Auto MechanicNear Nexton, SC

Several new commercial tenants are coming to a large housing development on the edge of Summerville.

Lombardi’s Pizza Kitchen, The Co-op Frosé & Eatery, The Backyard Biergarten, Lowcountry Yoga and children’s gym KidStrong are all lined up to be a part of The Hub in Nexton.

The restaurants and fitness sites are expected to move in by late June or early July, according to Nexton spokeswoman Cassie Cataline.

The Hub is a collection of office and commercial buildings under development on Nexton Parkway and Brighton Park Boulevard near Home Telecom and Refuel convenience store.

Office tenants include Coastal Vascular & Vein Center, Charleston Wound Care, Palmetto Primary and Specialty Care Physicians, Derrington Dermatology and Holliday Ingram law firm.

A new pair of two-story office buildings is expected to be completed in 2024 and 2025. They will be 30,000 square feet and 20,000 square feet, respectively, and be built beside Nexton Parkway.

Nexton is a 5,000-acre, mixed-use development next to Summerville between Interstate 26 and U.S. Highway 176 in Berkeley County. With more than 2,500 homes already sold, the development is expected to have 7,500 residential units at full build-out.

It also could house as many residents as the current populations of Clemson, North Myrtle Beach or West Columbia, roughly between 16,000 and 20,000. That would make it as big as Moncks Corner and Georgetown combined.

Now open

A new pizza restaurant is now open in Mount Pleasant.

BarPizza opened May 12 at 656-G Long Point Road in the revamped former Kiki & Rye space.

It’s part of Free Reign Restaurants owned by Ryan and Kelleanne Jones. They also operate the recently opened Southbound on the Charleston peninsula and Community Table in Mount Pleasant.

Stepping in

A new retail shop that incorporates a clothing item in all of its wares is close to opening in downtown Charleston.

Respoke hopes to open by the weekend at 377 King St. in the former location of Simply J Boutique.

Get the best of the Post and Courier’s Real Estate news, handpicked and delivered to your inbox each Saturday.

Email

The shop will offer shoes, clothing and other items that are made in part by repurposing different sections of scarves. Hours will be 10 a.m.-6 p.m. daily, but they could change after the shop opens, according to store manager Joseph Fennell.

New threads

Also, coming to downtown Charleston is a new women’s clothing store, now with a shop in Asheville.

Hazel Twenty owner Lexi DiYeso plans to open in August at 73 Wentworth St., formerly part of 269 King St. that was used as back-of-house storage for the former Gap store. The front section houses Aerie, also a clothing shop.

Real Estate

The 3,641-square-foot space is currently under construction behind clothing store Collared Greens and next to The Port Mercantile, part of The Restoration Hotel, according to Blair Hines Gearhart of Oswald Cooke & Associates, who represented the tenant. Charles Constant with Constant Properties represented the landlord.

Fresh return

Ruke’s Produce Stand returns to Mount Pleasant on May 24. Operated by Arthur Brown, the vegetable and fruit vendor will operate 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday through Dec. 31. It’s at 378 Mathis Ferry Road next to Holy Trinity AME Church.

Book it

That Big Book Sale returns for its 41st run May 19-21 at Omar Shrine Auditorium at 176 Patriots Point Road in Mount Pleasant.

More than 60,000 books in all categories will be on sale, starting at $1. Sponsored by Charleston Friends of the Library, the event helps support Charleston County Public Library System.

A pre-sale event for members is 5-8 p.m. May 18. The event is open to the public 9 a.m.-7 p.m. May 19, 9 a.m.-5 p.m. May 20, and 10 a.m-3 p.m. May 21.

Checks, cash, major credit cards and electronic payments, such as ApplePay, will be accepted.

Real Estate

Our twice-weekly newsletter features all the business stories shaping Charleston and South Carolina. Get ahead with us - it’s free.

In a press release dated Nov. 29, Sharbell Nexton, LLC announced the addition of an A.C. Hotel by Marriott in Summerville’s Downtown Nexton area in 2024.

The specs of the new construction will consist of a boutique hotel situated on 2.5 acres on the corner of Sigma Drive and Session Street. The four-floor edifice will include 117 rooms.

An outdoor pool and courtyard, indoor kitchen and open lounge area, fitness room and meeting space are also part of the package at the new venue.

The Nexton venture will be the second A.C.-flagged property in South Carolina, with the other located in Greenville.

In addition, this project involves Baywood Hotels, a Columbia, Maryland-based company, that specializes in hotel management and development.

Powerful, vigorous, dynamic – these words have been used to describe the Summerville Orchestra’s (S.O.) upcoming subscription series concert, “Voices of Destiny.” This program will bring to life the powerful voices of Verdi and Sibelius and include selections from Disney’s popular Aladdin.

The Overture to Nabucco by Giuseppe Verdi grows into an intense brass fanfare with stirring crescendos. The famous chorus “Va, pensiero” from Nabucco served as an anthem in the struggle for Italian Independence in the 1800s. To this day, Italy embraces the music as its unofficial anthem.

“Finlandia,” a tone poem composed in 1899 as an act of resistance against Russia’s oppression of Finland, is also on the program and is Jean Sibelius’ most beloved composition.

In the second half, the S.O. will embrace modern voices, including music from the video game “Civilization VI,” the Disney animated film Aladdin and the piece “Equus.”

Notably, the S.O. will perform the world premiere of Christopher Tin’s non-vocal arrangement of “Sogno di Volare,” composed for Civilization VI and adapted from Leonardo da Vinci’s writings on flight. Tin finished the arrangement only a few months ago.

A crowd pleaser, the S.O. will perform music from the 1992 Disney animated film Aladdin and the Suite by Alan Menken. This suite includes several sing-along tunes and will have you searching for a whole new world!

Eric Whitacre’s “Equus” was initially commissioned by the University of Miami wind ensemble in 1996 by Gary Green. The piece took Whitacre three years to complete, a process that returned him to an idea he would initially throw away. It’s a virtuosic piece for the wind instruments that starts at a run and never stops.

Get ready to experience the “Voices of Destiny” at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Feb. 9, and 3 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 10. Tickets are $25 for adults, $2 for those under 18 and $5 for college students. Purchase online at SummervilleOrchestra.org/Tickets.

Newland, the developers behind the master-planned Summerville community, are being acquired by Brookfield Residential, a company headquarterd in Calgary, Canada. The acquisition won’t affect any current plans, including the groundbreaking of Downtown Nexton.

By Teri Errico Griffis

Brookfield Residential has agreed to acquire Newland, the developers of Nexton, an award-winning master-planned community in Summerville.

Along with the acquisition of the management company on June 1, Brookfield Residential is also acquiring the 5% general partner’s equity interest in 15 of the 20 master-planned communities that Newland is currently developing. Brookfield is headquartered with corporate offices in Calgary, Canada.

Brookfield Residential’s Managing Partner, Real Estate and President, Development Adrian Foley said the investment allows the company to expand as a “large-scale provider of lofts to third-party builders” and potentially expand the Brookfield Residential homebuilding brand.

“The acquisition of Newland adds phenomenal master-planned communities to our portfolio in exciting new markets that are experiencing tremendous growth and a lack of supply of new homes,” Foley said. “It will round out our existing development capabilities making us one of the few companies that has the breadth of resources, capital and operational talent to successfully scale in this area of the market.”

The company said the acquisition broadens’ Brookfield Residential’s footprint across the country and leverages Brookfield Properties’ development capabilities into new markets, including Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston, Atlanta, Tampa, Seattle-Tacoma, Portland, Raleigh-Durham and Wilmington, in addition to Summerville.

Newland is U.S. real estate land development company with 50 years’ experience in real estate developments.

“We are extremely pleased to be able to team up with Brookfield Properties’ development group,” Newland Executive Chairman Bob McLeod said. “This acquisition will provide more opportunities for the continued development of additional mixed-use masterplans well into the future as well as give us significant additional vertical development opportunities. We are looking forward to becoming part of the Brookfield team.”

A spokesperson for Nexton said the acquisition won’t affect any of the current developments, including the $300 million groundbreaking of downtown Nexton.

The urban-inspired mixed-use development will be situated on nearly 100 acres between Sigma Drive and Brighton Park Boulevard, a Nexton release said. Plans include retail, dining, hospitality, residential, service, office and commercial options within walking distance of Nexton’s residential neighborhoods.

In total, 110,000 square feet of office space will be available for lease.

Construction on Downtown Nexton will occur in phases throughout the next few years with the first stage including multifamily units and a mixed-use building that has ground-level retail beneath loft apartments.

The project is developed by New Jersey-based Sharbell Development Corp., a mixed-use developer with more than 37 years experience in the industry.

Rival supermarkets are now under development across from one another in a growing Charleston suburban community.

Ashland Construction Co. of Raleigh recently filed a notice for construction to begin on a 64,000-square-foot Harris Teeter grocery store at Nexton Parkway and Brighton Park Boulevard, where land clearing is underway.

Across the street, groundwork started several months ago to make way for a Publix supermarket.

Crosland Southeast of Charlotte is building the Florida-based Publix and 351 apartments on 24 acres the firm purchased last December for $24 million. Other commercial elements also are planned.

The Crosland sales agreement called for at least 54,000 square feet of retail construction to begin by March 22, with two more phases and an additional 31,000 square feet of commercial development by one year later.

Publix announced last December it had leased property for the new store. The supermarket will be about 48,000 square feet and is scheduled to be completed by late next summer, according to spokesman Jared Glover.

Across the street, Matthews, N.C.-based Harris Teeter bought the nearly 14-acre site in 2016 for $4.76 million, according to Berkeley County land records.

A Harris Teeter spokesperson did not immediately respond for further details on a tentative opening timeframe.

The 5,000-acre Nexton development is expected to have about 7,000 residences with a population of about 17,500 at full buildout in about 10 years.

That’s almost the same number of people as the combined populations of Moncks Corner and the Isle of Palms.

Nexton currently has 2,150 occupied homes and 1,500 occupied apartments. Another 250 homes and 600 apartments are under construction, according to a Nexton spokeswoman.

Publix operates 14 stores in the Charleston area, including the recently opened supermarket in Moncks Corner Marketplace on U.S. Highway 52 at Cypress Gardens Road in Berkeley County.

Publix also has plans for another store across from Summers Corner on Beech Hill Road south of Summerville. Work on it is not imminent, according to Publix.

It’s back to the drawing board for Clemson as its Charleston-based architecture and urban design program resumes its search for a permanent home.

The university said this week it has canceled a $12.1 million deal to purchase a 1.12-acre compound in the historic Wraggborough neighborhood.

“Unfortunately, during our due diligence phase on the property, it was discovered that there would be additional significant funds required for the program to work on that site,” it said in a written statement. “After some discussion and negotiation with the seller, Clemson submitted a notice to terminate the contract.”

The university also said it “continues to explore options for the continued success and growth of the architecture program on the Charleston peninsula where we have been for over 35 years.”

In June, the school’s board of trustees approved the acquisition of three properties, including a historic home that had been converted into offices, at 16 Charlotte, 515 East Bay and 102 Alexander streets. The site is a few blocks south of the Clemson Design Center’s existing campus.

The sale was expected to close Dec. 31, after a four-month inspection period.

The property owner is affiliated with the former Charleston-based medical firm NCGS Inc., which used it for its headquarters and put it on the market early last year after the business was sold.

Mark Mizell and Richard Callari of Birchin Lane Realty Advisors, who represents the seller, said the decision to terminate the deal wasn’t “driven by issues discovered about the building” during the inspection period and that it “was not in the best interest of our client to accommodate” Clemson’s “request to keep the property off the market for non-building related issues.”

“The seller, who has close ties to the university, was exceedingly accommodating ... but ultimately had to make the decision not to further extend,” they said. “The uniqueness of this offering and expressions of interest from other prospective buyers necessitated a return to the market.”

With some of the 787 Dreamliner program’s biggest orders now on the books, Boeing Co. is beefing up its labor force at its North Charleston campus where the wide-body planes are built.

The planemaker added 1,399 workers in South Carolina in 2023, the company said in its annual employment report.

That brings the total of Boeing workers in the Palmetto State to 7,864 — the biggest headcount since the company established major operations in the Charleston region in 2009 and a hefty 21.6 percent increase from 2022.

The bulk of Boeing’s in-state workforce is employed at the Dreamliner assembly campus off International Boulevard — the only site that makes the long-range commercial jet. The aerospace giant also has a jet engine factory, a research and technology center and a site that makes interior cabin parts for the 787 at Palmetto Commerce Park, also in North Charleston.

All told, Arlington Va.-based Boeing increased its global workforce by more than 14,000 for a total of 170,688 employees. More than a third of them — 66,797 — are based at the company’s legacy manufacturing sites in Washington state.

“Our investments in engineering and manufacturing roles drove our growth in 2023, while we also simplified our corporate structure to better align resources in direct support of our products and services,” Boeing said in a written statement.

Pent-up consumer demand for long-haul air travel has airlines clamoring for big jets, and that has helped Boeing notch 452 gross orders for its Dreamliner family over the past two years. That includes a record booking for 150 planes from United Airlines and a combined 78 jets for a pair of Saudi Arabian carriers.

The North Charleston plant has ramped up monthly 787 production to five with plans to hit 10 per month by 2025 or 2026. The increased workforce and production level will help Boeing chip away at a backlog that includes 799 unfilled Dreamliner orders.

SUMMERVILLE — When Brent Gibadlo first started working out of the Summerville area about 10 years ago, his dine-out options near what is now the emerging Nexton development were limited.

“I remember when Subway was the only place,” said Gibadlo, vice president and general manager of Nexton.

Today, he has a much wider selection to choose from, and it’s mainly because of what’s happening at the 5,000-acre development as big as the Charleston peninsula and other forces around it.

Those outside influences include Volvo’s decision to set up a car manufacturing operation west of Nexton and other big-tract housing developments nearby, such as Cane Bay and Carnes Crossroads.

Nexton, once a forested tract owned by WestRock forerunner MeadWestvaco Corp., is now home to several restaurants, hundreds of houses and apartments, a shopping center, office buildings and multiple hotels — one with a conference center that can seat 1,500.

The master-planned community stretches from U.S. Interstate 26 to Highway 176 across from Cane Bay Plantation in Berkeley County, and Gibadlo believes Nexton is poised to become the new employment and residential center for the region.

Less than 10 percent of the sprawling acreage lies inside the town limits of Summerville, but the development at full build out could one day have as many residents as the current populations of Clemson, North Myrtle Beach or West Columbia, roughly between 16,000 and 20,000 people. That will make it as big as Moncks Corner and Georgetown combined.

In all, including the road system, $175 million has been invested so far throughout Nexton. More development is on the way.

New apartments, offices and retail sites have begun to spring up along the newly opened Nexton Parkway near I-26.

Conceptual plans show dozens of other developments along the new road between the interstate and the developing 55-and-over Del Webb community, where about 200 houses in the proposed 1,009-home, gated enclave are on the ground less than two years after sales began.

It’s back to the drawing board for Clemson as its Charleston-based architecture and urban design program resumes its search for a permanent home.

The university said this week it has canceled a $12.1 million deal to purchase a 1.12-acre compound in the historic Wraggborough neighborhood.

“Unfortunately, during our due diligence phase on the property, it was discovered that there would be additional significant funds required for the program to work on that site,” it said in a written statement. “After some discussion and negotiation with the seller, Clemson submitted a notice to terminate the contract.”

The university also said it “continues to explore options for the continued success and growth of the architecture program on the Charleston peninsula where we have been for over 35 years.”

In June, the school’s board of trustees approved the acquisition of three properties, including a historic home that had been converted into offices, at 16 Charlotte, 515 East Bay and 102 Alexander streets. The site is a few blocks south of the Clemson Design Center’s existing campus.

The sale was expected to close Dec. 31, after a four-month inspection period.

The property owner is affiliated with the former Charleston-based medical firm NCGS Inc., which used it for its headquarters and put it on the market early last year after the business was sold.

Mark Mizell and Richard Callari of Birchin Lane Realty Advisors, who represents the seller, said the decision to terminate the deal wasn’t “driven by issues discovered about the building” during the inspection period and that it “was not in the best interest of our client to accommodate” Clemson’s “request to keep the property off the market for non-building related issues.”

“The seller, who has close ties to the university, was exceedingly accommodating ... but ultimately had to make the decision not to further extend,” they said. “The uniqueness of this offering and expressions of interest from other prospective buyers necessitated a return to the market.”