There’s been little done in public about the controversial Union Pier site in downtown Charleston since local billionaire philanthropist Ben Navarro announced his intent to purchase the 70-acre piece of developable and historic property.
But project leaders and local advocacy groups say that’s probably for the best.
“From what we understand, nobody has publicly announced that they need ‘X’ approval by ‘X’ date,” said Preservation Society of Charleston President and CEO Brian Turner”. “There is no timeline right now as far as we know, and that’s interesting, because some people are really wanting there to be more expeditiousness.
“I’d rather it be slow,” he added. “I think it’s a generational plan. Let’s think about this; let’s come up with some concepts and test them; let’s not rush into assuming what the site can be without good community involvement.”
Turner, and fellow local advocate Winslow Hastie, president of the Historic Charleston Foundation, contrasted the current slow, deliberate pace to the rapid sprint of the first iteration of the project under developer Lowe Enterprises.
“I get asked all the time what the status is, and I don’t really have an answer,” Hastie said. “But I always remind them that when we were fighting the Lowe project, we were always fighting the speed, always saying, ‘Slow it down.’ Now, people are getting anxious about, ‘Why aren’t we moving?’ ”
Small victories
Turner lauded Charleston City Council’s recent update to the city’s comprehensive plan and future land use maps. He said they appear to be setting the tone for forward movement at a smaller scale than originally proposed. The first reading of the proposal passed unanimously March 25.
Charleston City Council member Mike Seekings, whose district includes the Union Pier site, said the amendment to the city plan paves the way for the future of the development project.
“Currently, Union Pier sits in the same zoning it always has,” he explained. “That will change, but it hasn’t changed yet. But now people can see where the city is going from a conceptual standpoint.
“We’re taking advantage of a piece of property on the waterfront and making sure it’s consistent with the development that’s around the Union Pier and giving the public access to that waterfront that hasn’t existed for decades.”
While the amendment stops short of actually changing the site’s zoning designation — opting instead for “visioning purposes,” Seekings said — Turner said the movement in city council is heading in the right direction.
“It’s a quiet victory because I think this stuff can be hard for the public to sink their teeth into, but it’s an important one,” he added. “We now have some aspirations on the books, so that whatever happens with Navarro’s team, we can sort of start there. And there’s a lot we’ve pushed for that focuses on inclusivity, accessibility, resiliency and civic engagement opportunities.”
At the same time, Hastie said he has been in communication with Navarro’s Beemok Capital Hospitality Collection — the new project leader for Union Pier. A Beemok official, however, declined an invitation for an on-the-record update on the status of the project. City of Charleston officials also did not return calls requesting project updates.
Miller Harper of Beemok Capital is scheduled to speak at a “State of Union Pier and Neighborhood Meeting” for Charleston’s Garden District Neighborhood Association on May 19. No other details have been made available to the public, according to the neighborhood’s website.
Groundwork already laid
In March 2024, shortly after his announcement, Navarro committed to maintaining Union Pier’s historical significance to the community. In his statement, he said he wanted to be considered a steward, not a developer, who he said were “truly some of the most talented, driven, entrepreneurial people I have known. … But developers at their core are economically driven, thinking in terms of maximizing the financial value of a given piece of property. A developer’s perspective is how we ended up with the original plan for Union Pier.”
Though the site’s sale pushed the timeline out a bit more than was first hoped, a lot of the work put into the first two iterations of the development can be adapted by Navarro’s team now.
Despite the flaws in the process, Lowe conducted several studies and engineering analyses on the site, Hastie said. Those informed a series of public workshops conducted by new project leaders in early 2024, which helped them understand what the community wants from the site. Now, Navarro’s team can use information gleaned from those workshops to catapult their efforts.
“[Navarro’s] team of folks have been very thoughtful in how they have interacted with us,” said Kendra Steward, director of the Joseph P. Riley Jr. Center for Livable Communities, which was previously tasked with implementing community feedback on the project. “They’re very interested in capitalizing on the engagement that has already occurred. They have a lot of trust in the process that has already taken place.”
Hastie agreed.
“A lot has been done already, and they’re hyper aware of it,” he said. “It would be a waste of time and money to throw away good work that has been done before you. We’re hopeful that with each iteration, and I guess we’re in phase three now of that, that each one improves upon itself instead of just starting from scratch.”
Turner pointed to the public workshops as some of the most important moments for the development project. He pointed to learning about some of the historic landmarks at the site, such as The Hard, a prominent, natural landing that rested above the tidal fluctuations of the Cooper River.
“What are these placemaking opportunities on the site that connect us to our history? Mosquito Fleet, The Hard — there are some really interesting opportunities to illuminate the stories of Charleston that have been obscured for a generation or more,” he said.
“Having these firms working a little more in the public interest and not necessarily working to design any private development really opened a lot of people’s eyes,” Turner added. “It helps us take more ownership in imagining what could be. Information is power.”
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