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Residential development planned for Lockwood and Bee
By Sarah G. McC. Moise
Staff Writer
After three years of wending its way through the bureaucratic process, the 108-unit, mid-rise Bella Vista project is underway.
Houston-based Bomasada Group Inc. broke ground on its residential condominium project in downtown Charleston in mid-January. The project is slated for completion summer 2006.
The lengthy process spurred criticism of the Board of Architectural Review’s process from The Bomasada Group. The company says the approval process was made longer and more arduous by the BAR’s lack of criteria and subjective review procedure.
“We’ve been planning for over three years,” says John Gilbert, a principal of The Bomasada Group. “It has taken a long time to get all of the approvals from the Board of Architectural Review.”
Eddie Bello, urban design and preservation architect for the city of Charleston, and a member of the BAR, attributes the lengthy process to the developer’s switch from one architectural team to another halfway through the project, but says that overall, Bella Vista is a good opportunity for the city.
“It’s essentially a high-rise on the peninsula, and we want to know that the plan is right for the city. The condominium will block Comfort Inn, which is a good thing. It will be an improvement over the view as you come in now from West Ashley,” Bello says.
Bello adds the BAR’s big issues were how Bella Vista addressed Bee Street and the western elevation as people come into the city from the Ashley River bridge. “They originally treated the western elevation as a side or back elevation, and we asked them to spend more time making that a front façade. The final plan has more brick on that side, and we asked them to do more with the windows and balconies.”
While approval did take longer than expected, being adjacent to the Medical University of South Carolina makes the location irreplaceable, says Gilbert.
“You have the tremendous employment base of MUSC, Roper Hospital and the business district of Charleston,” he says.
Lee Batchelder, assistant director of zoning administration for the city of Charleston, says that the condo project will be in close proximity to some existing employment centers such as the Veterans Administration Hospital and a new MUSC hospital that will be built one block farther to the east.
“The new MUSC Hospital that will be built along the Courtenay Street and Doughty Street intersection and the new parking garage that will be built to accommodate that new hospital represents the shift in the direction of growth for the Medical University toward the west. The Bee Street condominiums will end up being closer to that growth in the medical university campus,” Batchelder says.
Batchelder added that Bella Vista should be positively affected by the new hospital’s related improvements to traffic and circulation.
“As part of the planning for the new hospital, there are also plans to make improvements to certain streets and intersections to improve the accessibility of vehicular traffic into the hospital area and the parking facilities that will go with that new hospital,” he says.
Bella Vista features one-, two- and three-bedroom floor plans with 18 penthouse units. “Condos on Mount Pleasant are more low-rise, garden-style condos, which are only about three stories. Ours will be eight stories with six floors of living space over two floors of parking,” Gilbert says.
Although the developers are still debating whether to include some rental units, they recognize the success of the condo market in Charleston and think their product compares favorably for rental or as condos.
“There aren’t any high-end, multifamily condos or rentals in this price range. It will be moderately priced compared to other condos downtown. We plan to market to people in the medical community, maybe even to some students,” says Gilbert.
Robin Hardin, director of student programs at MUSC, says there is no shortage of student rentals in Charleston, and price is always an issue for students looking to buy.
“Parking is such an issue on campus that housing within walking distance of campus would be very desirable if people on their salaries and financial aid could afford the payments,” Hardin says.
Sarah Moïse covers residential real estate for the Business Journal. E-mail her at smoise@crbj.com.
SIDEBAR:
The Facts
Bella Vista is owned by 150 Bee Street LLC, a South Carolina limited liability company whose members include Charleston businessmen Neal Baker, Edwin Pearlstine and Ernie Masters, Colorado oilman Tom Morgan, and the principals of Bomasada Group, Stuart Fred and John Gilbert.
The development is located at the northeast corner of Bee Street and Lockwood Drive and fronts U.S. Highway 17 South. It is adjacent to MUSC and across Lockwood Drive from the Ashley River. The units will cost between $300,000 and $700,000.
Bomasada Construction of Houston and Hightower Construction of Charleston are the general contractors of the project. The Steinberg Design Collaborative of Houston designed the building with local assistance from Glick/Boehm & Associates. Bella Vista will be Bomasada Group’s third development in the Lowcountry. They previously developed The Enclave Apartments on James Island in 1998 and Citadel Plaza Shopping Center in 1985.
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