North Charleston takes next step in old Navy Base redevelopment plan

NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCBD) – Redevelopment will soon begin on another large portion of the old North Charleston Navy Base property.

If you have visited Riverfront Park in North Charleston, you may have walked across the new pedestrian bridge – sometimes called the bridge to nowhere – but the property on the other side of Noisette Creek will soon no longer be referred to as “nowhere.”

“The City of North Charleston (has) been looking to redevelop the Navy Base since the navy base closed in the late 90s. There’s been some successes, some failures – and the latest effort has been—I’ve been working on it for years,” said Adam MacConnell, senior project manager for North Charleston.

North Charleston City Council approved a plan Monday night that would allow Jamestown LLC to redevelop the property that is owned by North Charleston from Virginia Avenue towards the river.

It would be a more than $1 billion project.

“We really wanted to get this done before Mayor Summey left because, really, he came in during the closure of the base and was a huge leader in the region during that time, which was really a crisis for the region,” MacConnell said.

3,000 residential units, including apartments, will be part of the plan.

“For us, it’s an opportunity to create a central business district like a downtown center for North Charleston. A true downtown. We have the old village, and it has been wonderful- it’s a great, great community that is built around there. Other than that, we have Tanger. We have some of the mall areas. But we don’t have a real downtown. And to be able to create a downtown area with waterfront access to the public that has places for people to work, live, to eat, to play.”

State Representatives Marvin Pendarvis and Wendell Gilliard released statements about the plans. They want 30% of the contracts for work to go to minority-owned businesses, and 30% of the residential properties to be affordable housing.

“The agreement that we have provides an aspirational goal of 15% disadvantaged business enterprise participation,” he said,

The agreement provides at least 17% of the units for workforce housing, meaning rent would be kept where people making 120% of the area median income could afford it.

Reps. Pendarvis and Gilliard also want Mayor-elect Reggie Burgess, and the new council, to have a chance to review the plans.

“This project has taken 30 years and it’s going to take 30 more years to build this project out. Every administration from now through the end of this project is going to have an opportunity to put their mark on it,” said Mac Connell.