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Montague Avenue undergoing face lift, development
By Dennis Quick
Senior Staff Writer
A lot of change is in store for Montague Avenue to make that thoroughfare the main corridor of what could become “downtown” North Charleston.
An avenue-long facelift, new retail developments and new office buildings, along with the North Charleston Coliseum and Performing Arts Center complex, will transform the city into a destination, according to John Cawley, North Charleston’s economic development director.
“Things are looking good for North Charleston,” he said.
One of Montague Avenue’s new features will be Montague Oaks, a five-building class “A” office park adjacent to Interstate 526. One of the buildings already exists and is owned and occupied by real estate firm Coldwell Banker Commercial, which is marketing Montague Oaks.
The $15 million, 2.7-acre development will be a campus-style office park with two-story brick-and-stucco buildings, 100-year-old oak trees and open common areas.
Construction is scheduled to begin in mid-December and be completed in fall 2006, according to Bobby Reece, a broker with Coldwell Banker Commercial. North Charleston-based NBM Construction Co. is the general contractor.
The project’s first phase will consist of the construction of two buildings totaling 25,366 square feet. In the second and final construction phase, two more buildings totaling 40,556 square feet will be built.
Developed by Montague Oaks LLC, which includes Reece and Raymond Case, Coldwell Banker Commercial’s president and broker-in-charge, the office park’s available space ranges from 1,200 square feet to 65,922 square feet. Monthly rental price for the space is about $18 per square foot.
The office park will help bolster North Charleston’s class “A” office space inventory, which stands at roughly 910,540 square feet, second only to the East Cooper area, according to commercial real estate firm Colliers Keenan’s mid-2005 office market report.
Montague Avenue is being earmarked for further commercial real estate development. Across from Coldwell Banker Commercial’s building on Montague, Charleston-based commercial real estate firm The Harrison Co. is marketing a
2-acre property for either hotel, office or retail development.
“About 75% of our calls have been from hotels,” said Bill Harrison, president of The Harrison Co.
The stretch of Montague Avenue between Interstates 26 and 526 is dotted with commercial real estate signs advertising vacant lots for retail or office development.
About two months ago, North Charleston began its Montague Avenue streetscape project, a six-year facelift for the entire avenue. The goal is to attract businesses to the area, particularly near the city’s coliseum and performing arts center complex.
The project consists of four phases. The first phase entails the re-landscaping of Montague Avenue from Virginia Avenue to Park Circle.
The second phase stretches from I-26 to I-526, where the coliseum and performing arts center are and where the 92,000-square-foot S.C. World Trade Center will be. Dorchester Road to I-526 will be the third phase.
The final phase extends from the Liberty Hill area to I-26. The Montague streetscape project, the Centre Pointe retail development on International Boulevard near Montague and the coming World Trade Center building will turn North Charleston into a destination, said John Cawley.
With the streetscape project, the Centre Pointe retail development on International Boulevard near Montague, the coming World Trade Center building and new office buildings, Montague Avenue hardly will be recognizable in a decade, Cawley said.
Dennis Quick covers commercial real estate for the Business Journal. E-mail him at dquick@charlestonbusiness.com.
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