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North Charleston’s renaissance is in full swing
By Kathleen Dayton
Staff Writer
North Charleston, the industrial sister city of tourism-based downtown Charleston, is changing.
Its residents will tell you the city, which has the perception of being a gritty, working-class suburb clustered around the area’s former economic engine, the Charleston Naval Base, has its own history.
Peter Skala, a surrealist painter, lives in a 91-year-old house on O’Hear Avenue. The home’s porch is complemented by a carpet-like lawn and a trio of young crepe myrtles in full bloom. A native of New York City’s Greenwich Village, Skala has lived in Asia and Africa and rented in downtown Charleston before moving to North Charleston two years ago.
Phillip Hyman is an antique restoration specialist and woodcrafter who was born and reared in the heart of North Charleston, where he still lives. Hyman is passionate about the revitalization of downtown North Charleston and its surrounding neighborhoods, which were built primarily to house military and industrial workers during the first half of the 20th century. He has watched the area begin to emerge from a decline that left it with a reputation for drugs, crime and poverty.
“It was neglected,” Hyman said. “It was easy to neglect, because after the shipyard closed, a lot of people left.”
Problems persist in some neighborhoods, Hyman said, but he and others with deep roots in the area have continued to fight to preserve it, focusing on beautification efforts, arts and culture. Hyman thinks those things are now being noticed more because of the Noisette Co.’s entry into the area and its plans to revitalize the old Navy base.
“It has created a buzz,” Hyman said. “I would like to stress that the people of North Charleston have been wanting to have this happen for years.”
North Charleston’s growing focus on arts and culture is part of what lured Skala to the Olde North Charleston neighborhood. His 1915 home was a ruin at first sight.
“Everyone in the neighborhood was unhappy with it,” Skala said.
Skala paid $230,000 for the three-bedroom home, which has four fireplaces. Hyman helped restore the original woodwork and crafted floor-to-ceiling bookcases in the living area to match the architecture of the home’s era.
When he bought the house, Skala was hoping to find a pedestrian-friendly neighborhood where he could walk to restaurants and cafes, much as he did in Greenwich Village. His home is a block away from North Charleston’s revitalized business district on East Montague Avenue, home to a number of cafes, two day spas, an antique store and a variety of other businesses including banks and real estate offices.
“It has that sense of what Greenwich Village used to be and no longer is,” Skala said. “It has a feel of the bohemian here.”
Skala is not the only one who has discovered the gem of an older home and an interesting business district in North Charleston. Renovations are in progress on several blocks, and home prices, which traditionally have been the lowest of any Charleston suburb, have risen significantly.
Today’s average home price in nearby Park Circle is nearly $70,000 higher than the 2003 average.
Skala said he hopes his neighborhood will become the focal point for art in North Charleston. That is already happening, as a number of artists have leased space in Storehouse 10, a warehouse on the old Navy base restored by the Noisette Co., and some are locating on East Montague.
“People are moving in, there are characters living here, it has that feel of a town,” Skala said.
Skala’s house is on a quiet block of O’Hear Avenue with a small park at its center. It is quieter than where he lived in downtown Charleston, he said.
North Charleston Mayor Keith Summey said the city’s goal is to provide as much market-rate housing as it can, as well as some housing that may be even more affordable.
“We’re not trying to create a postage-stamp community. We’re trying to create a community that’s diverse,” Summey said.
The I’On Group is planning a dense housing development on Mixson Avenue to replace the former Calhoun Homes.
“The price of that housing is going to be market-rate or below-market-rate value,” Summey said. “The size of them may be smaller, but what you’re getting is quality housing.”
Phillip Ford, president of the Charleston Trident Home Builders Association, said he sees North Charleston evolving much as midtown Atlanta has done in recent years.
Midtown in the 1960s and 1970s was home to drug addicts, hippies and prostitutes, Ford said, but the area has cleaned up its act.
“It’s sort of a trend you see in high-growth areas around the country,” Ford said. “An area fills in, people leap-frog out to the suburbs, but then they start moving back into some of the areas that were iffy for awhile.”
North Charleston has opened its doors by razing some of its deteriorating housing projects and people feel a little more comfortable, he said.
“The people that move into these areas are typically single households, executives, and typically you see couples without kids,” Ford said. “Then, over time, you’ll see families moving back in. I see a lot of the things I saw happening in midtown Atlanta happening in North Charleston.”
Kathleen Dayton is a staff writer for the Business Journal. E-mail her at kdayton@charlestonbusiness.com.
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