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Ashley River Center a simpler brokerage than Magnolia
By Dan McCue
Staff Writer
Ashley River Center, Robert L. Clement III’s other large mixed-use development on the neck, has been a far less complicated undertaking than Magnolia.
To begin with, the site’s 87 developable acres on the former site of Roper Hospital North have been 80% vacant for several years.
While that eliminated the need to negotiate the relocation of existing businesses, as is the case with the Magnolia development, the company did have to undertake a $4 million renovation on the old two-story, 108,000-square-foot hospital building it plans to maintain.
CC&T Real Estate Services, the Charleston Metro Chamber of Commerce and a few other businesses fill the first floor. The buildings immediately surrounding the hospital are to be torn down, Clement said.
Clement’s plans call for developing a biotech facility with a lab and office space for fledgling technology companies.
Condominiums will sit around public parks, and a new public pier will extend into the Ashley River, giving North Charleston residents a second access point to one of the two rivers that flank the city. The other access is at the new Riverfront Park at the old Navy base on the Cooper River.
Infrastructure development such as utilities and roads will begin by year’s end, and Clement plans to start selling lots by early 2007.
“The market is obviously going to be a significant factor in how this site is developed over time, as are the particular dictates of the sites, meaning environmental issues and the like, (including) proximity to marshlands,” said John Tecklenburg, a CC&T real estate services associate.
Because the existing building that will remain contains offices, the Ashley River Center’s first new construction, likely to commence in the next six to nine months, will be more of the same.
“You have to start somewhere, and from our perspective, more office space makes sense,” he said. “But an interesting thing starts to happen when you build offices and fill them with tenants. Those people start to make demands on you: ‘Where am I going to lunch? Where can I get my Port City Java? Is there anywhere that I can live that would be much closer to the office?’ And those questions help make your subsequent development decisions.”
Under a $75 million tax increment district approved by North Charleston, taxes from new buildings would help pay for streets, landscaping, drainage, utilities, parking, parks, a public square, public-access piers and docks, and a botanical garden on the Ashley River, much like how Magnolia’s development will help offset its own infrastructure costs.
Like Magnolia’s plan, the proposed work has been shaped with input from nearby neighborhood associations, state and federal agencies, and environmental and preservation groups.
“My credibility with those groups is very important to me,” Clement said. “We work hard to gain trust, to do what we say we’re going to do and to follow through.
“The support we’ve received from neighborhood groups, historic preservations and environmental groups doesn’t come easy,” he continued. “You have to keep your word, and just as importantly, you have to communicate and update people as you move forward.”
Dan McCue is a staff writer for the Business Journal. E-mail him at dmccue@charlestonbusiness.com.
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