|
Merchants say they’re bullish on Broad Street
By Dan McCue
Staff Writer
Every once in awhile, it still happens, attorney R. Spencer Roddey said.
Someone will drive into Charleston, park beside a meter and walk door-to-door until they find a lawyer to champion their cause.
“Now, that’s a vestige of how it used to be here, and it shows you how long images last,” said Roddey as he sat in a second floor office in a building that was built on Broad Street sometime between 1698 and 1708.
“Broad Street was all about the law and lawyers and the courthouse, but that was way before my time,” said the partner at Stoney, Gouldon and Roddey LLP. “Today you’re as likely as not to pass a bank or an art gallery as a law firm while on the street, but it continues to thrive.”
Like many things in Charleston, there’s a before and after in the contemporary business life of Broad Street. And like almost like all the rest, what resides in between is Hurricane Hugo.
After the hurricane destroyed the old county courthouse, a temporary court was established in North Charleston, on the grounds of the old Charleston Naval Base. For a time, Broad Street lost its core, and law firms, having no reason to be anchored to there, began to
migrate.
But the neighborhood didn’t die. Instead, thanks largely to an influx of banks and other financial service providers that became its second cornerstone in the wake of Hugo, it’s enjoyed a tremendous and many-faceted rebirth.
Today, Broad Street boasts Wachovia’s Charleston Financial Center at 16 Broad St., Carolina First Federal at 1 Broad, First Federal at 34 Broad, the National Bank of South Carolina at 46 Broad, an Edward Jones financial adviser at 310 Broad, and a Goldman Sachs at 85 Broad.
“When I told people shortly afterwards that I was opening a restaurant on Broad Street, people said I was crazy,” said Brett McKee, chef and owner of the Oak Steakhouse. “(They said), don’t you know Broad Street is over?”
In fact, it was Goldman Sachs’ Broad Street location that played a significant role in
McKee’s commitment to the area.
Gia Morón, a spokeswoman for Goldman Sachs in New York, said while the company’s Broad Street office is a small location, “it’s an ideal location for us.”
“Broad Street is really suited to our business requirements, because not only do we have a number of clients near that office, but our clients typically are very taken with the historic nature of the community,” Morón said.
The commitment of such bedrock financial institutions and their ability to consistently draw the well-heeled to the neighborhood, was also why Victoria Ellis and Jeannette Nicholson jumped at that chance to open their new gallery at 1 ½ Broad St. in July.
“We’re bullish on Broad Street,” they said, almost in unison, as they prepared for the recent French Quarter Art Walk.
To Roddey, it was the aesthetics that inspired stalwarts to stay and newcomers to plunk down investments. The family of his law partner, Richard Stoney, has owned 53 Broad St. for three generations.
“There’s no question the beauty of Broad Street was a tremendous influence on those who chose to stay here after Hugo, and I think the courthouse coming back helped to solidify the neighborhood and validate that decision,” he said.
Also helping to provide Broad Street with its second life, in the view of business owners in the area, is how the “professional district” neatly divided the more commercial personality of Charleston from the city’s historic residences.
“I just think of it as Main Street in Charleston, and I think many other people do as well,” Roddey said. “In fact a lot of people, me included, give people directions by first asking if they know where Broad Street is … it’s a point of orientation for us.”
Downstairs in the lobby of 53 Broad St., state Rep. Leon Stavrinakis, D-Charleston, sat reading the newspaper while waiting for an appointment.
“I used to live around the corner and worked on Broad and later served on the County Council, which held its meetings here, so in a way Broad Street was a focal point for me,” Stavrinakis said.
“It was a great street to walk down when you were going to work in the morning or walking home in the evening, and it just made you feel good.”
During the 1990s and during this decade, that allure helped transform Broad Street into arts district and an arts tourism destination that many are beginning to compare to Santa Fe, N.M., where the arts are a major tourist draw.
It’s also brought a new nightlife to Broad Street, as many of the galleries hold wine and cheese events that inevitably inspire people to stop into the Oak Steakhouse or one of the street’s smaller bistros.
Nicholson and Ellis, who used to be located in the Waterfront Gallery on East Bay Street, said they jumped at the chance to relocate because in their view, “Broad Street is where it’s happening.”
“It’s become a real mixed-use area with lots of galleries and specialty shops, and it’s also become almost a community to itself, with a real leisurely pace,” said Nicholson.
“I mean, this is a business community where people actually visit each other’s businesses to see how their neighbors are doing.”
About the only downside to the Broad Street as a commercial center is its historic lack of parking. Wachovia has a modest lot for customers accessible from East Bay Street, but it’s a rare and fortunate exception.
“Parking’s something they didn’t anticipate a need for in the 17th century, Roddey said.
“I’ve paid the parking tickets to prove it,” Stavrinakis agreed.
That said, Nicholson was emphatic that something about Broad Street just makes people want to be a part of it.
“I think of it like a river,” Nicholson interjected. “The life of Broad Street just flows, and the commercial interests simply follow where it leads us.”
Dan McCue is a staff writer for the Business Journal. E-mail him at dmccue@setcommedia.com.
|
E-Mail This Article
Printer-Friendly Version