Development Update: Bevy of residential, commercial, mixed-use projects coming to DI, Cainhoy, Clements Ferry

With an average of 45 people moving to Charleston County each and every day, development and growth is an ever-present fact of life throughout the burgeoning Lowcountry. And while areas like James and Johns Island are experiencing primarily residential growth, on Daniel Island and in the Cainhoy region development is a mixed bag.

A snapshot of the many projects currently matriculating through various City of Charleston planning boards reveals as much, with a series of residential, commercial and mixed-use development projects on track to break ground on both Daniel Island and nearby Cainhoy in the coming months and years.

Daniel Island

Headlining the projects headed the way of Daniel Island is “Daniel’s Corner,” an 18,000 ft. sq., mixed-use property slated to be constructed at 145 River Landing Dr., behind the Simmons Park apartment complex. Owners S.L. Shaw & Associates along with project applicant Architecture Plus SC, LLC presented their project plans to the City’s Technical Review Committee (TRC) on August 18, but were asked by the body to revise their presentation and resubmit it, citing a trio of permits missing from the initial application.

On September 22, the group appeared again before the body for the second review of the project. Having patched the previous holes in the application for the project, the body considered construction plans for the three-story Class A building. Approval of the final site plan for the building is pending.

“Daniel’s Corner” is in effect a sister structure to the mixed-use, high-end offices at 125 River Landing Drive. “Daniel’s Corner” is slated to feature retail space and office space on its lower level, more office space on the second level and a pair of residences splitting the third floor.

Bridge Real Estate Advisors is the leasing agent for the facility, which continues to be slated to break ground sometime between the fall of 2017 and the spring of 2018. The two residential units planned for the top floor of “Daniel’s Corner” are far from the only residential projects on tap for Daniel Island in process at City Planning, however.

The TRC heard a plat design presentation for a 24-unit residential subdivision development slated to be built in a plot of land in the northeast corner of the island, on the land facing the terminus of Wading Place. The nearly 12-acre tract is just to the southeast of the 13th fairway of the Daniel Island Club’s Ralston Creek Course, near Rhoden Island. The developers of the tract are still awaiting final plat approval from the TRC.

The TRC also reviewed an updated road plan for currently undeveloped Rhoden Island, a plan built around the appropriately named Rhoden Island Drive. The development that will surround it, still a ways off, will eventually feature 38 residential units to be situated on just over 28 acres of untouched Rhoden Island.

The southern end of developed Daniel Island is soon to grow as well, with a pair of developments in process at the City, albeit early in the process. A 25-lot residential subdivision plan went before the TRC last week that would see the 16.8 acres located to the southwest of Village Crossing Drive developed. Final approval of the plat for that subdivision is pending. After it meets TRC approval, the project will process through the Planning Commission, and following that City Council proper, before proceeding forward.

Just to the east of that proposed site is another proposed development still in the earliest stages of City Planning process, the project is another proposed development featuring 17 lots slated for 7.6 acres is in process. Road construction plans for that plot are under currently review by the TRC.

Cainhoy

The growth coming to Daniel Island in the near future, significant though it is, pales in comparison to the development coming to the Cainhoy area and Clements Ferry Rd. In both size and scope, a pair of developments currently in process at the City serve as evidence of area residents should expect to see in the near future of Cainhoy and Clements Ferry.

On Clements Ferry, a proposed 160-unit Planned Unit Development-zoned development (PUD) titled The Marshes at Cooper River looms large on the Cainhoy growth horizon. To be developed on a 34-acre portion of the “Cabin Creek” plot between Clements Ferry Rd. and the Cooper River, the proposed PUD is to be a mixed-use development featuring 135 single-family residences, 25 residential townhomes and an estimated 10,000 ft. sq. of commercial office space.

The project is estimated to be completed and operational within three years, and is to be timed as to be completed concurrently with proposed SCDOT project to widen Clements Ferry Rd. from two to four lanes. The only project currently matriculating through the City Planning process to receive final plat approval is the 12-acre PUD subdivision slated for Cainhoy Plantation, off eastern Clements Ferry Rd. offshoot Hopewell Ln. The development will be soon before the City Planning Commission as the first of a slew of development slated for the expansive Cainhoy Plantation, an area twice the size of Daniel Island.

Upcoming City Hearings related to local projects

A meeting of the Design Review Board will be held Monday, October 3, 2016, at 5 p.m. in the Public Meeting Room at 2 George Street, 1st Floor (Gaillard Center Municipal Building) and one Daniel Island related item is on the agenda. An application is requesting preliminary approval for new construction of an office building at Fairchild and Central Island Streets (a portion of TMS# 275-00-00-155). The Owner is listed as HPBB1, LLC and the applicant as Richard McWilliams.

A meeting of the Board of Zoning Appeals – Site Design will be held Wednesday, October 5, 2016 at 5 p.m. in the Public Meeting Room, First Floor, 2 George Street (Gaillard Center Municipal Building). One Daniel Island related item is on the agenda. An applicant for a project on Fairchild St (TMS# 2750000 portion of 155) is requesting a variance from Sec. 54-327 to omit the 15 protected trees per acre requirement and a variance from Sec. 54-347 to allow a 10-foot landscape buffer adjacent to I-526. The owner is listed as 225 SFD United, LLC and the applicant as Thomas & Hutton Engineering Co.