Charleston

JANUARY 2023 NEWS

SC’s Largest Economic Development Investment To-date Coming to Berkeley County

Redwood Materials, a domestic recycler of lithium-ion batteries and re-manufacturer of anode and cathode battery components for electric vehicles, will invest $3.5 billion to establish a new Battery Materials Campus and a “circular supply chain for electric vehicles” on a 600-acre site in Ridgeville in Berkeley County. This is the largest economic development announcement in the state’s history and one that will create 1,500 new jobs, help address the need for domestic sourcing of supply, and drive down costs and emissions. Groundbreaking is planned for early 2023 and the first recycli...

$1 Billion Medical Campus Planned for North Charleston

Roper St. Francis Healthcare is planning to invest $1 billion to develop a major medical facility on 27 acres along Mall Drive in North Charleston that would replace its current downtown complex as part of its 2030 strategic plan. It is expected to consist of a new full-service hospital with an emergency room on the site of the former city hall as well as a medical office building with specialty care and outpatient facilities across the street and next to the new city hall. The complex, which could require five or so years for completion, would have easy access to I-26, I-526 and rapid transit. Read more here.

FAA Designation Gran...

NOVEMBER 2022 NEWS

Kudos to Charleston… Again & Again & Again!

Charleston continues to earn accolades and not just for our visitor appeal. Just last month, we earned the top spot in Condé Nast Traveler’s 2022 Reader’s Choice Awards for the Best Small City for our history, culture, food and charm. This follows on the heels of other recent rankings, including: #1 Top U.S. City by Travel + Leisure (10 years running), #1 Best Place to Retire by WalletHub, #1 Minor League Sports Market by Sports Business Journal, #2 Most Profitable City for rental property owners by HomeAdvisor and #19 Best Foodie City by WalletHub. Read more here.

Our Growing Manufacturing Base

Sweet Grass Vodk...

Charleston Voted the No. 1 Place to Retire by Wallethub

Cities in Florida still take nearly half of the top spots, according to WalletHub’s 2022 Best and Worst Places to Retire survey. This year Charleston, SC edged out Orlando, FL as the top place to retire in the country! The survey assumes that retirees will live on a fixed income and ranked 182 cities based on four key categories of equal weight: affordability, activities, quality of life and health care. Read more here.

Volvo to Debut SC-Built All-Electric SUV Successor in November

On November 9, Volvo Car will unveil their South-Carolina-built EX90, the all-electric successor to its best-selling XC90 sport-utility vehicle. Ac...

SEPTEMBER 2022 NEWS

Pickleball Restaurants Coming to the Lowcountry
Have you heard about pickleball? It’s claimed to be the fastest-growing sport in America. Perhaps closer to ping pong and badminton, it’s played on a court that is similar to but smaller than a tennis court and even comes with a kitchen. To learn more about it, watch this video. And if you are already a local player, have you heard about the two new pickleball developments being developed in Mount Pleasant and Summerville? Crush Yard is a club and casual restaurant complex that will soon open off Highway 17 in Mount Pleasant. The 40,000-sf complex will have 8 indoor courts, shuffleboard, outdoor fire pits, live music, a...

AUGUST 2022 NEWS

New and Upcoming Attractions for Greater Charleston 

Two new museums are coming to downtown Charleston and new rides will be on offer at this fall’s Coastal Carolina Fair in Ladson. The Charleston Digital Corridor (CDC) has just opened the Charleston Apple Museum, with over 75 exhibits showcasing the evolution of Apple devices and related items from its 40+-year history. The museum, located at the CDC’s Flagship on Morrison Drive, is open to everyone with free admission, and the founders hope schools and children interested in technology will visit to discover how far technology has come. Donations are also accepted. Read more here. Charleston will soon welcome the $1...

Plans Accelerated to Widen I-26

In response to regional traffic growth, the SC Department of Transportation (SCDOT) has fast-tracked plans to widen Interstate 26 from 4 to 6 lanes for 70 miles between Charleston and Columbia. The State Legislature recently approved $600 million for this undertaking, with just over $450 million to come from Covid-19 aid allocated to roadworks and the remainder from the state’s “rural interstates” budget.  This move will cut six years from the original timeline, with completion now projected for 2034. The 30 percent increase in lane size equates roughly to traffic growth experienced statewide over the past decade, with 22 million vehicles now traveli...

Record Growth and Expansion Plans for CHS Airport

As the number of passengers traveling through Charleston International Airport (CHS) continues to rise, so does its need to expand. The airport served close to 487,000 air travelers this April alone - second only to July of 2021 when over 490,000 arrivals and departures were recorded. During the first four months of this year, CHS welcomed almost 1.5 million passengers, which is greater than the same period in 2019 before Covid-19 impacted travel. CHS CEO Elliott Summey believes the airport will set a new record in the summer months to come and projects 5 million passengers by the end of this year, due to both new carriers and route exp...

Charleston in the News - May 2022

Boeing’s SC DreamLearners STEM-Education Program Hits Major Milestone!

Last month, the education program known as South Carolina DreamLearners and spearheaded by Boeing, reached the milestone of having 1 million participants. The STEM-based program, which began in 2012, exposes students to advanced manufacturing and aerodynamics. They learn to build drones and about robotics, programming and how to build planes. Geared primarily to meet the state’s Force and Motion standards for 5th-graders, students of all ages and across the state (via a virtual learning component) are able to participate. Speakers and site tours also inform students about Boeing’s op...

Growing Interest in Charleston Area Industrial Properties

There is growing demand for the acquisition and leasing of industrial facilities in the Lowcountry, given their potential to help address supply chain issues faced regionally and across the U.S. and world. Their proximity to what is now the 8th largest US maritime port and to fast-growing population centers in the Southeast are contributing factors. Record sales prices are being achieved on existing distribution centers, with purchases being made by large out-of-state and international real estate investment firms. The most recent such purchase topped $109 million for a 1 million-square-foot distribution center in Summerville. A...

Glen McConnell Pkwy Widening Project Starts

Charleston County has announced that the widening project which will take the four-lane road to six lanes from Magwood Drive to Bees Ferry Road started in March. In addition to road widening, the project calls for a 10-foot-wide multi-use pedestrian and bicycle path, additional bus stops and upgrades to existing intersections. All work requiring lane closures will be done at night. This project will improve morning and evening commute times for West Ashley residents. Read more details about this project. 

MSC Expands Operations in Mount Pleasant

Switzerland-based Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC), a global transportation and logistics co...

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Banner Year for SC Economic Development Led by Local Expansion Project

Google's $500 million planned expansion of its data center near Moncks Corner was the single largest capital investment announcement for the state in 2021... a banner year for South Carolina with a record $5.7 billion in economic development planned across the state. This was not all for Berkeley County, as the state's 8th largest investment announced last year is for a $118 million expansion of the Volvo Cars plant for its electric-vehicle plans. The largest project announced in terms of job creation for 2021 is by Canadian digital services provider Telus International, who is opening a new call center in North C...

CHARLESTON, SC IN THE NEWS

Area Efforts to Assist Birdlife
Restoration of the Crab Bank Seabird Sanctuary, located in Charleston Harbor, is now complete, giving pelicans and other shorebirds that migrate along the East Coast close to 32 acres of important nesting habitat. The work was a collaborative effort of the US Army Corps of Engineers, the SC Department of Natural Resources and many donors that involved using over 600,000 cubic yards of sediment from the Charleston Harbor Deepening Project. Read more here. Another effort that is in the early stages is the installation of new tracking towers in the Charleston area and across the state to improve the understanding of and protectio...

FHFA Announces Increase in Conventional Loan Limits

The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) just announced that conforming loan limits for mortgages to be acquired by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in 2022 for one-unit properties (in most of the U.S.) will be $647,200, an increase of almost $100,000 from $548,250 in 2021. This is a significant increase that will give home buyers the ability to finance higher priced homes and still fly under the jumbo radar. Interestingly, buyers can still get a 30-year fixed mortgage loan for under 3% per year! Read more here.

Roper Hospital to Leave Downtown Charleston

Early last month, it was announced that Roper Hospital, which opened on Calhoun S...

SC Ports To Have 1st Woman Lead a Top-10 US Container Port

The current president and CEO of the SC Ports Authority (SCPA), Jim Newsome, will be stepping down effective next July 2022 after 13 years “at the helm”. He is recognized for expanding and enhancing port infrastructure and operations and making strategic investments that have resulted in a doubling of cargo volumes over a 10-year period. The SCPA board has unanimously approved the appointment of Barbara Melvin, its current COO who first joined the SCPA in 1998, to replace him. She will be the first woman to run a Top 10 container port in the US. Melvin, as COO, has been overseeing daily port operations as well as directing majo...

Charleston Remains No. 1 Among Travelers and Retirees

Charleston is the No. 1 US city for the 9th year running among travelers who voted in Travel + Leisure magazine’s annual survey for its 2021 World’s Best Awards. It also ranked 18th on its list of cities across the globe. It’s no surprise that it earned these rankings for its culinary scene, beautiful architecture and historic charm. Read more here and here.

Plus, a recent study of over 180 US cities conducted by WalletHub found that Charleston is the No. 2 place to retire in 2021, led only by Orlando at No.1 and up one spot from last year. Nearly 50 metrics were taken into account, such as affordability, health care, availa...

Isle of Palms - IOP - Ranked as Richest City in South Carolina

A report by Forbes Magazine ranks IOP as the state’s richest city with at least 1000 households. Based on data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2019 American Community Survey’s five-year estimates, it found that the city’s median household income was $122,228 and its mean household income was $175,009. When that constraint on minimum city size is removed, Kiawah claims this position on Forbes’ list. Its households have a median household income of $193,750 and a mean household income of $324,624. Recall that the median is the middle value when a data set is ordered from least to greatest while the mean (average) of a data set ...

Charleston Leads the Nation with 4 of TripAdvisor's TOP 25 Fine-Dining Restaurants in 2021

TripAdvisor's 2021 Travelers' Choice "Best of the Best" Restaurant awards, which are based on traveler reviews and ratings, are out ... and Charleston leads the nation in the "Fine Dining" category, one of eight restaurant categories!  Four local restaurants made its list of the Top 25 "Fine-Dining" establishments in the U.S in 2021.  Halls Chophouse ranked 3rd, Circa 1886 9th, Peninsula Grill 14th and 82 Queen 25th.  New York City had three restaurants make the list, while New Orleans, Yountville (CA) and Santa Fe (NM) each had two.

Among the seven other restaurant categories, Halls also rank...