Women's Clothing Boutique in North Mount Pleasant, SC

MOUNT PLEASANT, S.C. (WCBD)- A handful of businesses in The Bend at Carolina Park are open with locals responding well to one in particular.

“It was incredibility busy our first week. We’ve seen wonderful numbers. Literally our first week we had lines out the door,” said Webb Cheshire, the owner of The Front Porch Coffeehouse and Creamery.

Neighbors are thankful for the new shopping center which features several local businesses.

“It’s been wonderful to have things close by. We had Costco first. We’ve had the hospital here. We did get different amenities like the CVS Pharmacy down there. But we’ve not had individual small businesses,” said Tina Kaiser, who has lived in Carolina Park since 2017.

“I think it’s much needed. My wife and I came down here a year ago to see where we wanted to live. We love Mount Pleasant,” said Chad Anderson, who moved his family to Carolina Park in 2021.

The development comes as more homes are built along Faison Road in Carolina Park. Mount Pleasant Mayor Will Haynie says that the town’s job is to zone and promote the area.

“The free market will decide which things go where, what is needed and what the demand is for that area,” said Haynie.

Haynie says that a business that is good for the town provides jobs, a needed good or service and better livability for neighbors. Another consideration for the town is how to balance growth and environmental impact.

“Town Council doesn’t sit there and decide winners and losers. If somebody has the zoning to build something they go ahead and build it,” said Haynie. “As you saw with the vote about where hotels should go that’s how we make sure that the feel and the livability of Mount Pleasant stays where it is.”

The positive of new businesses that has neighbors talking is not having to drive down Highway 17 to find local options to shop and dine.

“I think we’re able to find more things closer to Carolina Park,” said Kaiser.

“I think all these stores like The Front Porch in this plaza is much needed in this area,” said Anderson. “I definitely appreciate the small business.”

A new dining venue with ties to a principal of a planned downtown Charleston culinary venture and another Lowcountry restaurant is in the works for northern Mount Pleasant.

Interior construction is underway on Migliori's Restaurant at 1146 Muhlenbergia Drive in a three-space suite next to Results Physiotherapy off U.S. Highway 17 just north of S.C. Highway 41. The new business recently applied for its state license to sell alcoholic beverages.

Donald Migliori, an attorney with Motley Rice LLC, is the registered agent of the new restaurant.

"We look forward to opening this additional location ... in the beginning of 2024," Migliori said.

Charleston County land records show Migliori bought the 0.85-acre parcel where the new restaurant is being built for $3.45 million in 2022.

Migliori also has a nearby 2,000-square-foot pizza restaurant at 1055 Highway 41, near a CVS drug store and Sonic Drive-In restaurant. The pizzeria will move to the new 6,000-square-foot site on Muhlenbergia Drive early next year, according to company spokesman Jared Black.

After the move, the existing restaurant will remain in operation but eventually be transformed into a new Italian concept by the middle of next year, Black said.

Additionally, Migliori is involved in the long-planned makeover of a former fine-dining site on the peninsula.

He is the listed agent for Pasta Beach Charleston LLC, which recently re-upped its application to sell booze at 492 King St., where the former 492 restaurant operated for four years until it closed in 2018.

Earlier in the summer, Migliori said work on the King Street site is still underway and an opening timeframe is several months away. Black said the focus is on the new Mount Pleasant venue for now and the downtown restaurant could open by mid-2024 "if everything comes together."

A group of investors bought the two-story structure at the corner of Mary Street and other items including equipment in 2021 for $6.8 million through a firm called CasaMigs Realty LLC.

A small New England Italian restaurant chain with two locations in Rhode Island and one in Boston also operates under the name Pasta Beach. In 2022, operations director J. Eldredge Ropolo told The Boston Globe that the family-owned business was planning a new establishment in Charleston.

Black said Pasta Beach was the original name for the new downtown venue, but that's no longer the case. He said the site will either open as an Italian venue under the Migliori umbrella or be leased for another restaurant operator.

New leases

Three new shops are coming to a Hanahan shopping center anchored by Piggly Wiggly supermarket.

An alcoholic beverage store and two vape suppliers recently leased space in Yeaman's Hall Plaza on Yeamans Hall Road, according to the commercial real estate firm Coldwell Banker Commercial Atlantic.

James Pugh leased 900 square feet at 1286 Yeamans Hall Road for a liquor store while FX LLC leased 900 square feet at 1288 Yeamans Hall Road and 720 square feet at 1302 Yeamans Hall Road for vape shops.

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

Email

Now open

A Florence-based memorial shop recently opened an outpost in Charleston.

MOUNT PLEASANT — The saying goes that beggars can’t be choosers, and Trader Joe’s certainly doesn’t need to beg for business (if you've ever fought for a parking spot on a Sunday afternoon, you know).

The California-based grocery chain has a reputation for being highly selective about where it opens new stores — even if that means choosing a second location a few miles from an existing one.

Trader Joe’s confirmed in January that Mount Pleasant will soon have not one, but two stores in town.

The announcement sparked excitement, praise and a fair amount of grumbling from outside fans of the grocery chain who believe their communities are more deserving of a new Trader Joe's location. A post about the chain's plans for Mount Pleasant drew more than 800 comments on The Post and Courier's Facebook page.

"This is the craziest decision," one reader groused. "Right around the corner basically from the current one...why not spread out a bit and go to James Island, West Ashley, N. Charleston or Summerville?"

"Do better Trader Joes," another demanded. "Two locations in the same area is preposterous."

As one might imagine, the news received a much more favorable reception in Mount Pleasant.

Tasha Blomquist and her son perused the floral offerings in front of the store on a cloudy morning. Blomquist said she stops by the store twice a week and is eager to see a new location, hopefully, in the northern part of town, where she lives.

“I live way in north Mount Pleasant, so I’m happy there might be one there,” Blomquist said. “I think it’s needed though because every time I’m here … I feel like you have to do multiple laps around the parking lot just to find a spot.”

Another shopper, Kelly Crowley, who lives near Brickyard Plantation, said opening a second store will hopefully cut down on crowds.

“We come by here pretty regularly. If you come here on Sunday or even Saturday, it’s lines all the way back into the aisle," Crowley said.

Though Trader Joe’s has not disclosed where the new store will be, multiple sources have told The Post and Courier the grocery chain is considering the old Bi-Lo building at the foot of the Isle of Palms Connector — a few miles from the store on Johnnie Dodds Boulevard that opened in 2011, and not farther into northern Mount Pleasant as customers like Blomquist would hope.

The proximity to an existing store seems like a head-scratching move — why does Mount Pleasant get two stores 5 miles apart, bypassing places like Summerville or West Ashley?

Demand for a Trader Joe’s in these areas is high, as evidenced by petitions that attract thousands of signatures calling for the chain to open the shop in their towns and cities.

One such petition from 2020 that called for a store in Summerville earned nearly 5,000 signatures. Another in West Ashley gained over 6,000.

Similar efforts also crop up in Myrtle Beach regularly. The city is one of South Carolina’s fastest-growing, yet you won’t find a Trader Joe's in the coastal municipality. Former Horry County Director of Planning David Schwerd said he had that conversation over and over during his 30-year tenure.

Today's Top Headlines

“'We need Trader Joe's. Everybody always wants a Trader Joe's. Pretty much every time a commercial rezoning or development planning comes up, it's usually the first one that gets mentioned,” Schwerd said.

Jeff Campbell, the University of South Carolina's department of retailing chair, said grocery stores, particularly Trader Joe's, are extremely strategic in opening new locations. You won't see a Trader Joe's on every corner, and they take their time scouting areas before settling on a city.

"Typically, they would use a variety of metrics in site selection, and while location is still an important consideration, they'll look at things like projected foot traffic, the demographics of the area, where the current transportation routes are, where competitors are located," Campbell said.

Myrtle Beach being a hot spot for tourists might not be attractive to the chain either. People who visit the coastal city are looking to stock up for the week, heading to Walmart or Costco for items in bulk, rather than prepackaged, single-serve foods, Campbell said.

People can request that Trader Joe’s consider their city for a new store. Nakia Rohde, a spokesperson for Trader Joe’s, said the company receives “tons” of requests for stores nationwide.

The company doesn’t share much about how it chooses the perfect site for a new Trader Joe's. But Schwerd has a hunch. He pointed to the region’s median income, age and education level — factors the grocer is thought to consider when choosing sites for a new store.

“They have their undisclosed lists of what they're looking for in demographics,” Schwerd said. “Even though Trader Joe's does not list any specific criteria in their evaluation, that's what they're looking for. They have an upscale, educated clientele.”

An interview with Joe Coulombe, the store’s founder and namesake, published in the LA Times in 2011 demonstrates this ideology that seems to have stuck with the company: “Unless you have enough well-educated people, Trader Joe’s will not work.”

Because of these factors, Schwerd said Horry County or Myrtle Beach are unlikely to get a Trader Joe’s any time soon.

According to U.S. census data, Myrtle Beach has a median income of $57,713, a median age of 51.5 years and 28.8 percent of residents who hold bachelor’s degrees or higher.

Mount Pleasant’s median age of 41.3 years is slightly higher than the state’s 40.5 years, but in Greenville and Columbia, where the other two Trader Joe’s are located, the median ages are much younger at 35.9 and 28.4, respectively.

“They want younger consumers, they want a little bit better-income consumers," Campbell said.

Mount Pleasant, where the median income is $114,237 and 66 percent of residents hold a bachelor’s degree, is far above the state’s median income level of roughly $64,000 and where 32.6 percent of the state hold bachelor's degrees.

So, Trader Joe’s wants to open stores in higher-earning areas with higher volumes of college-educated folks, and Mount Pleasant happens to fit the bill. It fits so well that shoppers will soon find half of South Carolina's Trader Joe's in town.

Campbell, who lives in Lexington, said he’d like to welcome a store in his city, but it’s not likely — it's just not what Trader Joe’s is looking for.

“They're not trying to sell to everybody. They're trying to sell to a particular demographic, and that demographic tends to do very well,” Campbell said.

Reach Anna Sharpe at 843-806-6790.

You’re seeing The Post and Courier's weekly real estate newsletter. Receive all the latest transactions and top development, building, and home and commercial sales news to your inbox each Saturday here.

Once-vacant restaurant buildings in the Charleston area continue to see new life through new dining venues, including one coming soon to Mount Pleasant.

Alabama-based restaurant chain Big Bad Breakfast will open its second location in the Charleston area later this month in a space that once served morning meals.

The breakfast venue is taking over the spot vacated in January by Cabana Burgers & Shakes at 2664 Highway 17, near the recently opened Bohemian Bull restaurant. A soft opening is set for Aug. 26, with the grand opening on Aug. 29.

Real Estate

Before Cabana Burgers & Shakes’ eight-month run at the site, the property housed an Eggs Up Grill location that closed in 2021.

The restaurant will be open 7 a.m.-2:30 p.m. daily, serving a full breakfast menu along with lunch items such as sandwiches, burgers and salads as well as alcoholic beverages that include mimosas, beer and wine.

The other Lowcountry location, at 456 Meeting St. in downtown Charleston, opened in 2019.

Big Bad Breakfast has 17 other locations across eight states in the Southeast, with three more in the works. They stretch as far west as Little Rock, Ark., where another one is planned, to as far north as Louisville, Ky.

Others are planned for Huntsville, Ala., and Durham, N.C., according to the company’s website.

Earlier this week, Lowcountry-based Free Reign Restaurants announced it will open a new fine dining venture call Honeysuckle Rose in the former Purlieu brasserie at Fishburne and President streets.

Want to receive this newsletter in your inbox every Saturday? Sign up for free.

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

Email

An Ohio-based developer with a presence on the Charleston peninsula plans to build a large multifamily complex of nearly 500 units off U.S. Highway 78 and Interstate 26.

3: Number of floors offering dining and entertainment at a new restaurant venue in downtown Charleston.

10.1: Millions of dollars paid for a 26,256-square-foot medical office building in North Charleston.

876,587: Square footage of new industrial building​​​​​​​ completed by Charleston-based construction company.

Boom & Balance

+ On the way: A new restaurant venture is coming to a 2,800-square-foot site in Mount Pleasant where two previous dining operations were located.

+ New coop: A chicken tender restaurant chain plans to take over a former chicken restaurant in Goose Creek.

+ Going dark: A newly two-decade-old Charleston peninsula business will close at the end of September.

A Charleston restaurant group plans to add two new dining venues on the peninsula to its existing three across the Lowcountry.

Real Estate

Did a friend forward you this email? Subscribe here.

Craving more? Check out all of the Post and Courier's newsletters here.

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

As the Charleston area continues to grow and attract more residents, so does the need for food and the vendors who provide it.

No fewer than 12 new grocery stores are in the works across the Lowcountry, including plans to tear down and replace one store on site and relocate two others.

Around Charleston, the population boom — now expanding at an average net daily rate of 36 residents, according to the latest update — keeps fueling competition among supermarket chains that are angling to be as close as possible to the proliferating housing enclaves that keep their cash registers ringing.

That's about 13,300 new residents each year spread across Charleston, Berkeley and Dorchester counties, with many of the newcomers settling on the fringes of the growing region, especially in large-scale developments in Goose Creek, Moncks Corner and Summerville.

The three counties saw a 20 percent population surge over the past decade to a combined 830,000 residents, according to the Charleston Regional Development Alliance.

Competing grocery chains closely analyze the numbers to decide where to set up shop.

By one measure, a general rule for a full-service supermarket of 40,000 square feet or more to be viable is to have 10,000 residents, or about 4,000 rooftops, within a 20-mile radius. If there's competition in the market, the required number of residents is higher and vice versa for an area with no rivals.

Berkeley bound

Near Summerville, North Carolina-based Harris Teeter and competitor Publix of Florida are building stores on Nexton Parkway, across the street from one another, to serve the developing 5,000-acre Nexton community, eventually home to nearly 19,000 residents.

Both are set to be completed this year in the Berkeley County development, with Harris Teeter set to open in the spring and Publix likely welcoming customers by mid-year, according to Nexton spokeswoman Cassie Cataline.

On the opposite side of Nexton, Lowes Foods of North Carolina plans to build a new supermarket on North Creek Drive, across the street from the Cane Bay development.

It will anchor a retail center on the corner near fast-food restaurant McDonald's. Look for an opening possibly in 2025, according to property owner and Charleston businessman Eddie Buck.

A little farther to the east, Publix also plans to anchor a corner shopping center at U.S. Highways 176 and 17A in Carnes Crossroads, a 2,300-acre mixed-use housing development that could accommodate about 11,000 residents at full buildout. Like Lowes Foods, it is expected to open in 2025, according to a Publix spokesman.

Cartload of competition

Southwest of Summerville, another Publix could begin construction in 2025, based on bidding documents last fall that show a 51,454-square-foot store slated for a 10-acre site on Beech Hill Road, across from the planned 8,000-home Summers Corner community.

The 7,200-acre mixed-use community with schools and shops has about 1,200 homes sold and another 250 under construction, according to Jason Byham, division president at Lennar, the homebuilder that bought the tract for more than $26 million in 2018.

In Mount Pleasant, three new grocery stores are in the works.

The Fresh Market of North Carolina plans to take over the 26,000-square-foot site discount grocer Lidl abandoned before moving in at Bowman Place Shopping Center at Bowman Road and Johnnie Dodds Boulevard.

The Greensboro-based grocer took over the remainder of the 15-year tenant agreement Lidl signed three years ago with the option for 15 additional years, according to a document filed in the Charleston County land records office.

Fresh Market has not announced an opening timeframe.

Business

On the northern end of the East Cooper town of nearly 100,000 people, discount grocer Aldi leased several acres at U.S. Highway 17 and KOA Campgrounds Road for a second Mount Pleasant location.

Aldi plans to build a 23,000-square-foot store on the land next to South Morgans Point Road after signing a lease last spring for 20 years with the option to renew up to 25 years. Construction has not begun, and the no-frills grocer has not announced a projected opening timeframe.

Also in the works is a new Trader Joe's. The California-based, German-owned chain recently confirmed its plans to open a second store in Mount Pleasant. The site was not announced, but the grocer is looking at part of the former Bi-Lo supermarket site in Sweetgrass Corner Shopping Center near Highway 17 and the Isle of Palms connector.

On James Island, German-owned Aldi recently leased 22,000 square feet in the former Bi-Lo supermarket on Folly Road.

Retail

The company's seventh Lowcountry store will sit next to Planet Fitness and likely open in 2025 "if not earlier," according to Mark Hoffman, director of development for New Jersey-based Garden Communities, which has owned the 4.5-acre retail center since 1994.

Building bigger

Three existing supermarkets are set to be replaced.

On Daniel Island, Publix wants to demolish its longtime store on Seven Farms Drive and build a 50,472-square-foot store and pocket park it in its place in the same location, according to plans presented to the city.

The new construction will replace the existing 29,618-square-foot supermarket that was built in 2002 as the only grocery store allowed on Daniel Island under an agreement with the developer of the master-planned community.

Construction likely won't start until 2025, and it will take 12-18 months to build the new store, according to Publix spokesman Jared Glover.

The grocer hasn't announced interim plans for shoppers while the replacement is being built. The nearest option for shoppers is across the Wando River — a Harris Teeter five miles away on Long Point Road in Mount Pleasant. Publix has another store about 7 miles north in the Point Hope development off Clements Ferry Road.

In West Ashley, plans are making their way through the city review process to relocate Publix from a free-standing building at Ashley Landing Shopping Center to a newly constructed site on the eastern side of the main retail center where Big Lots and Dollar Tree currently operate.

The property owner has not projected a relocation timeframe, and the future of the current Publix site has not been determined.

Finally, plans are in the works to build a new Harris Teeter supermarket up to 65,000 square feet on part of a 50-acre parcel adjacent to Freshfields Village Shopping Center between Kiawah and Seabrook islands.

The larger grocery store will replace the existing site in Freshfields. It's part of a planned 160,000-square-foot retail center that will connect to Freshfields off Kiawah Island Parkway.

The new supermarket probably won't materialize until 2027 as plans are still to be finalized, according to Chris Corrada, a principal with the development firm Riverstone Properties of Richmond, Va., which owns the parcel to be developed.

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