Charleston, South Carolina — A six-story housing development is planned for one of downtown Charleston’s busiest streets.
Henderson Park and Landmark Properties paid $16.5 million for approximately 1.2 acres at 500 East Bay St. to develop the Mark Charleston, which will have 99 flats and 335 bedrooms.
Ben Chase, a senior broker with Cowell Banker Commercial Atlantic and a spokeswoman for the property’s buyer and seller, said the Mark Charleston will be open to students, young adults, persons in the food and beverage business, and working-class citizens.
“These projects look to be live-work-play projects,” Chase informed me. “Hopefully, people will be living and working and playing in the surrounding area where there can be less traffic, and not on the road with their cars all day.”
Around the corner from the development site is 77 Washington St., a historic structure built in the late 1850s. Washington Street also has several other old buildings, and this is one of the last.
“As Charleston evolves, we have to be prepared for really smart growth,” Chase informed us.
He stated that this will be a chance to preserve Charleston’s heritage and integrity by transferring and repurposing its bones, while accommodating both natives and immigrants to the greatest extent possible.
This purchase has been in the works for three years, and as the College of Charleston expands, new spaces for students to live will become available.
“It presents an opportunity to spread these students out instead of having them in a large dense area and in the residential neighborhoods, which we all know there’s a good bit of pushback on,” Chase told me.
However, he claims that this is done on purpose to prevent having a single designated student hub in one residential neighborhood, as well as because it will not be totally student-populated.
“It’s best to stretch everything out. It simply keeps everything more cordial. “I believe this location offers all of that and more,” he stated.
The construction is expected to begin soon, with them “shovel-ready.” The project is expected to be finished during the 2027-2028 academic year.
