Mortgage Broker in Park Circle, SC

NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCIV) — Park Circle is officially getting a makeover.

The City of North Charleston is breaking ground Wednesday on a $20 million redevelopment project in the center of the community. The work looks to transform the circle.

Park Circle is officially getting a makeover. (WCIV)

Previously, there used to be a community center, a butterfly garden, a green space and baseball field. But the community center was demolished just a few days ago, with the baseball field torn up as well.

City officials say those amenities were outdated and didn’t fit the needs of their citizens today, which leaders hope will change with the completion of this project.

Improvements include a new cultural arts and recreation facility twice the size of the previous building, as well as an all-inclusive baseball field, a 55,000-square-foot accessible playground, and repaving of the walking path around the circle. The playground is expected to be one of the largest on the East Coast.

TJ Rostin, the city’s park and recreation manager, says he believes this will be the first facility of its kind in the Lowcountry and that it will help build a path for more like it in the future.

“This facility is going to be magnificent,” Rostin said. “When we open this, it's going to be one of the most state-of-the-art facilities this region in the Lowcountry has seen in quite some time [and will be something] everybody can have fun with. Just like I said, [the space will] really meet the needs of every citizen we have.”

The redevelopment is expected to take anywhere from 12-16 months, and Rostin says he hopes to welcome North Charleston residents to it by fall of 2023.

While this might be the biggest project to date for the city, it is certainly not the first project leaders have put together, as officials say they are making a commitment to bring more inclusive facilities to North Charleston.

The city just unveiled a new all-inclusive park in the Oak Terrace community in April. They also committed $26 million to improvements the Danny Jones Recreational Complex, which is expected to break ground by the end of the summer.

The new playground that will be built in Park Circle will also be a testing site for external research companies to analyze its impact in the community for future projects.

Park Circle is officially getting a makeover. (WCIV)

Rostin says these projects and resources put towards them will help citizens utilize the facilities more, which they hope will lead to more activity in the community.

“We’re starting with the Rec. Department facilities because we know those are the facilities that most people enjoy and use on a daily basis. We're really trying to reach out to every part of our community to make sure what we have and that we're here for them, they can utilize our facilities utilize our programs in any way that they need to,” Rostin added.

North Charleston Mayor Keith Summey said he would have started remodeling the Park Circle area sooner, but the city only received ownership of the land two years ago.

Funds for the project came from taxes and revenue bonds through the tax increment financing district in the city. Funding will also go towards improvements at the Danny Jones Recreational Complex.

The groundbreaking at Park Circle will happen at around 10 a.m. on Wednesday.

NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCIV) — Uninvited guests call for concerns for some living in Icon at Park Circle Apartments in North Charleston.

Khalis Henderson's apartment is one of the units affected by rats that have forced residents to raise questions regarding their health.

"Literally, it sounds like they're fighting or they're scratching at the wall or trying to get through or something," Henderson said.

Rat infestation raises health concerns at Icon at Park Circle Apartments in North Charleston (WCIV)

Read more: Living conditions aren't improving at Gadsden Green public housing, residents file lawsuit.

They have eaten through a pair of Henderson's brother's jeans. They have eaten the baseboards out near the stove, and they are chewing through the apartment, causing mayhem.

"They started just pooping on his clothes 'cause he had 'em sitting in the kitchen closet," Henderson said. "So, I had to end up bagging up his clothes. They started eating on his clothes and he had holes in his work shirts so he had to replace them."

Henderson said it's the worst living situation he's ever been in.

"The rats have gotten to the point where they ate the baseboard out by the stove and around the water heater, and they're chewing through the foam, and they're making barrels to where they can get through," Henderson said. "I don't like living like that. I've never lived like that, and that's not how my grandmother raised me to live."

Read more: Gadsden Green public housing residents file lawsuit against Charleston Housing Authority over living conditions.

Henderson and his brother have notified management, but they say it's gotten them nowhere. Now, they are merely fed up.

"I caught one in a bag recently," Henderson said. "I even tried to show her. She didn't want to see it. Disgusting to them. But we are living with them. I even emailed the company that's over their apartment complex. Still have not heard from them. It's been about a week now... It's becoming extremely unsanitary, and I don't like stuff like that."

News 4 asked to speak with the complex management, but they had no comment. News 4 also reached out to the property management company and received no answer.

Odd Duck Market owners Jared Hellman and Andrew Hare have worked together before.

A decade ago, the duo’s deli Bubba Slye’s at the corner of King and Warren streets was a hit among the late-night college crowd with subs like the “Screamin’ Demon” on the menu. Their new Park Circle business is more grown up — in part because the two have gained quite a bit of experience since Bubba Slye’s closed in 2013.

Business

Hellman has been working for Blue Acorn, performing digital consulting projects with clients like NBCUniversal, Netflix and Weber Grills. Meanwhile, Hare has been busy founding Vertical Roots, a hydroponic farming company that sells local lettuces grown in a shipping container.

Tired of spending all of their time on their computers and in meetings, the two teamed up again when the opportunity to open a new food and beverage business came along.

Odd Duck debuted this summer in a former church at 1082 East Montague Ave. The grab-and-go café, with a handful of indoor seating, serves coffee, salads, sandwiches and local provisions.

“We wanted to focus on breakfast and lunch,” Hellman said. “That’s where we saw the biggest opportunity.”

Odd Duck Market offers scratch-made breakfast and lunch sandwiches, along with coffee, bagels from Blazing Star Cafe, pastries and sushi from local catering company Saqui Sushi. In the future, Hellman and Hare will open up the space to pop-ups in the evening.

A highly anticipated barbecue restaurant that started as a pop-up will open in Charleston this weekend.

Led by Puerto Rican pitmaster Hector Garate, Palmira Barbecue will debut with whole hog, beef cheeks and more at 2366 Ashley River Road in West Ashley on Feb. 2.

The once-rustic interior has been transformed since its days as Sunflower Café, which closed in September 2022. Now, a mix of two- and four-tops fills the modern but minimal space, whose walls are decorated with family photos and framed press clippings Garate has received since he launched Palmira Barbecue as a pop-up in 2021.

Guests can line up to place their orders on the left side of the long restaurant, next to where a review by Post and Courier contributing restaurant critic Robert F. Moss hangs on the wall. Once at the front of the line, beef cheeks, sausage links, pork ribs and Garate’s signature dressed whole hog barbecue are pulled out of a warming cabinet and placed on the scale before landing on a paper-lined red tray.

Those who have tried Garate’s beef cheeks know they eat like a fattier brisket, with a peppery bark bordering the intensely rich and satisfying sliced meat. Barbacoa is chopped to order and placed on a crisp tortilla with cheese and red onions.

While those bites are memorable, Garate’s Peculiar Pig Farm whole hog still stole the show at Palmira Barbecue’s Jan. 30 soft opening. Juicy as can be, the chopped strands are doused in a thin, pepper-flecked dressing with a nice vinegar kick. Palmira platters come with sides of barbecue sauce, but if you’re like me, you won’t even need to pop the top off the plastic cups.

The program, which closed at the start of 2024, was a source of skilled kitchen help for Lowcountry restaurants and was highly regarded by area chefs. Participants took part in a five-week course in which guest chefs taught skills that culminated in a ServSafe certification ensuring hygienic food handling, an externship and then job placement. The externships were often paid and also often led to a direct hire.

Tim Richardson, executive chef at Hank’s Seafood Restaurant in downtown Charleston, recalled participating in the program by judging cooking at graduations and serving lunch. Before the pandemic, Richardson had three program participants help out at the restaurant as line cooks.

“That was what I liked so much about (the culinary training program). It gave homeless people a skill for when they got their life back together, made them feel comfortable interviewing,” Richardson said. “They were trustworthy, and Angie (Colyer Dupree), the program’s director who left One80 Place when the program was discontinued) was adamant that they had to be on time.”

Richardson said that since his restaurant is affiliated with a hotel, the hotel would continue to help find kitchen help from foreign exchange workers with work visas.

The program was always very small, said One80 Place CEO Stacey Denaux. After the pandemic, the shelter struggled to bring it back.

“Our goal is to prevent homelessness, to move them quickly into housing and help them secure things like rental assistance,” said Denaux, adding that the shelter decided the culinary program was not core to its mission. “So, in the shelter we have people who are in dire need, and that tends to be young moms with children or people who are older or with comorbidities. Kitchen work is very demanding, so the people who are older and have physical limitations, will they be able to sustain working in a kitchen?”

Denaux added that, in a good year, the culinary program graduated 15-20 people, and the shelter’s new focus allows them to help more people.

For culinary program graduate George Murray, the culinary program was “gold.”

Murray graduated in March 2017 and became the pitmaster at Home Team BBQ. After a bit more than a year, he moved to Cru, where he’s been a prep chef and recently promoted to event chef. He said he is saddened by the loss of the culinary program.

“For me, I had always cooked, but it is completely different doing it on a commercial level, so the program was more than beneficial, it’s gold,” Murray said. “Even if you are not passionate about cooking — and I am — it provides you with a skill set you can take anywhere. It’s sad to see something I know works kind of fade away.”

Another graduate, Rodney Edwards, is a prep chef at Brasserie Le Banque. He said the culinary program helped him tremendously.

“I started out not knowing too much in the kitchen, but I believe lots of people would benefit from this program, and I think it benefits the restaurant industry,” Edwards said. “It would be harder to get a job without that training. You need the knife skills to cut, and you need to be able to read your grams and your pounds on the scale.”

Denaux said another reason for cutting the culinary program was that housing prices have risen and wages in the food and beverage industry make it harder for graduates to pay for housing. The shelter overall places upward of 1,000 people a year in housing, and 87 percent of those were still housed after two years.

Still, both Murray and Edwards are no longer homeless; they say that is because of the jobs they got due to the program.

Chef Roland Feldman, who owns an events company, hired a graduate from the program when he owned Smoke restaurant on King Street. That graduate, Stefan DeArmon, not only started his own cornbread business after an ingredient mistake led to a superior cornbread, but he became known as Reverend Cornbread and appeared on the Today Show.

Feldman called the loss of the program at One80 Place “a real kick in the gut for Charleston.”

“I was shocked that, out of everything that a budget would chop out, that would be it,” Feldman said. “That shelter program could not have been that expensive. They already have a massive kitchen, and the program was run like a high-end cruise ship. It wasn’t chaotic, people were coming in and getting what they need to get a chance. The Charleston restaurant scene took to it.”

NORTH CHARLESTON — Construction near Park Circle has begun on a $17 million project to refurbish an old ice distribution building into office and retail use, with three tenants already lined up.

Construction company Samet Corp., real estate business Colliers International and architectural studio The Middleton Group will be moving from their respective Charleston- and North Charleston-based locations to 4287 Spruill Ave. toward the end of the year, said Pat Marr, principal of development with WRS Inc. Real Estate Investments.

“We think the nature of that building gives the project some distinction and interest, as opposed to just putting up some block buildings,” Marr said.

Charleston-based WRS is partnering with the Isle of Palms-based Paragon Commercial Properties in the endeavor.

Developers of the ice house project intend to use the state Abandoned Buildings Revitalization Act to help finance the effort.

North Charleston City Council certified May 27 five buildings on the Spruill Avenue property as abandoned, enabling the mixed-use project to qualify for tax credits.

Real Estate

Developers expect to get tax credits “in the neighborhood of $1.5 to $2 million,” Marr said.

The credits will enable developers to refurbish the old ice building, rather than demolish it, Marr said.

“Where (the tax credits) really help is when you’re trying to change the product use,” Marr said. “This was an industrial site. They made ice and distributed ice. This was also a site we had to clean up. It had some environmental issues.”

The Middleton Group will be moving from its site at King Street Extension in Charleston, and Colliers International will relocate from Calhoun Street.

Samet Corp. is changing its location from Aviation Avenue in North Charleston.

The moves indicate how companies are increasingly viewing the North Area as a desirable place to do business because of its proximity to growing residential communities, Marr said.

“We’re seeing tenants move out of downtown,” he said. “More and more employees are coming from Summerville and Nexton.”

Spruill Avenue has increasingly become a focal point for new development as revitalization efforts on East Montague Avenue, located in Park Circle, have spilled over onto the Spruill corridor.

Real Estate

Holy City Brewery, a craft brewer, and Firefly Distillery, which offers outdoor and indoor event space, have relocated to Spruill Avenue in recent years.

Developers have become more interested in the neighborhood since the state Department of Transportation approved handing over ownership of Spruill Avenue to North Charleston, which will allow the city to add on-street parking.

The city has been working to address the area’s lack of parking. North Charleston has completed one new parking lot and has plans to establish two more lots on Spruill, said Councilman Bob King.

“That whole area is developing pretty good,” King said.

News

Dallas-based Reddy Ice currently uses a building on the property as a storage freezer before distributing ice to Charleston-area retailers. That use will remain up to two years before that building is redeveloped, Marr said.

Offices for Reddy Ice will be relocated near the freezer building while the storage freezer remains open.

In addition to renovating the now-boarded up ice building, the project involves building a two-story, 12,000-square-foot office space facility and another 10,000-square-foot structure.

Construction work, which began six weeks ago, so far has involved demolishing a few buildings on the site. Crews are preparing to install underground utilities, Marr said.

“The project will deliver in December this year,” Marr said.

ATLANTA, Oct. 19, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- ECI Group (ECI) announces the acquisition of The Factory at Garco Park, a 271-unit, built in 2017, institutional-grade multifamily community in the highly-desirable Park Circle neighborhood in North Charleston, South Carolina. The Factory at Garco Park is ECI's first investment in the Charleston metropolitan area and, with assets in Greenville and Savannah, their fourth in the Carolinas/SE Georgia region. Financing for the acquisition was provided by SouthState Bank.

Continue Reading

"The Factory at Garco Park offers ECI an opportunity to recycle capital from our recent sale of The Columns at Vinings in Atlanta into a very high quality, exceptionally well-located asset in a top expansion market for us," said ECI Chief Acquisitions Officer, Scott Levitt. "With our ability to self-manage and oversee additional enhancements to the balance of the unit interiors and the property's exterior and amenity package, we look forward to this property providing us with a cornerstone asset in the Charleston market." The 1031 Exchange involving the recently announced sale of The Columns at Vinings and the acquisition of The Factory at Garco Park is the 5^th such exchange for ECI in the last 18 months.

The Factory at Garco Park, located at 4993 O'Hear Avenue in North Charleston, features upscale, spacious studio, one-, two- and three-bedroom units. The community's walkable experience has made it popular with young professionals seeking a vibrant Peninsula lifestyle, with an abundance of restaurants, retail, and nightlife, in the East Montague corridor just steps from their front door.

Community features include:

Individual units include:

*In Select Units

ECI extends its appreciation to Alex Okulski of Newmark for his representation of the seller.

About ECI Group

For more than 50 years, ECI Group has been one of the most highly regarded, privately owned real estate organizations in the United States. The firm is fully integrated, with development, construction, investment, and property management groups that have garnered national recognition for innovation and performance in the multifamily industry. With a portfolio of more than 7,500 units located throughout the Southeast and Texas, ECI is strategically positioned to continue to be a leader in the multifamily industry. For more information, visit www.ecigroups.com.

Media Contact: Karen WidmayerKW Communications, LLCkarenwidmayerpr@gmail.com301.661.1448

SOURCE ECI Group