. Charleston County is about to pass Richland as 2nd largest county in state. Already passed them for largest city. So you can see the more rapid gains happening as time goes by.

Looks very Citadel like :-)

Not sure I totally agree with you but we can agree to disagree :-) If you come from Piedmont or Anderson you will probably take I-85. Same for Mauldin or Simpsonville if you commute into Greenville down I-385. You really think those people will come down highway 29 from Anderson or Highway 20 from Piedmont when they can hop onto I-85 or I-385? Especially if they are working on the other side of Greenville or near Spartanburg. Hwy. 123 is fairly major route from Easley into Greenville but people also hop on Hwy. 153 to get to I-85 more than not also. 123 takes you right into downtown and not everyone works downtown. There are plenty of alternate routes here around Charleston to take but its just a little more congested here due to the higher population growth taking place. Hwy. 52 coming from Moncks Corner towards North Charleston. Hwy.78 from Summerville to North Charleston. The new Nexton Parkway will take you around the north part of Summerville(recently opened) . In case your forgetting Highway 17 is massively traveled here from Mount Pleasant to West Ashley. I have a route I go from East Bay up Spruill Avenue to Rivers to get over to Ashley Phosphate quite a bit instead of getting on the interstate. Also Dorchester Rd. runs from upper Summerville almost down to West Ashley. Another good route to take it down Hwy. 165 to Hwy. 61 into West Ashley from Summerville, SC. Red bank Rd. Is a good alternate route from Goose creek to downtown. The most isolated place we have here is probably Mount Pleasant. I think another bridge wouldn't be a bad idea there. I'd go so far to say that our interstate system is lagging behind Columbia or Greenvilles. Most of I-526 is only 4 lanes and there is no interstate access to John's Island which is rapidly growing. Like I've already said many times i was born and raised in Anderson, SC and worked on many projects in Greenville and Spartanburg during my teens and 20's. I know the upstate like the back of my hand. The low country is a total different animal than the rest of the state. Being that one side of Charleston is water you lack the other half that Columbia or Greenville has. All that growth is pushed back inland and that is one reason Berkley County is one of the fastest growing in the state now. So you have this aspect and the aspect of having a lot of water everywhere and having to build elevated for a lot of infastructure. Most buildings here anywhere near the ocean are built on pilings or they tend to sink. I'm just trying to educate some of you Upstate guys a little more about the Low country and what's going on here. Apparently most of the other Charlestonians already left the forum and went elsewhere, but guess what? I'm really a Gvegas guy at heart :-). Just a short 10 years ago I was just like you guys.

Yeah true. I think so also. On some of the projects we have in North Charleston-(Park Circle) the land also has to go through many DHEC asbestos abatement procedures in order to start construction. This is very costly means and methods. I believe Magnolia has the same obstacles all though I have not researched it in depth.

Yes this is true in regards to geography. Bridges cost a lot more money to build and there are only two that go to Mount P. If one goes down then everything gets screwed up. I do look at 385 and Columbia interstates being superior to 526 even though it also has lots of elevated areas which would also cost a fortune to widen. With the growth happening here they will have to figure something out. We are almost at grid lock now. I drove into Greenville, SC last August 2018 to meet with a lawyer to close on some land I bought in Anderson. Met off Wade Hampton Blvd. around 5:00 PM. I wanted to see how bad traffic would be during the week as I usually come up on the weekend. I came down 385 and got off Pleasantburg and went over to Wade Hampton that way then when we left went down Church Street and down I-85 to where my parents live in Anderson County. Really didn't encounter anything I would call bad traffic. At least not Charleston bad anyways...….I had to drive into Columbia early in the morning a couple of weeks ago for a training class. I drove freely up I-26 and directly to where I wanted to go off Bush River Rd. without any encumbrances. So yeah...…..traffic here really does suck. I used to drive to Mount Pleasant from Ladson a couple of years ago for work in the morning during rush hour. Its only 28 miles but takes over an hour to get there. Its backed up for that whole stretch every morning whether there are wrecks or not. I'm not trying to say one city is better than the other or anything like that. I've lived in both and actually all my family are still around the Greenville area. If anything I have a heavy Greenville bias but the traffic here is on another level.

Doesn't surprise me at all. This place is on fire!

Honestly wouldn't be surprised if they build something taller in the neck area. 12 stories is tall enough though for Charleston.

Update! Rising...

Noticed two overhead cranes up yesterday in that area. Did not drive over there to get a look but will next time.

Was down there the other day checking on a project at MUSC. Turned out nicely. What is the other steel structure rising behind it?

Getting ready for all that massive future growth.

They just built a 8 story hotel in Summerville.

I live here (Charleston Metro) and I can tell you that I've never seen the level of grow anywhere in South Carolina that the Charleston area has been experiencing since around 2014. I'm not being biased here either. I grew up in Anderson and moved here in 2010. I think we will keep seeing the Charleston metro area accelerate in growth which is crazy because the road infastructure in my mind lags behind Columbia and Greenville. Certain parts of 526 need to be 6 lanes all the way. I always love driving around Greenville when I visit and find the lack of traffic amazing......lol. (I remember all the talk about how bad woodruff road was when I lived up there). Its like that on every road here. Charleston needs a better plan to handle the traffic. There have been no major road widening projects in a couple of years and not much talk of mass transit. It's to the point that people that actually live here dont want anymore people moving in. Mount Pleasant cut back on the amount of building permits they were issuing because they have almost reached buildout. The reason Berkely county is growing so much more than Charleston or Dorchester Counties is fueled by Volvo/Mercedes expansion and tons of other large manufacturing facilities opening up in the area. There is an entire new St. Francis hospital being built near Cane Bay off 17a in Berk County. Nexton is also another massive development. Those two alone are probably equall to two Verdae size developments in a relatively small area. So I've lived in both places. Greenville for 28 years and Charleston for 10 now. I think I can be a good judge of both places and how each has progressed. Heck I love downtown Greenville and miss the Upstate. I drive through there every couple months to see the progress downtown. Might get back up that way someday when I finally get tired of the traffic here!

Low Country growing like crazy as usual.

Thats all you G-man....

12 story's. This thing has to be at the height limit for Charleston.