ZUMAN

CreateSpace, a company owned by Amazon, will be leasing the former North Charleston City Hall. Initially 200 employees will be moving into the building with the possibility of increasing to 350 employees. The city of North Charleston will be spending $2.5M to upfit the building to meet CreateSpace's needs. http://www.charlestonbusiness.com/news/43592-amazon-company-leases-old-north-charleston-city-hall?rss=0

Dallas-based Austin Commercial and partner Hitt Contracting have been awarded the contract for the $150 million renovation/expansion at CHS. Work will begin later this year. http://www.postandcourier.com/news/business/

Personally, I've become burntout over this James Island vs. City fight. I grew up on James Island so I've been watching this fight go on since the early 70's. Maybe it's just time to let pro-town folks go do their own thing. Somewhere down the road the town folk will probably regret their decision. Not sure it will ever come to the point of dissolving the town or wanting to merge with the City though. I do hope the City can annex as many properties as possible up until the April 24 election.

The Design Review Board will be reviewing this evening plans for a new 4-story mixed-use building at 268 Huger St. (a/k/a 599 Meeting St). The ground level will be parking with small office spaces facing Huger St. and the upper 3 levels will be residential units. This is the first phase of the project that will eventually incorporate a former church building among other buildings. This property is located across the street from the proposed skate park. It looks like a nice development but from what I'm seeing in the drawings the residential units appear to be very small - almost college-dormish in size. Site diagram and renderings (PDF): http://www.charlestoncity.info/shared/docs/0/march_8_2012_drb_presentation.pdf

Plans for the construction of Clemson's architectural and historic preservation programs in Charleston are moving forward with the recent selection of architectural firms. The new facility will be a 3-story, approx. 31,000 sq ft building and will be located at 292 Meeting St. It will be named the Spauding Paolozzi Center. No specific construction time-table is mentioned in the article but the facility is expected to cost $10 million. http://www.charlestonbusiness.com/news/42812-clemson-university-names-architects-for-charleston-center?rss=0

Work with begin late March/early April on the addition of 428 surface parking spaces at CHS. If I'm not mistaken, this addition is to create space to expand the parking deck though this is not mentioned in this article. http://www.postandcourier.com/news/2012/feb/21/charleston-international-airport-add-428-parking-s/

At last week's meeting, the BAR nixed renovation plans for the Millennium Building at King & Calhoun. http://www.postandcourier.com/news/business/

Moore & Van Allen, a law firm currently located at East Bay & Calhoun Sts, has announced they will be relocating to the 1931 art deco Kress Building at 281 King St. They plan to extensively renovate the 2nd & 3rd floors and move in early 2013. The building currently has tenants Williams Sonoma and Biton located on the ground floor. http://www.charlestoncitypaper.com/charleston/moore-and-van-allen-moving-to-historic-kress-building/Content?oid=4006499

^^^ Avondale?

Dewberry Capital has updated its website with its hotel conversion project of the old Rivers Federal Bldg. The project is scheduled for completion in the fall of this year. The hotel will in fact have a rooftop pool (and spa). I recently read in the P&C that the BAR is still reviewing the exterior treatment of the building in regard to the brick finish. http://www.dewberrycapital.com/properties/charleston.html

The Best Friend of Charleston train returning to Charleston: The City recently released a RFP for the redevelopment of the City-owned East Shed building that is located next to The Children's Museum on the block bounded by King, Meeting, Ann and John Streets. This is a single-story historic building with approx 6,700 sq feet. The RFP in-part stipulates a 20 year lease of the building with the City contributing $1 million towards reconstruction costs. Reconstruction will also include an addition of a glass enclosed exhibit space at the John St. end of the East Shed to display the Best Friend train (currently on loan to Atlanta). The City wants a family-oriented restaurant developed on the Ann St end of the building. A new coutryard will be developed between the East Shed and The Children's Museum where the City is promoting the placement of Phillip Simons art display. Proposals must also include the construction a conference room that can be utilized by the City and CARTA for public transit related meetings. RFP responses are due back to the City by Feb 27 2012.

This is great news and glad to see this project moving forward. It will be interesting to see what hotel brand will be moving into this project.

The Charleston County Aviation Board has selected Fentress Architects of Denver as the lead architect/engineering firm for the $150 million expansion and terminal makeover project scheduled to be completed late 2012. http://www.postandcourier.com/news/2011/dec/15/airport-board-selects-denver-architect-150-million/

The P&C Business section had an article in today's edition discussing the redevelopment of the Millennium Building. The interior will offer up to 35,000 sq ft of commerical space and occupancy is possible by next fall. The developer, Weiner Real Estate Holdings, is quoted as saying there is strong interest from some national retailers. H&M and Walgreens are mentioned as prospective tenants. That proposed square grass "tower" entryway reminded me of a Walgreens. Maybe Walgreens on the 1st floor and H&M on the 2nd floor. Hopefully no Walgreens at all. http://www.postandcourier.com/news/business/

Architectural renderings to be reviewed are available for the upcoming BAR meeting on Dec 16 (starting on Pg 2): http://www.charlestoncity.info/shared/docs/0/12.14.11%20bar%20image%20overview.pdf Renderings are on Pg's 2-20. The building site is really not on King St. but I guess the plat has King St addresses. Nice in-fill development that will help with easing on-campus CofC student housing needs. The 8th floor must be for mechnical use only since interior space stops at the 7th floor. Also of note, the proposed redevelopment of the "Millenium Music" building at the corner of King & Calhoun will be reviewed (starting on page 138 of the document). I can not determine what the developer has in mind for the building, but I was hoping for something more than this for such a high profile intersection.

McAlister Development Co will propose a 8-story, apartment-style building for 350-400 College of Charleston students. The proposed building would be contructed at 347 & 359 King St., behind retail stores on a surface parking lot. http://www.postandcourier.com/news/business/

An update on The Alley project today in the Charleston City Paper. http://www.charlestoncitypaper.com/Eat/archives/2011/11/15/downtown-bowling-alley-aiming-for-spring-opening

25 Calhoun, a 4-story, 63,000 sq ft office building at Concord Park, is now complete and tenants are already occupying the building. 25 Calhoun is the "first phase" of the development of Concord. http://www.postandcourier.com/news/business/

http://www.charlestoncitypaper.com/charleston/mystery-software-company-coming-to-charleston/Content?oid=3632485 Beer Works is happy to be relocating to another address on King Street once PeopleMatter is ready to expand to 468 King St.

Charleston's Design Review Board (formerly known as the Commerial Corridor Design Review Board) will be reviewing at it's Sept 22 meeting a new 100 room Hampton Inn hotel proposed to be built on vacant property between the "round Hoiliday Inn" and the Waffle House on Savannah Hwy. The proposed hotel is 7 floors with parking and lobby on the first level.

The City annexed 19 more properties at the special city council meeting on Aug 30. A number of the 19 properties are not included in the proposed town limits. I believe this brings the total annexed properties to 60 since the town was dissolved.

^ You're correct - the population requirement is 7,000, not 5,000, as I stated in my earlier post. Thanks.

^ The minimum population to incorporate is 5000, not 7000, unless the law was recently changed which I could believe if arse-backwards. But I don't think the townies would move forward with the incorporation effort if the proposed town would have a projected population less than 10,000. I don't think the Governor sets the election date. I believe the SC Sec of State does, who also certifies the petition to incorporate.

^ Time is on the townies' side, not the City's. It probably won't take too much longer before the townie's have the required 1,500 signatures and raise $20,000 for the referendum. I would think that by now most of the residents that are eligible to join the City have done so by now.

It appears that construction work is underway at the old Rivers Federal Bldg on Meeting St., but I haven't seen any recent updates in the Chas media concerning the project. I just checked Dewberry Capital's (developer) website but the site is being re-done and there's nothing but a banner page. Separately, the proposed Hilton Garden hotel at 34 Lockwood Blvd. has cleared BAR approvals so construction could begin soon.