Burris Liquor moving across the street to make way for new hotel

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Sometime near the end of the year or beginning of 2014, Meeting Street mainstay Burris Liquor Store will be razed and replaced with what’s become a familiar site in Charleston: A new hotel.

But don’t worry. Burris is opening up an even bigger store across the street.

The Post and Courier has reported that the Charlotte-based Tara Investments has submitted plans for the hotel to the city. The new building, which will be located right across Reid Street from the brand new Holiday Inn Charleston Historic Downtown, will be five stories tall and have 165 rooms.

The hotel is taking the place of Burris, which has occupied its space for 45 years, as well as the corner’s other businesses, like Alluette’s, which has plans to relocate.

“It’s a beautiful arrangement,” Burris Liquor owner Clyde Burris says. “I’m very very fortunate to have it. It’s like a fairy tale for me, to be able to stay in the same area I grew up in from childhood.”

Burris doesn’t see a problem with another hotel going up in the area. “I think it’s going to be wonderful, because anytime we have something, you have to stay somewhere outside of Charleston,” he says. “You don’t have enough room to accommodate people.”

And he’s excited that he’ll get to pass the new, two-story shop onto his son Kelly and his grandchildren.

“I want to keep the name around a long time,” Burris says.