Happy first Friday of 2025, Charleston! We all have them. Friends who wear shorts and flip-flops when temps dip to near-freezing. We’ll just have fewer this weekend. 👇🏼👇🏼

Congrats to Xan M. of Park Circle , who was the 1st to guess correctly in our “Where Are We” segment last week! Our photo was the Cigar Factory project, off east Bay Street downtown. One of my favorite coffee shops, Mercantile & Mash, is located there. Go on Donut Wednesday. 😆

In today’s newsletter:

• If it seems like commercial real estate projects take FOREVER to come online in Charleston... Trust your instincts. 🏢

• Craft beer and sushi? It’s coming to north Mount Pleasant. 🍱

• ICYMI. Fresh baguettes in a new cafe, more chicken please, and a new cocktail bar with a one-of-a-kind invention. 🤵🏼‍♂️

Friday 59° / 34° ⛅ 💧2%

Saturday 50° / 34° ☀️ 💧1%

Sunday 54° / 47° ☀️ 💧2%

Friday, January 3

• New Times Three: New Artists, New Work, and a New Year. | 5 - 8 PM | Charleston Crafts Gallery, 140 East Bay Street, Suite D, Charleston | Announcing “New Times Three: New Artists, New Work, and a New Year”, in conjunction with the Charleston Gallery Association Art Walk evening celebrations.

• James Island Town Market | 6 - 9 PM | Town Hall Parking Lot, 1122 Dills Bluff Road, Charleston | The James Island Town Market is set to take place the first Friday of every month and will have live music, crafts, lawn games, food trucks and fresh produce vendors.

• North Charleston Arts Fest 2024 | 6 - 8 PM I North Charleston Coliseum & Performing Arts Center, 5001 Coliseum Dr, North Charleston | Opening Celebration & Art Reception, Hall C. The North Charleston Arts Fest features five days of events highlighting regional and local artists and performers in the areas of Dance, Music, Theatre, Visual Arts, and Literature. Residents and visitors are invited to experience a diverse array of free performances, exhibitions, and activities in a variety of venues, including libraries, businesses, community centers, and parks.

Saturday, January 4

• Tri It For Life Information Session | 11 AM - 2 PM | Wando Mount Pleasant, 1400 Carolina Park Blvd., Mount Pleasant | Tri It For Life Charleston will be having a drop-in information session for women looking to get more active in 2025. The nonprofit organization supports women with the training and support to complete their first beginner-friendly triathlon. All backgrounds and fitness levels welcome. There will be light refreshments and games for children and adults.

• School of Rock Mount Pleasant at Firefly Distillery! | 12 - 7 PM | Firefly Distillery, 4201 Spruill Avenue, North Charleston | Start the year off right with an electrifying day of live music, featuring the talented students from School of Rock Mount Pleasant! These young rockstars have been perfecting their favorite classic hits over the past four months and are ready to take the stage with an unforgettable setlist, including songs from AC/DC, Taylor Swift, and epic Arena Rock classics. This is School of Rock's debut performance at the legendary Firefly, so don't miss this exciting milestone! ✨ Admission is FREE!

• Towson Tigers at College of Charleston Cougars Mens Basketball I 2 PM | TD Arena, 301 Meeting Street, Charleston

• Ziggymoto at Charleston Pour House (Deck) I 6 PM | Pour House, 1977 Maybank Hwy, Charleston | Ziggymoto is Charleston’s freshest ‘Worldbeat’ band, melding influences from African, Cuban, and Caribbean traditional music with American pop, jazz, and rock, forming their own eclectic style. Ziggymoto mixes their original music with fun well known covers, including unique, Latin influenced takes on songs from The Grateful Dead and the Allman Brothers.

Sunday, January 5

• Sunday Brunch Farmers Market | 11 AM - 3 PM | Pour House, 1977 Maybank Hwy, Charleston | Come see The Sparkle Bar every Sunday Funday at The Charleston Pour House. You can book an appointment for fairy hair and feathers on our website or just stop by our booth! Shop local makers, artists, farmers and enjoy live music with the community!

• SC Stingrays vs. Jacksonville Icemen I 3:05 PM | North Charleston Coliseum & Performing Arts Center, 5001 Coliseum Dr, North Charleston | Join us for our final regular season home game, where we recognize the best fans in the ECHL on Fan Appreciation Night, presented by Amped Electric. Fans in attendance will receive a free T-Shirt!

• Reggae Nights on the Deck at Charleston Pour House Hosted by Operation Irie I 6:30 PM | Pour House, 1977 Maybank Hwy, Charleston |

  Hosted by Operation Irie featuring different guest vocalists & other guests each week. 2 sets of Live Reggae Music

For a COMPLETE list of events in the Charleston area, bookmark the site below!

DEVELOPMENT

Is It Like This Everywhere?!

Imagine this: it’s early-1998, I’m at my desk in downtown DC and I receive a call from a waaay-back client I did business with during the godawful recession of 1992.

When I worked with him in the early-90s, he was with a Japanese real estate company that had just built a beautiful new 31-story office building in the heart of Baltimore’s financial district.

The problem? This glorious new skyscraper had zero office tenants in its 465,000 square feet. Which included 2 ground floor restaurant spaces.

For context, imagine the old Morris Sokol Furniture building on upper King Street. This building had almost 20 times the amount of available space.

My client was hoping I’d “bring a great restaurant to help me lease the office floors”.

Which I did. But it did little to help him lease all that office space. It would take years before The Alex Brown Building was anywhere close to fully-leased.

Fast Forward To 1998

This loyal client must have thought I did a good job for him 6 years earlier. When he reached out in late-1998, he was the head of commercial development for Toll Brothers, a luxury home builder.

Which incidentally builds a great home in multiple communities throughout the Charleston area.

Kevin was wondering if I’d look at several undeveloped land parcels at the front of 2 huge new-home communities Toll Brothers was planning in Northern Virginia.

Think Nexton or Cane Bay sized communities.

He wanted my take on whether the sites would be good grocery-anchored shopping center developments.

They were located in 2 of the Top 10 fastest-growing counties in the country during the 90’s.

I came back with this assessment: despite the grazing cows, not grocery customers, occupying the land, these were 2 STELLAR sites that were squarely in a growth path, and we should get planning.

We celebrated the grand opening of these 2 shopping centers in Fall of 2005, 7 years after I first visited the sites.

Charleston Circa 2025

Every development site has its unique challenges. My point is they simply take time to come to fruition.

And it doesn’t matter whether it’s located in Northern Virginia or Charleston.

Take the project now known as Magnolia Landing fronting the Ashley River on the peninsula. By the time a restaurant opens or an apartment tenant moves in, planning and construction will have taken close to 3 decades.

This site is unique, and is on the far end of the “Long-Ass Development Time” spectrum.

For decades, the site was the home to old-world fertilizer makers, a wood-treatment plant and other heavy-industrial businesses that left behind a hazardous mix of contaminants, from lead to arsenic to creosote.

Cleanup efforts have been ongoing for years. Much of that work has been done.

Add engineering and architectural studies for what will be a massive mixed-use project, City of Charleston plan review, collaborating with relevant federal and state authorities on waterway impacts, public hearings, equity partner and lender approvals, construction budgeting…

Whew. Is there any wonder why they take time?

Highland Resources, Magnolia Landing’s developer, is confident there will be a 2025 groundbreaking.

WHERE ARE WE?

Each week, watch this space for a random snap from somewhere in Charleston. Where are we? Only true locals will know. DM your guess on Instagram, or email me here. The first person to guess correctly will get a shout-out at the top of our issue next week!

RESTAURANTS

Craft Beer & Sushi Go Together

Community Crafthouse opened on Daniel Island last Fall. Things must be going well.

Crafthouse North, from the same owners, will open in the Carolina Park neighborhood of Mount Pleasant in 2025. They’ll share a brand new strip center with four other businesses, including Yoga Circle and Cremino Gelato & Caffe.

I love it when retailers and restauranteurs are focused and stick to what they’re good at. Tessa and Todd Miller, the owners of both concepts, recognize this.

They brought in Max Sushi Charleston when they opened on Daniel island and plan on partnering with them at Crafthouse North.

Crafthouse North is targeting a spring 2025 opening.

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It’ll help me grow CHS Happenings and keep bringing you cool new perks like our events calendar. 🙏🏼

ICYMI

🛋️ Neighborly opened in Park Circle. It’s a collection of locally-owned retailers, including J. Stark who moved from King Street.

🥖 A French bakery opens to long lines. Don’t fret, it means the baguettes at Petit Merci, in Harleston Village downtown, are worth waiting for.

☕ Harold’s Cabin is gone but Lillian’s is here. And I’m hearing great things about it already.

🍗 Do we have enough chicken in CHS? No! And we have 2 more chicken restaurants to prove it.

🍸 This isn’t just any cocktail bar. Chubby Fish’s owners opened Seahorse and they have an only-one-in-Charleston invention made in Japan to help make beverages.

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FEEDBACK

Got 15 seconds? Let us know what you thought about today’s newsletter by replying to this email or voting in the poll below (you’ll be done MUCH faster than cars on Johnnie Dodds at 4:00 PM on a Friday). 👇