kitchen countertopsIn Mount Pleasant, SC

An Ohio-based taco chain plans to open two restaurants in South Carolina this year in Charleston and Greenville.

They’re among a dozen U.S. locations that Condado Tacos said it’s planning to launch in 2023, with eight in new markets.

The Charleston-area eatery will be at 1712 Towne Centre Way next to Lenscrafters in Mount Pleasant Towne Centre, according to Condado Tacos spokesman Roger Drake. A late fall opening is planned.

“The lease is in landlord’s hand, and we expect to sign soon,” Drake said.

The corner site, which is under renovation, previously housed Atlanta Bread Co. for nearly two decades before it closed in 2018.

The Upstate restaurant will be at 1025 Woodruff Road in Magnolia Park and is set to open in late February, Drake said.

The company also plans to open in St. Louis, Buffalo, Birmingham and Huntsville in Alabama, as well as in Knoxville, Tenn., and Louisville, Ky., along with four new restaurants in existing markets.

The company partners with local artists in each community to create unique murals inside each restaurant.

The build-your-own taco concept first opened in Ohio’s state capital in 2014. It now has 40 locations in 15 markets, including Cincinnati, Cleveland, Columbus, Detroit, Indianapolis, Nashville, Pittsburgh, Charlotte and Lexington, Ky. Condado Tacos plans to have more than 100 restaurants by 2026.

The brand’s planned expansion is backed by private equity firm The Beekman Group.

Coming soon

A new pub soon will be serving guests in downtown Charleston.

Sean Muldoon and Jillian Vose, the duo behind New York City’s Dead Rabbit venue, plan to open Hazel and Apple in the spring at 549 King St. next to watering hole Prohibition. They have partnered with Prohibition owner James Walsh on the project that was first announced last summer.

The name, according to the website, is derived from hazel being “traditionally associated with wisdom and the poetic power of dreams in rural Ireland, while apple celebrates energy, vitality and abundance.”

The enterprise will include two separate bars. The front part will be called Hazel while the back bar will be Apple, which includes an outdoor patio.

Hazel will offer the ambiance of an Irish pub along with traditional pub grub while Apple will additionally offer a bit of elegance with upscale cocktails and serve as an event and private party space.

The design, of course, includes hazelwood, the green and red colors of the apple, and four apple trees in the patio area.

New arrivals

A Charleston shopping center recently welcomed two tenants.

Camino Coffee Roasters offers specialty coffees with self-roasted beans and can be found in the food court at Citadel Mall.

ARC Take 2, an actor’s resource center, is next to Dillard’s department store.

Most of Citadel Mall recently changed hands and is now owned by Singerman Real Estate, a Chicago-based investment firm. Since 2017, the retail site was owned by a group of investors led by Richard Davis of Trademark Properties of Charleston.

Dillard’s, Belk and Target own their footprints outright and were not part of the recent transaction.

Showroom showing

A bathroom remodeling vendor is showing off its new showroom in the Charleston area.

Re-Bath will host a grand opening 2-5 p.m. Jan. 27 at 9581 Industrial Center Drive in Ladson. The event will offer food, music, prizes and coupons to attendees.

The new shop is owned and operated by Megan Farnsworth, a former employee of the Phoenix-based company.

On the way

A new restaurant and café plans to open soon on the Charleston peninsula.

Costa plans to welcome customers on the first floor of The Jasper at 320 Broad St. by the spring or summer, according to spokeswoman Hannah Fleming. It will offer dining as well as grab-and-go foods. The new venue recently applied for a state license to sell beer and wine.

Giving back

A North Charleston-based retail chain with more than three dozen locations across the Southeast recently donated $10,000 to nonprofits as part of a year-end campaign during the holidays.

Southern lifestyle retailer Palmetto Moon awarded $1,000 each to 10 charities as part of its “Together, Let’s Do Good” giving campaign in several communities where the merchant has stores.

The campaign was launched with upscale cooler maker Yeti on Giving Tuesday on Nov. 29 and asked customers across the retailer’s 37 locations to nominate their favorite philanthropy to receive the monetary award.

The retailer selected 10 nonprofit winners from hundreds of entries submitted by shoppers across six states. It also awarded 10 customers with Yeti gift bundles valued at $300 each. In South Carolina, the recipients were Lowcountry Food Bank in Charleston and Harvest Hope Food Bank in Columbia.

A new restaurant offering the flavors of coastal Spain and the Mediterranean area is now serving in Mount Pleasant.

Sommbá Cocina & Cellar opened Jan. 31 at 1710 Shoremeade Road in Indigo Square Shopping Center. It’s the former location of Bull & Finch, which closed last May after nine months in business.

Sommba, open 4-10 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday and 4-11 p.m. Friday and Saturday, comes from the founders of Savi Cucina + Wine Bar at nearby Mount Pleasant Towne Centre.

The new dining spot is in the same shopping center where the new outdoor gear retailer REI Co-op is scheduled to open Feb. 17 in the former Publix Greenwise grocery store space.

In the works

A new eatery soon could be coming to the upper Charleston peninsula.

A project called Garden Kiawah wants the city’s Board of Zoning Appeals to grant a variance for a dining spot at 1334 Rutledge Ave. with 480 square feet of inside customer space by providing two off-street parking spaces instead of five required.

The building is a single-story house at Rutledge and Courtland avenues. Flipside SC LLC of Charleston bought the commercially zoned property in 2021 for $215,000, according to county land records. The board will consider the request Feb. 7.

Stepping away

A downtown Charleston shoe and apparel shop recently turned out the lights.

Steve Madden at 287 King St. closed Jan. 28, according to an employee. The last of the furnishings were being cleared out Jan. 31.

A company representative did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The New York City-based retailer has another Lowcountry store at Tanger Outlets in North Charleston that carries footwear for men, women and children.

Changing places

A downtown Charleston retailer is moving to a larger location about a block north of its current site.

Women’s clothing, accessories and home goods merchant Gretchen Scott is relocating to 257-261 King St. from 235 King.

Workmen were moving merchandise and displays Jan. 31 into the 16,600-square-foot space, where women’s clothing shop Talbots operated until 2019. Gretchen Scott plans to reopen soon.

The retailer has other stores in Greenwich, Conn., and in Naples and Jupiter, Fla.

Pet project

A new pet-grooming shop is coming to West Ashley.

Doo Wop Pup Shop recently signed a lease for 1,580 square feet in Quadrangle Shopping Center at 630 Skylark Drive, according to Vitre Ravenel Stephens and Taylor Sekanovich of Harbor Commercial Partners. They represented the landlord, Fincher Patrick Weir LLC.

The company has another location in Factoryville, Pa., northwest of the Wilkes-Barre and Scranton metropolitan area. An opening date for the Charleston outpost has not been announced.

Suds and duds

A Charleston apparel company is partnering with a Lowcountry brewery to raise money for environmental projects.

Holy City Brewing of North Charleston will host Charleston-based Free Fly Apparel, which specializes in bamboo performance clothing, for a sample sale noon-4 p.m. Feb. 11 at 1021 Aragon Ave. off Spruill Avenue near Park Circle.

All proceeds will go to The Coastal Expeditions Foundation and habitat restoration program SCORE, a.k.a the South Carolina Oyster Recycling and Enhancement Program, part of the state Department of Natural Resources.

Attendees are asked to bring their own bags. Sales will be by credit card only. Live music will be provided.

New perk

Some coffee drinkers won’t have to leave home or work in the Charleston area anymore to get their fix of java.

DoorDash started delivering most Starbucks products throughout the region on Jan. 31, according to a statement issued this week.

The companies said they plan to continue to expand the partnership into new markets during the next few months after successful pilot programs in Atlanta, Houston and Sacramento last year.

South Carolina’s initial plan to improve traffic on Interstate 526 and the Long Point Road interchange in Mount Pleasant was met with an outpouring of public opposition, and that’s prompting the state to make revisions.

The road work is critical for operations at South Carolina’s busiest port, the Wando Welch Terminal at the end of Long Point Road, and for traffic relief at the busy interchange.

The plan calls for new elevated ramps to and from the interstate dedicated to port trucks, and a version presented to the public in 2022 showed that building those ramps could require the demolition of two or three homes in the Tidal Walk subdivision. The subdivision sits along the north side of I-526.

Nearly 540 people submitted comments about those plans in the fall and 59 percent opposed the proposed elevated port ramps, while just half supported the S.C. Department of Transportation’s favored plan known as Alternative 2.

S.C. Department of Transportation Project Manager Joy Riley said the responses showed that people in residential communities north of the interstate were against the proposed elevated ramps and favored keeping port truck traffic on Long Point Road. Unsurprisingly, those living in communities between the highway interchange and the port favored the new ramps, which would remove truck traffic from Long Point Road.

The plans were revised following the survey results, and those changes were outlined at an invitation-only “stakeholders meeting” at the end of November, which included homeowner associations and business owners, plus elected officials and SC Ports representatives.

The revised plans still call for elevated truck ramps, but no longer impact Seacoast Parkway or homes in the Tidal Walk subdivision. Riley said DOT also feels “pretty confident” that an analysis will justify noise walls along the north side of I-526, addressing another concern among residents.

“Noise has always been the number one concern in our neighborhood, along with not wanting any neighbors to lose their houses,” said Grassy Creek resident Lee Lazarus, who has spoken at public meetings about the plans. “Supposedly we’re going to something like a 20-foot wall.”

Under state law, DOT would need Mount Pleasant’s consent for the project. Riley said the town’s approval would likely be sought after another round of public comments following a meeting planned in March, which could prompt more refinements to the plan.

Mayor Will Haynie said the recent revisions addressed the town’s main concerns.

“People were going to lose their homes, and we are very happy that we’re not going to see that,” he said. “Not that there’s no room for improvement — such as turns onto Belle Hall Parkway — but the parts affecting neighborhoods in a major way have been addressed.”

The Belle Hall Parkway issue involves the planned elimination of left turns from Long Point Road to the parkway, where a Waffle House restaurant is located.

That may sound like a small detail, but the parkway is the main entrance to the large subdivision. The elimination of left turns would mean that anyone coming from the interstate would need to drive past the subdivision’s main entrance, then turn on a different road and double back.

Riley said DOT is still looking at alternatives that would allow for left turns there, but so far has not resolved the issue.

The work at I-526 and Long Point Road would be a large road project on its own, but it’s just a small part of the roughly $7 billion Lowcountry Corridor plan to widen the interstate from West Ashley to Mount Pleasant and redesign the interchange of interstates 526 and 26 in North Charleston.

The I-526/Long Point Road project is being addressed in the early years of the larger project partly because traffic has overwhelmed the interchange, and port-related truck traffic regularly backs up on the interstate while trying to exit at Long Point Road.

“It’s a failing interchange because it just cannot process the number of people who are trying to turn left to get to Mount Pleasant, and you have trucks continuously clogging up the interchange as well,” Riley said.

And traffic is expected to increase significantly by 2050.

The next public hearing on the project is tentatively scheduled for March 14, though a time and location have not been announced. The recommended plan, potential impacts on properties, and an analysis of where noise barriers are warranted are among the information that should be presented then.

Until then, “we will be working diligently to assemble the environmental document and move through some critical Federal Highway reviews of our traffic analysis and designs,” Riley said. “All this must be approved before we hold the public hearing in March.”

The leading plan, Alternative 2, would require an estimated 28.5 acres of right of way involving 98 properties, some of which are home to businesses, but no houses. Construction work on the road plan is anticipated in the spring or summer of 2024 and to finish in 2027 or 2028.

Meanwhile, information about the project can be found online at 526lcclongpoint.com, the project team can be emailed at info@526LowcountryCorridor.com, or contacted by regular mail to the attention of Joy Riley, PO Box 191, 955 Park St., Columbia SC 29202-0191.

MOUNT PLEASANT, S.C. (WCBD)- Neighbors from Belle Hall, Grassy Creek and Tidal Walk are in opposition to all six of the possible plans to redesign the Long Point Road and Interstate 526 interchange.

Concerns were voiced on Tuesday at Mount Pleasant Town Hall with Mayor Will Haynie and councilmembers present.

“One of the major concerns with all the alternatives is that it closes off Belle Hall Parkway as an entrance to over 1,200 homes,” said Daniel Senden, a Grassy Creek Neighbor. “Closing (Belle Hall Parkway) off would exacerbate that problem by creating more traffic in other avenues that would cause a sincere safety concern for every resident.”

Neighbors don’t want some of the options to be approved because the construction of a flyover bridge will harm their communities. A handful of homes would have to be demolished if the flyover is built.

“Alternatives 2 and 6 also have a flyover bridge, a new interchange on I-526 in Mount Pleasant,” said Senden. “Putting that interchange directly in front of our neighborhood will be a major safety concern for us.”

The South Carolina Department of Transportation (SCDOT) is collecting and listening to feedback from neighbors about the plan. SCDOT says that they will draw up new plans if needed.

“We probably wouldn’t add new alternatives unless something comes to light that we haven’t looked at before. But, we would refine them at this point to make them better and address the communities concerns,” said Joy Riley, the Project Director for SCDOT.

The State Ports Authority (SPA) uses the interchange for trucks to drive into the Wando Welch Terminal every day and is in favor of helping the traffic congestion.

“Having a dedicated road between I-526 and Wando Welch Terminal would provide direct access for container trucks carrying cargo. This would enhance safety and traffic fluidity for both the port and the community by having a large majority of truck traffic separated from residential traffic,” said Kelsi Brewer, an SPA spokesperson.

Neighbors like Angie Anderson are in favor of options like those being considered before redesigning the whole interchange.

“There’s stages that I think need to be looked at instead of pushing all these alternatives and all this money spent right off the bat without knowing if they’re effective,” said Anderson.

Councilmember Gary Santos thinks that the SPA could help the issue by using more barges instead of trucks to transport cargo from one terminal to another.

“When you have cargo that’s going to a certain port that doesn’t have to leave out of Charleston you’d put them on barges and send them over to North Charleston where they can load them out of ships there and go out of there. If you have ships calling at the Wando terminal then they can put that cargo on barges in North Charleston and send those over,” said Santos.

Neighbors along Long Point Road are staying positive while the SCDOT continues to sift through public comments.

“We want to continue to meet with the SCDOT. We want to continue to meet with the town and really work on a solution that benefits everybody,” said Senden.

The hope of Riley and her team is to have a public hearing in a year to decide what the plan is for construction.

MOUNT PLEASANT — Town Council has approved borrowing $50 million for a park and recreation initiative that voters narrowly approved in a November referendum, setting those plans in motion ahead of a coming property tax increase.

Most of the money, about $40 million, will be used to create a new park complex on more than 120 acres the town bought in 2010 for that purpose on Rifle Range Road just north of Six Mile Road.

The rest will improve existing facilities and expand a town bike/pedestrian trail network.

The first project the money will fund is renovations of the Park West swimming pool setup.

“That’s fully designed and we are going through permitting,” Director of Recreation Steve Gergick said.

The pool space doesn’t have air conditioning, heat, lockers or family changing rooms. All that will change, Gergick said, and the town will begin the process of choosing a construction company for the work in February.

The Rifle Range Road park plan is expected to relieve pressure on the town’s overwhelmed playing fields and courts while providing new amenities in a central location.

The only hint of the park’s existence now is a small parking lot and a trailhead leading into the woods and wetlands. Plans call for soccer fields, pickleball and tennis courts, a gymnasium, a network of trails, performance pavilion, fishing piers and more.

Becky Williamson, who coached tennis at Wando High School for 12 years before retirement, said it’s been hard to find available courts in recent years.

“People are moving here in droves and many of them play tennis,” she said.

Al Bradshaw-Whittemore, local ambassador for the United States Pickleball Association, is looking forward to the eight pickleball courts planned at the new park.

“It’s exploded, pickleball,” he told Town Council at a Jan. 10 meeting. “Every time I teach I have more and more people.”

Following council’s approval for borrowing $50 million, the town expects to issue bonds Jan. 27. Proposals to the town from architectural and design firms hoping to work on the new park are due the same day.

“We’ll have to go through a full design process and permitting,” Gergick said. “I would expect construction to begin in 2024.”

“It’s going to be a jewel for the town, it really is,” he said.

The town’s park site is adjacent to a Charleston County Park and Recreation Commission property that has not been improved. The combined 245 acres were purchased together in 2010 for $20 million, mostly using county greenbelt money.

Mount Pleasant is an affluent suburb with low property taxes, and the November referendum to raise the tax rate to pay for the park and recreation projects barely passed by a vote of 20,925 to 20,254.

Charleston County dropped plans for a tax-raising referendum to fund affordable housing in 2022, partly because the town’s referendum would be on the ballot in the same election. A majority of Mount Pleasant voters had previously rejected referendums on countywide housing and town parks.

Property owners can expect the town’s portion of their annual tax bill to rise by 10 percent starting with the bills that go out in October. The tax increase is expected to remain in place for 15 years to pay off the debt, which will be more than $50 million with interest.

The impact on tax bills will vary depending on the value of a property and whether it’s residential or commercial. A person with a home valued at $500,000 for tax purposes would pay another $80 yearly, for example.

Two members of the nine-person Town Council had opposed holding the referendum: Mayor Will Haynie and Councilwoman Brenda Corley. On Jan. 10 they joined a unanimous vote to do as voters asked and borrow the $50 million.