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King Street ‘streetscape’ project to resume after Spoleto
By Dennis Quick
Senior Staff Writer
After being stalled for more than two years, Charleston’s King Street beautification project will get rolling again this summer.
The three-phase project, the first phase of which began in 2000, ended in 2002 and spanned from Market to Calhoun streets, will resume following the Spoleto festival, which runs from May 27 to June 12.
The announcement came during a Feb. 24 public meeting held by the city. Merchants and property owners along the commercial corridor comprised most of the audience.
The $13.8 million project, funded by the city and by King Street property owners, involves resurfacing the street, installing new sidewalks and curbs, planting palmetto trees in tree wells and replacing underground utilities. The city will issue bids to contractors in May, and construction on the project’s second phase will start “right after Spoleto,” says project manager Don Smith.
The second phase covers upper King Street, extending from Calhoun to Carolina streets. The third and final phase covers lower King, from Market to Broad streets. Each phase is expected to take about two years to complete.
Lessons learned
In 2003 the city used a radar gun that penetrated the ground and detected drainage tunnels, sewer lines, abandoned tracks and other construction obstacles that lay under upper King Street and caused potential problems for the installation of underground utility lines. It was a lesson learned from the project’s first phase, which lasted about a year longer than anticipated because engineers knew little about what they would face underground and therefore encountered a number of obstacles they were unprepared to handle.
Additionally, South Carolina Electric & Gas Co. reviewed plans for the project’s second phase and found that the city needed to acquire easements from property owners along upper King Street. The city obtained the easements after meeting resistance from some property owners, Sharon Brennan, the city’s economic development director says.
Finally, contractors vying for work on the project underwent the city’s pre-qualifying process to become contenders for contract bids.
As in the first phase, the final two streetscape phases will see existing sidewalks replaced with bluestone sidewalks, granite curbs and palmetto trees. Access to stores will be provided at all times throughout the construction, Smith says.
Similar streetscape projects for Cannon and Spring streets will begin shortly after construction along upper King Street starts. Despite all the construction, the city will keep traffic lanes open, Smith claims.
Mindful of the business some merchants lost during streetscape’s first phase, property owners in the project’s second and third phases are bracing themselves for construction noise and obstacles that might drive customers away.
Most upper King property owners believe that since they’ve been paying for the project, it’s time for the second phase to get started.
“We’re halfway into our 10-year payment schedule,” points out upper King Street real estate broker Patterson Smith. Since 2000, King Street property owners have made yearly payments in a 10-year contract with the city to help fund the project.
“We learned a lot of lessons from the first phase, and that’s going to help,” says Randall Goldman of Patrick Properties, which owns the American Theater, the William Aiken House and Fish restaurant, all on upper King Street. He believes property owners involved in the project’s second phase will endure fewer headaches than those involved in the first.
“Upper King is wider and less congested than lower King,” Goldman adds. “I’m excited. We need this to draw more people to upper King.”
Dennis Quick covers commercial real estate for the Business Journal. E-mail him at dquick@crbj.com.
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