A roughly $345 million redevelopment plan for the former Piggly Wiggly site in West Ashley got an initial green light from the Charleston City Council at its Sept. 10 meeting.
City staff moved quickly to have the three ordinances, which set the legal and financial framework for development, public infrastructure improvement and conveyance agreements between the city and developer Edens, in front of City Council just two weeks after the plans were first unveiled to the public.
The 35-acre proposal, presented at an Aug. 27 community meeting in West Ashley, combines a city-owned vacant lot along Sam Rittenberg Boulevard and the larger Ashley Landing shopping center across Sumar Street. The plan calls for more than 6 acres of green space, a four- to five-story apartment complex with 325 units, 100 townhomes and 230,000 square feet of retail and restaurant space.
The redevelopment effort will cost taxpayers about $48 million, with another $300 million investment from Edens, a Columbia-based real estate company that owns properties in Mount Pleasant, Kiawah, Atlanta, Washington, D.C., and California.
Renderings of the Ashley Landing shopping center redevelopment.
Councilman William Tinkler represents District 9, where the site is located. He called the investment "completely unprecedented" for West Ashley, home to more than 40 percent of the city's population.
He said there is a ton of excitement around the proposal but that people are not unanimous about what they want to see there. Final design decisions are still to come and require public hearings before final approvals are given.
"The people over there … are eager for something good to happen in the bosom of their community because that’s what this is," said Keith Waring, who represents District 7 located farther west along the Sam Rittenberg corridor.
But the deal nearly fell apart last week, Mayor William Cogswell told City Council ahead of its Sept. 10 vote.
"As of last week, it died," Cogswell said. "And then, came back to life. It's been walking on pretty fragile ground."
Construction costs came back 10 percent higher, or roughly $30 million more, than the developer expected, Cogswell explained.
Edens, which is currently under contract to buy the shopping center from another real estate company, needed assurances from the city to continue moving forward. Those commitments are partially outlined in the agreements that Council approved Sept. 10.
Those include handing over the 3-acre parcel the city purchased in 2017 for more than $3 million and partially abandoning Sumar Street, which will eventually be bulldozed so the land can be incorporated into the overall redevelopment. Part of the street will remain to allow access to a bank that is already on the site.
Cogswell said the city also needs to fast-track approvals for the rest of the project.
He explained that it's in the city's best interest to hasten that process, which currently takes about 18 to 24 months, because the development is part of a tax-increment financing district, or TIF, that the city is relying on to fund its $44 million investment into the site's public infrastructure.
A TIF essentially allows municipalities to borrow and bond against future tax revenue generated from improvements to blighted properties and reinvest it back into the district. The West Ashley TIF was created eight years ago, and according to county tax records, still hasn’t accrued any revenue. If the city doesn't issue any bonds within the next two years, then the TIF expires.
"This is a real issue and one of the reasons why this thing needs to be expediated and kicked into high gear," Cogswell explained. "Because every month we go, we’re losing bonding capacity, and the value we can invest back in the public space goes down."
The city's investment will pay for $5.7 million for demolition and other initial construction costs; $10 million for affordable housing; $9.6 million for public streets and right of ways; $4.7 million for parks and green space; $1 million for a 3,000-square-foot community space; and $13 million for stormwater infrastructure.
Currently, there is no water retention on the entire 35 acres, which means any water flows into the surrounding neighborhoods.
Edens is expected to front the city's costs, which will be reimbursed through TIF revenues.Â
Developer renderings of the Ashley Landing shopping center redevelopment.Â
The city also has to pay its original development partner, Landmark Enterprises, $683,500 for breaking its contract.
Landmark's original design covered only the 3-acre lot where the Piggly Wiggly once stood. It called for roughly the same $45 million investment from the city, but nearly half of that was earmarked for an underground parking garage. Landmark was expected to contribute another $30 million for a mix of office space, shops and restaurants.
Other iterations shrank the amount of parking, and with it the city's total investment, but none gained enough support from City Council to pass.
During his campaign and since taking office, Cogswell has pushed for the larger redevelopment plan that was ultimately presented at the Aug. 27 community meeting.
The plan still has several more hurdles to jump before construction can begin.Â
The Publix located in the shopping center that Edens is slated to purchase will have to move locations. Edens plans to phase construction so the grocery store can remain open through the redevelopment.Â
A public hearing is scheduled for Sept. 18, when the city's planning commission will weigh in on the development agreement. City Council is slated to have a final vote on that agreement in October after a second public hearing.Â
On Sept. 19, City Council’s community development committee will discuss the affordable housing component of the project.
Meanwhile, Edens still has to close on the property by Nov. 29.
If all that goes to plan, construction is slated to begin in summer 2025 and to complete in 2028.
