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Downtown Mount Pleasant? Could be . . .
Developer proposes 'Central Mount Pleasant'
By Dan McCue
Staff Writer
What makes for a true downtown? That’s the question begged by a proposed development project by McAlister Development dubbed “Central Mount Pleasant.”
There was a time when downtown meant a single commercial strip where all the essential stores and services were located within an easy walk or a modest commute for all the residents calling that community home.
Today, however, given the dynamics of developments and the wide-ranging needs residents put on their commercial areas, one size and location simply can’t serve the needs of all, said Tim Keane, whose urban planning firm, Keane and Co., is leading the design effort.
“We’ve called the plan ‘Central Mount Pleasant’ because we think the land in question warrants a special kind of treatment,” Keane said. “But I think the important thing at the end of the day is that Mount Pleasant have multiple great streets.
“It’s not a town of 5,000 anymore. It’s a town of 65,000 and, eventually, likely 100,000 residents. In light of that reality, we’re not intending our project to be the one and only main street of Mount Pleasant, but we definitely want it to be one of three and perhaps even four other main streets.”
Anthony McAlister, himself a Mount Pleasant resident, is proposing to develop 113 acres his company owns between Rifle Range Road and Hungryneck Boulevard—one of the largest contiguous pieces of real estate inside the Isle of Palms Connector.
His plans for the site are ambitious. He wants to put a major hotel on the site, located adjacent to a canal/waterfront system he would also create on the land-locked parcel. Office and commercial space, with apartments above them, will line a major thoroughfare through the community, and an as-yet undetermined number of new homes would complete the tableaux.
“We see this site as an incredible opportunity to hit an economic-development home run for the town,” Keene said, as he extolled the virtues of a hotel that companies will want to hold conferences in and where families will book their children’s weddings.
“We also see it as the right kind of working environment for knowledge-based companies; plus we see it as an opportunity to create the kind of sophisticated environment that will bring retailers to Mount Pleasant that wouldn’t ordinarily come here.”
In fact, as is evidenced by a slide show on the project’s Web site, www.centralmountpleasant.com/home/, inspiration for the project is being drawn from such far-flung locales as Copenhagen, Charles Street in Boston and Main Street in South Hampton, N.Y.
“Ultimately, we’re hoping to develop a site that creates a sense of place for Mount Pleasant residents,” Keene said.
But selling it to a town concerned about growth, traffic and the continued viability of its already developed areas is another matter.
“I’ve seen lots of pretty pictures in my time,” said Mac Burdette, town administrator for the town of Mount Pleasant. “Pretty pictures that never got to be any more than that.”
Burdette, who grew up in a small town in South Carolina, said he remembers well what it was like to live in a place that had a town center with which everyone could identify.
“But here in Mount Pleasant, we don’t have an area the average citizen would define as a downtown, and I don’t know if we ever will,” Burdette said.
Like Keane, Burdette sees the possibility of three or four “main streets” existing after the town is effectively built-out 20 to 25 years from now.
“One will be Coleman Boulevard, for which we’re currently working on a major redevelopment plan,” he said. “Another will be Johnnie Dodds Boulevard. Towne Centre, the shopping area, is certainly another because it serves as a centralizing magnet for people. As for the fourth, it’s yet to be determined, but if I were to guess, I’d say it would be somewhere farther out, nearer future development.
“After all,” he added, “In the next 15 to 20 years, we anticipate 35,000 to 40,000 people living north of Long Point Road.”
But Burdette didn’t entirely count out McAlister’s Central Mount Pleasant.
“If the Hassell, Batey and Sloan tracts, which comprise their site, are developed to some extent, the East Cooper hospital expands and the old Kmart site is redeveloped, then that very well could become a focal point of the community,” he said.
In Burdette’s view, each “centralizing” thoroughfare will create its own niche, with traffic patterns being the ultimate determinant of success.
“Coleman Boulevard was our main street once, and it’s going to have a strong future as it’s redeveloped between the future Waterfront Park and Shem Creek,” he said. “Johnnie Dodd’s focus will be on heavier commercial, office space and the like.”
So where will Central Mount Pleasant really be?
“It’s really an impossible question to answer because so much depends on people’s perceptions,” Burdette said. “Look at Charleston. Is the center of Charleston really south of Broad Street? How can it be, with so much activity taking place now on Daniel Island. While the intersection of King and Calhoun Streets will always be special in the minds of many Charlestonians, how can that really be considered the center of town anymore?”
Burdette does like two elements of what McAlister’s development has done—its emphasis on mixed use and on engaging in a campaign to enlist the public’s input on the proposed project.
“Whether their plan is ultimately approved or not remains to be seen, but they are looking very strongly at creating a mixed-use development and that’s very much in line with our thinking,” he said. “We’re truly getting away from segregating land uses and trying to mix appropriate land uses in proximity to each other.”
As an example, Burdette again pointed to Coleman Boulevard.
“It’s a linear development, and we’ve just adopted a new land use plan for the area,” he said. “We want people to live on Coleman. We want their offices to be located on Coleman. And we’ll even have some industrial uses in terms of the maritime activity on Shem Creek.
“Mixed use makes sense. It’s how we can best shape the way our town functions and how people who live and work here interact with each other,” Burdette said.
In fact, he said, if he had Towne Centre, which was built eight years ago, to do over again, he’d encourage the developers of that site to include some office space in the mix.
“That’s the missing piece of that puzzle,” he said.
As for Central Mount Pleasant, the project will go before the town planning board in June and, if approved, will likely be considered by the town council in the early fall.
If the council approves the project, it will also have to annex a portion of the Hassell Tract on the north side of Rifle Range Road that is not currently within the town.
“If all goes according to plan, we should break ground on the project in the first quarter of 2007,” Keane said. “From there, our thinking is that the entire project will take seven to 10 years to compete.”
Dan McCue is a staff writer for the Business Journal. E-mail him at dmccue@charlestonbusiness.com.
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