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MOUNT PLEASANT, S.C. (WCSC) - A new public greenspace project that honors the rich history of the Scanlonville Settlement Community is on its way to Mount Pleasant.

On Tuesday, town and project leaders, along with community members, gathered at the future site of the Scanlonville Praise House Parklet, located at the corner of Fifth Avenue and Mathis Ferry Road.

Mount Pleasant Mayor Will Haynie says that the parklet will be a part of their larger Mount Pleasant Way project, but the significance of this is to highlight what Scanlonville represents.

“It’s history, freedom for formerly enslaved people, ownership of land, and when Mount Pleasant Way can connect us to our history and to our culture, it’s so much more than recreation,” Haynie says.

The Scanlonville Settlement Community dates back to the 1860s when freedman John Scanlon purchased 614 acres of what was previously Remley’s Plantation at an auction for $6,100.

After Scanlon purchased the property, he founded the Charleston Land Company to provide land ownership opportunities to freed slaves. One hundred African American men each paid $10 a share to purchase large pieces of land.

They divided the Scanlonville property into a planned community with lots, streets, and common areas. By 1870, freed slaves who were interested in owning land could buy these lots.

“What’s important was the men that bought it, in 1860, they were considered property. By 1870, they were included in the senses of human beings,” President of the East Cooper Civic Club Edward Lee says.

The town has been working with the East Cooper Civic Club to help bring this vision to life, as Lee says, many descendants of the freed slaves still live in this area.

“I want history to be more than just a series of dates and events. History is really about people, so until you know the feeling and the perspective of the people that actually lived there, you don’t really get a true sense of what happened,” Lee says.

Plans feature signage and symbols spread out across the site telling the story of the Scanlonville culture.

This project costs $450,000, which is being funded in part by a grant from the National Heritage Corridor as well as town dollars.

Haynie says right now they don’t have an official date for the groundbreaking, as they are finalizing some of the design details.

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MOUNT PLEASANT — While one luxury car storage facility is celebrating its grand opening in Mount Pleasant, a town planning committee hit the brakes on a proposal for a second.

The luxury storage site, or "car condominiums," are individually owned garage-focused properties with their own TMS number on commercially zoned land.

They are built to be upwards of 1,500 square feet of climate-controlled space with nearly 20-foot ceilings, suitable for storing luxury vehicles, RVs, classic cars, boats and more.

The price tag? Around $400,000 per car "condo."

Mount Pleasant’s first car condominium, The Vault, located on Faison Road about halfway between Costco Wholesale and Mount Pleasant Regional Airport, will celebrate its grand opening May 30. The project broke ground in September 2024.

The Vault owner Lee Janik said the 29-unit property on two acres was fully leased well in advance of its opening, a testament to the needs of Mount Pleasant where people own multiple luxury vehicles, boats and RVs. The development company kept two units in hand but will list them for sale shortly after opening and expects to sell them both quickly.

“It’s for high-net-worth individuals with too many toys and nowhere to put them. Homeowners Association’s don’t allow anything in driveways,” Janik said. “I sold four units before I even owned the property. There are a number of (clients) who bought two units.”

Janik, who came up with his concept in 2021 as an offshoot of a luxury indoor boat storage business he owned in Ohio, is now in nine different markets working with real estate agents, car enthusiasts and more. He uses word-of-mouth to garner interest.

Owners get 24/7 access with water, bathrooms, kitchens and even loft-style living rooms for lounging with a secure access gate. The only restriction is that owners can’t live in the units or sleep inside them overnight.

He announced The Vault’s next expansion will be on Daniel Island, with property already under contract and the ability to build residential units on top of the mega-garages.

“We already have ten units sold on Daniel Island,” Janik said. “We sell units before we build, so we can customize the size (needed).”

Janik said he expects the Daniel Island location to be open in the next year-and-a-half.

Despite the demand for these types of developments, a second car condominium proposed for Mount Pleasant by another developer wasn't given the green light from two town planning bodies.

A proposed 55-unit car condominium over four acres in the Belle Hall Planned Unit Development, accessible from Seacoast Parkway and adjacent to Long Point Road, was recommended for denial by the Mount Pleasant Planning Committee and Planning Commission May 5. Florida-based developer WHWE, LLC proposed the project.

Chris Pilinko, with WHWE, LLC, said the luxury storage facility would be priced between $400,000 and $500,000, and would include a monthly regime fee.

“We've done three of these in other markets and have a local partner who has identified this site. They're very low intensity uses. They have no demand on public services,” Pilinko said at the planning meeting.

Committee members said there were better uses for the commercially zoned location than the use for individually owned garages to store luxury vehicles.

“I think the residents would much prefer a grocery store or a restaurant as an amenity to the community rather than $400,000 to $500,000-owned storage,” said Guang Ming Whitley, planning committee chairman and town council member.

Rumors had been swirling for nearly a year that the supermarket at the Target-anchored Shoppes at Seaside Farms was planning to shut its doors.

The grocery chain's confirmed closing means that residents in the mixed-use development at the Isle of Palms Connector and Rifle Range Road will have about a month to find an alternative.

“There’s been a lot of controversy about this since many people in the greater Seaside Farms community feel like they were ‘promised’ a grocery store in the beginning when (the community) was being developed,” said DeAnne Reed Vane, director of marketing at Franke At Seaside, a retirement and active lifestyle community within walking distance of the supermarket. “I think we would all hope to see another grocery go into that space.”

In a statement this week, Harris Teeter stated the decision to close followed a “careful consideration and strategic market review.”

While the nearby Target in the Shoppes at Seaside has a grocery section, Vane said the selection is much smaller than what Harris Teeters offers.

“Target does have a grocery section that takes up about a third of the store, but only very small refrigerated section and limited in some types of groceries," Vane said. "I imagine our 250 independent-living residents will be greatly inconvenienced by this closing, as will our staff of approximately 275 employees."

The next-nearest grocery option is a Trader Joe's store that opened last year in Sweetgrass Corner.

Speculation about the Harris Teeter closing started nearly a year ago after the supermarket chain's landlord announced in a marketing email that the 45,660-square-foot space would be available to lease.

Danna Robinson, spokeswoman for the grocery store, told The Post and Courier it began notifying employees on April 24.

“In the coming weeks, the company will work closely with its valued associates to assist them through the closing process. Harris Teeter will offer its associates the opportunity to transfer to other locations," Robinson said in a statement.

The Kroger Co.-owned chain moved into Seaside Farms in October 2013. Previously, the space with its 40-foot vaulted ceiling had been the "flagship" supermarket for the defunct Piggly Wiggly Carolina franchise, which built it in 1996.

With the closing, Harris Teeter will have 18 stores in the Charleston area.

The chain has announced supermarkets for two undeveloped parcels — in the Carnes Crossroads area of Goose Creek and at Maybank Highway and River Road on Johns Island. No formal plans have been announced for either site.

MOUNT PLEASANT — The S.C. Shrimpers Association is suing the 40 unidentified Charleston-area restaurants that were recently found to be selling imported shrimp following a genetic study by a Texas-based research firm.

The federal complaint, filed June 13 on behalf of the association by attorney Gedney Howe IV, accuses the restaurants of false advertising and violating South Carolina's Unfair Trade Practices Act.

That statute states that knowingly misrepresenting food as a South Carolina-produced product is an unfair trade practice.

Joined by representatives and chefs from nearby restaurants, Howe and association leaders announced the lawsuit from the humid docks of Shem Creek.

"These boys don't want a lot. They just want to be able to work and earn a living and continue the work that their parents and grandparents that came before them did," Howe said.

The defendants, called John Doe Restaurants 1-40 in the complaint, were secretly tested by SeaD Consulting, a Texas-based research firm, in late May.

A team took small samples of cooked shrimp sold by the restaurants, some of which were labeled on menus as being wild-caught in the United States. Some locations were selected for using shrimp boats and other imagery. The 40 establishments named in the lawsuit were found to be selling imported shrimp, not U.S.-caught shrimp.

Because SeaD Consulting did not release the names of the 40 restaurants they claimed were misleading consumers on June 10, it’s unclear if all the defendants were publicly advertising local, wild-caught shrimp but serving the imported product.

A representative for SeaD Consulting said the company had not seen the lawsuit and declined to comment.

The complaint alleges that passing off imported, farm-raised shrimp as wild-caught threatens to "irreparably harm the strong reputation and customer goodwill" earned by South Carolina shrimpers.

Rocky Magwood, president of the S.C. Shrimpers Association and a fourth-generation shrimper, said he has spent his entire life fighting to keep the industry alive. He hopes the testing results, and the subsequent lawsuit, can change the tide for the dying industry.

"Now that we we have some proof ... hopefully we can get something to come out of this, because it's wrong," Magwood said. "It's been a long time coming."

The association is seeking monetary damages, an amount to be determined at trial, as well as an injunction against the 40 restaurants. The injunction would prohibit restaurants from labeling imported or farm-raised shrimp as wild-caught or local, Howe said.

Restaurant community reacts

For many, the genetic testing results published June 10 by SeaD Consulting were shocking. For others, the fact that only four of the 44 restaurants sampled served wild-caught shrimp came as no surprise.

Kerry Marhefka, a biologist and member of the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council, suspected that if every restaurant in the tri-county area were to be tested, the ratio would be about the same.

"It's a huge problem, and it's not just shrimp," Marhefka said.

There are reasons for serving imported seafood, Marhefka said, whether it's access or cost of goods. But the issue in this case, she said, is whether some restaurateurs are lying about what's on their menus.

"Don't try to pass off to the public that it's local when it's not," Marhefka said. "The key is to be honest."

She does have one concern about the study: By not naming the supposed offenders, researchers have put the entire restaurant industry on the defensive to say they are not one of the 40, Marhefka said.

Allison Cagle, an owner of The Wreck of the Richard and Charlene restaurant off Shem Creek, said the seafood establishment tucked away on Haddrell Street in Mount Pleasant has "only ever served locally sourced shrimp right here from our South Carolina shrimpers."

"While we were very happy with the testing, finally, it was the manner in which the results were reported, I was kind of shocked," she said. "The exclusion felt purposeful, even though I'm quite sure it wasn't, but there are a lot of people in this area serving nothing but great locally-sourced shrimp."

Local purveyors like Tarvin Seafood have taken to social media to highlight the many restaurants that do serve local shrimp. Still, the news has sent waves of chatter through the dining community.

"I know a lot of restaurants here in Charleston are probably using the shrimp that are being outsourced. They get at a cheaper price, but at the end of the day, it's hurting our families that are around here," said Grant Smith, director of restaurants for Miller's All Day.

Parker Milner contributed to this report.

MOUNT PLEASANT, S.C. (WCSC) - Mount Pleasant town leaders will consider a change to an ordinance that would allow owners of a former restaurant to build a hotel in its place, a move the town’s mayor is against.

The town’s planning commission has recommended amending the Seaside Farms Planned Development District Ordinance to allow for a small boutique-style hotel to be built. That hotel, which would be limited to no more than 25 rooms, would be built at the site of the former Yamato Steakhouse on Riviera Drive.

The owners of the former restaurant hope to build the new hotel within the Neighborhood Retail and Office Tracts on a 2.4-acre parcel of land near the Isle of Palms Connector.

But Mayor Will Haynie says he does not believe many of the town council members are on board with the change based on conversations he has had with them. He says the neighborhood was initially designed to have grocery stores, restaurants, pharmacies, and retail all in one place to reduce driving traffic.

Adding a hotel there, he believes, would add to beach traffic.

“I just don’t see how putting something that is just for transient use is within the keeping of what the neighbors want and by far from what I’ve heard of seaside neighbors is they don’t want another hotel in there, not every single one, but by far the majority of them feel that way,” Haynie says.

One business owner who declined to speak on camera said with the Harris Teeter next to the potential development site going out of business, having a hotel may help bring in business from visitors.

Haynie said he would like to see that space turned into something people who live in that neighborhood can use.

“As Mount Pleasant has grown, one reason this was put up there was to be a place where when you get home, if you have to commute, maybe you can work from home, that you don’t have to leave and contribute to the traffic on all the major arteries,” he says. “And so I look at something like this through that intent and that was the original intent of that whole neighborhood, and I’d like to see it stay that way.”

Haynie said if the proposal gets voted down, the property owners must wait a year before they can reapply or that can be waived if they come back with a different plan.

If someone buys the property and uses the zoning as is, town council does not have to vote on everything that goes on there.

This proposal is unrelated to the Harris Teeter property. There are no plans to convert that space into housing or a hotel, and it currently has two strong leasing prospects, town leaders say.