As city officials look for solutions to the nearly 500 vacant buildings and lots scattered across Charleston, a handful of downtown projects are making progress.
After six years of planning and waiting, construction to renovate 1033 Quarrier St. has started.
The seven-story building, which once housed Gallery 11, several artist studios and a hair salon, has sat empty since 2010, when tenants were forced out to allow for its planned renovation to expand Sacred Heart Grade School.
By late summer, the structure will house the school's 15 additional classrooms. The ground floor will house preschool and kindergarten in four classrooms, while third-, fourth- and fifth-graders will occupy the next three floors, Monsignor Edward Sadie said.
The school's music program, as well as two rooms for science and math labs will also be housed on those floors, he said.
The school decided to relocate its information technology department to the building's sixth floor.
"East of Leon Sullivan Street, we have outages quite often, so hopefully west of [that street] will better protect our IT department," Sadie said.
The seventh floor will be used for storage.
Sadie, who first began as rector at Sacred Heart in 1980 and announced his upcoming retirement last month, said the church had to wait until it was financially comfortable to begin work on the building.
"It's a challenge for anybody - money doesn't grow on trees," he said of the renovations at 1033 Quarrier, expected to cost more than $4 million. "We just raised $4.5 million to build a gymnasium and early learning center."
The church ran into various engineering issues while designing the building's renovations, such as figuring out how to situate an elevator that would run between 1033 Quarrier and the existing school. The two butt up against one another on Quarrier Street.
Ralph Hoyer, attorney for the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston, owns the building under a limited liability company, 1033 Quarrier LLC. Repeated calls to Hoyer were not returned.
Charleston-based Jarrett Construction Services is the project's contract manager.
Another space that's attracted attention from developers is the former Holley Hotel site on Quarrier Street.
Charlie Wendell, owner for Charleston, South Carolina-based firm Mountain Shore Properties, gave a presentation to the Charleston Urban Renewal Authority in November, offering to buy the Holley property, along with the nearby Ott Building, from the authority for $875,000. While Wendell couldn't specifically detail what he would build there, he said he does not want to build a hotel on the site. Among the projects included in his presentation were several mixed-use buildings with retail on the bottom, and residences and office space on the upper floors.
The board voted in January in favor of Mountain Shore's proposal, but a detailed development agreement must be established before it can finalize the sale, according to Jim Edwards, executive director of the urban renewal authority. The board must also notify more than a dozen heirs to a sliver of property on the site from a past inheritance to clear the title before it can be tranfered.
"We have made progress on the title issues and should have that cleared up in the next couple of months," Edwards said. He also confirmed Mountain Shore is pursuing a mixed-use development.
The firm is expected to meet with the board at its March or April meeting to negotiate the terms of a development agreement, which spells out the purchase details by the developer, specifies a time schedule and sets procedures for creating the actual development plan.
"After that, they would move forward with doing cost estimates, market studies and talking to tentative prospects to see if they can put a deal together." Edwards said.
Residents can also look forward to a revived space near Brawley Walkway, across from Slack Plaza.
Wheeling-based McKinley Properties entered an agreement with the urban renewal authority to purchase and develop 170-178 Summers St., known to many as the former home of B&B Loans.
Edwards said the firm plans to renovate the property into office space on the second and third floors, and retail on the ground floor.
The board recently agreed to the basic terms of the development agreement; now, it's just a matter of signing it.
"It starts the clock for them to buy it and rehab it," Edwards said.
If the agreement isn't followed as specified, the property reverts to the board's ownership.
Calls to David McKinley, who heads the firm, were not returned.
Reach Elaina Sauber at
elaina.sauber@wvgazettemail.com,
304-348-3051 or follow
@ElainaSauber on Twitter.