ZUMAN

I agree but I was hoping it would be developed into a small shopping center that would include an eatery or two. It's great to see all the new residential developments in this area of Manchester but there also needs a new mix of new commerical. I work in that area and it would be nice to be able to have the choice to walk to lunch,etc; and it would add to the neighborhood vibe.

I'm curious about this also. But I think it's actually Semmes and 12th. I heard it was an apartment complex but not sure this is accurate.

Mayor Joe Riley held 3 meetings last week to discuss the potential merger of MUSC and the College of Chas: http://www.postandcourier.com/article/20130416/PC16/130419406/1165/musc-college-of-charleston-officials-discuss-potential-merger Seems like a remember some discussions a few years ago concerning the merger of the College of Chas and The Citadel. Will be interesting to see how this turns out.

The BAR nixed the submitted architectural plans at last week's meeting. Maybe they didn't like the fact that proposed building looks too much like the new Holiday Inn that recently opened right next door.

Rivers Federal Bldg renovation is on-hold per my contact at P & C business department. No details provided as to why.

Plans are in the works to demolish the mid-rise (a "highrise" by Charleston standards) Sergeant Jasper apartment building and redevelop the property with a mix of 6-floor apartment buildings and businesses. The 1950-era building could be demolished spring/summer of 2015. http://www.postandcourier.com/article/20130411/PC16/130419843/1165/sergeant-jasper-apartments-demolition-could-be-within-next-two-years I thought the Beach Company had planned to renovate the Sergeant Jasper, not demolish it.

I'm not sure what is going on with the renovation of the old Rivers Federal Bldg on Meeting St. I don't see any progress being made but then I haven't seen any updates in the Chas media that the project has stopped or has been suspended. I'm starting to wonder if the developer ran into some unforeseen problems with the building and/or wants to unload the building to another developer. I checked Dewberry Captial's website today and they state the project would be open for business in the fall of 2013. I don't see this happening, not with idle construction site.

Another new hotel being planned for 415 Meeting St where Burris Liquors is currently located. http://www.postandcourier.com/article/20130402/PC05/130409862/1177/another-new-hotel-planned-for-downtown-charleston BAR will be reviewing the plans for the 165-room, five-story hotel at its April 10 meeting. Burris Liquor plans to locate to a new two-story building at the corner of Meeting and Reid streets.

The Charleston Parks Conservancy will be begin fundraising soon for a $5.2M renovation of Colonial Lake in downtown Charleston. The Conservancy is hoping to raise $1.2M of the total cost, which will include on-going maintenance, while the city will contribute $4M. Construction to begin spring 2014. http://www.charlestonparksconservancy.org/programs/view_program_article/fundraising_for_colonial_lake_beginning_soon

Update in today's P&C concerning the return to Charleston of the Best Friend train and renovation of the East Shed where the train will be displayed: http://www.postandcourier.com/article/20130327/PC16/130329360/1165/-x2018-best-friend-x2019-locomotive-to-return-to-charleston-in-september

Boeing announcement today that N Charleston has been selected as 1 of 3 "IT hubs" to be established. While not giving alot of specifics at this time, this good potentially be great news for IT job generation in the Chas region. The N Chas hub will be based in 32,000 sq ft in Faber Place, which is close to the existing Boeing complex along I-526. http://www.postandcourier.com/article/20130326/PC05/130329432/1177/boeing-making-n-charleston-an-it-center

The city just released a RFP to purchase a new fire truck for fire company 3. The significance is the historic fire station will remain a working fire station, though perhaps scaled down from 2 fire companies to one. Maybe the area of the station that houses company 2 will become a fire museum as I mentioned in my previous post above. Either the city had a change of heart about re-purposing this station or the Post & Courier did not report the story correctly last summer. Fire trucks for this station have to be "downsized" to fit into the bays due to the low arched doorways. And yes this station is south of Calhoun St. The new main fire station is under construction on far Upper King St. and is slated to open within the next couple months.

A 4-story, 41 room hotel, to be called The Spectator, is proposed for 71 State St, currently a surface parking lot: http://www.postandcourier.com/article/20130308/PC05/130309403/1010/another-new-hotel-planned-for-downtown-charleston The project goes before the BAR at the March 13 meeting.

JetBlue begins service today at CHS with 2 daily flights to NYC's JFK and 1 daily flight to Boston's Logan. A 4th Saturday only flight to Logan will begin on April 6. http://www.postandcourier.com/article/20130228/PC05/130229220/1177/first-jetblue-flight-to-charleston-greeted-with-a-rainbow

Horizon Project update today from Post & Courier: The list of finalists to develop the Horizon Project has been narrowed down to 2 firms: Gateway Development of Atlanta Hughes Development of Greenville No timetable given on when the finalist firm will be chosen.

^^ Very cool. Thanks for posting Charles.

Article in today's P&C concerning Roper's proposed hotel development at 325 Calhoun St. http://www.postandcourier.com/article/20130213/PC05/130219699/1165/roper-eyes-charleston-x2019-s-hospital-district-for-hotel The hotel is being proposed as a 6-story structure with a parking deck behind the hotel. The good news in that the development also includes the old ugly 60ish medical office building that I was complaining about in my previous post. I was wrong though - it's a 4-story building - not 3-story.

Development of yet another hotel downtown could be afoot at 325 Calhoun St. There's an agenda item on the Planning Commission's Feb 20 meeting to rezone this property and include it in the accommodations overlay zone. This property is essentially at the foot of the James Island Connector on the southside of Calhoun. Roper Hospital owns the property and I believe this is the old Franke House building which I assume would be demolished. The zoning request, if approved, would allow a hotel with up to 150 rooms. Now if only something would happen with that ugly arse 3-story 60ish-built medical office building immediately across the street from Roper Hospital.

A new 50 room hotel is planned for 249 Meeting St (intersecting at Wentworth) at the location of the old Farrahs Beauty School building. The P&C article linked below says it will be a 3 story building but the Feb 13 BAR agenda states it will be 4 story building. Good to see something is being planned for this long deglected site. http://www.postandcourier.com/article/20130208/PC05/130209385/1011/new-hotel-ok-x2019-d-for-meeting-and-wentworth-streets

^^^ Thanks!

Does anyone know what's planned for the SE corner of Hungary Spring and Staples Mills in Henrico? Crews have been clearing the corner tract and it's a pretty big parcel of land.

I think I've found the answer to the contiguity question as it relates to waterways and marshlands: "[C]ontiguous" means property which is adjacent to a municipality and shares a continuous border. Contiguity is not established by a road, waterway, right-of-way, easement, railroad track, marshland, or utility line which connects one property to another; however, if the connecting road, waterway, easement, railroad track, marshland, or utility line intervenes between two properties, which but for the intervening connector would be adjacent and share a continuous border, the intervening connector does not destroy contiguity. Pulled from this source on Page 7 : http://law.sc.edu/environmental/papers/200841/eas/shealy.pdf So now I doubt the city could annex this tract but it would may depend exactly where the tract is on the Kiawah River.

^^ This could be true. The tract is located on the Kiawah River so I would think that would make it contiguious under SC annexation law but I could be wrong. I have always wondered what the limit is on how far a city can use waterways and marsh lands to make it contiguious to another tract to annex it. There's has to be some limit I would think. I hope Joe Riley is not annexing it because the tract is outside the urban growth boundary. Maybe Riley feels it's too far out to service though, or doesn't want to ruffle any feathers with Johns Island residents. I know a couple years ago the city would not annex a proposed housing development on Johns Island because it was outside the urban growth boundary line.

Ground breaking was today on the first phase of $162MM CHS airport upgrade/expansion. (Somehow it went from a $150MM project to a $162 project.) Work will begin on construction of a new rental car pavilion followed by expansion of the airport apron making way for addition of 6 new gates. http://www.postandcourier.com/article/20121018/PC05/121019244/1177/charleston-airport-breaks-ground-on-162-million-makeover

There's a proposed 2,000 acre high-end development on Johns Island that borders Kiawah Island called Kiawah Island Plantation. The Beach Company, the developer, has been running into opposition to the development and proposed TIF to cover public improvements to the tract. Now the Beach Company is considering creating a public service district to for the development. This is totally ridiculous. One of the rare times I agree with the Coastal Conservation League. Here's an artice in todays' P & C: http://www.postandco...-co-development I've been curious as to why Joe Riley hasn't tried to annex this tract. I believe it would be legal albeit it's outside of the Urban Growth Boundary line. Which is another thing I don't understand since the line was established to control urban growth on Johns Island (and parts of West Ashley). Why is okay for the county to support growth on Johns Island but not the City(?).