Friday 5

New Urban Living

DeisgnWorks LLC

Major developments reshape not only the way our cities look and function, but also how we think of our cities. With multiple large projects in the works, and an economy marked by questions, Charleston and the Lowcountry are balancing on the brink of changes that could redefine our urban identity — or leave us in limbo for years. Here are five projects with big implications.

Concord Park

Charleston made big moves to secure public spaces on the Cooper River in the 1990s, but its controversial bulldozing of the Ansonborough Homes public housing development still haunts those efforts. Last year, the city approved redevelopment plans that should top $150 million for about 3.5 acres of the 10-acre field. Concord Park is envisioned as a mixed-use urban development combining 60 units of affordable housing with shops, condos, offices and at least one hotel. Its effect could be enormous, connecting Marion Square to the aquarium via a Calhoun Street lined with grand buildings, while putting pressure on the State Ports Authority to give up its Union Street Terminal, which abuts Concord Park to the south.

Midtown

Dan Conover/The Post and Courier

Over the past decade, Upper King Street has been Charleston's thriving success story. Today, with a newly buffed streetscape and rising rents, Upper King Street's future waits on Midtown, a $150 million mixed-use development that's focused on a nine-story upscale hotel. The project would cover much of a 4.3-acre plot between Meeting and King streets, bound on the north by Spring Street and on the south by Woolfe Street. But with Midtown anchoring the north end of Upper King to the north and Marion Square in flux to the South, can the district's funky mix of bars, boutiques and locally owned shops survive?

Magnolia

Magnolia Development LLC

The Charleston Neck, a sprawling industrial area split by Interstate 26 and bound by stunning marshland views, has long marked Charleston's psychological boundary. The $216 million Magnolia project aims to redevelop 213 acres of it: an area roughly defined by the interstate on the east, the Ashley River on the west, Heriot Street on the south and the tiny Rosemont community on the north. But with plans for more than 4,000 homes and millions of square feet of office and retail space, all packed into a dense, new-urbanist core, Magnolia isn't just another in-fill project.

Will it reorient the North Central and Wagener Terrace neighborhoods to the north and spark a redevelopment boom in the Neck?

Marion Square

Goff D'Antonio Associates

Should we think of this 10-acre square as a historic parade ground or something that represents the heart of the city?

Three pending developments could answer that question: an eight-story luxury hotel on the northwest corner (right and at top of page); an eight-story mixed-use development at the corner of Calhoun and King streets; and the recently purchased federal building (vacant since 1999), which overlooks the square from Meeting Street. Marion Square's future identity might hinge on a preservationist lawsuit against the hotel that would replace the old county library: If it moves forward and others follow suit, then the square could soon be defined by some of the city's tallest, grandest buildings.

Migration

As Charleston landowners sit on vacant retail properties in anticipation of higher leases to come, some of the city's creative talent and entrepreneurial energy, squeezed by rents and availability, seem to be helping fuel a North Charleston renaissance. Ten Storehouse Row, a single building on the former Navy base, features many of the Lowcountry's top creative businesses, and the once-weary business district on East Montague has been transformed into a hip, happening scene. Will an exodus of artistic talent and improvements in the Neck Area turn the southern end of North Charleston into the next Upper King Street? Stay tuned.

For Dan's video essay on some of the themes in this Top 5, visit our site: charleston.net/friday5blog.