New cruise terminal Historic City Charleston, S.C.

New cruise terminal Historic City Charleston, S.C.

A plan for a new cruise ship terminal next year will help open up an underused stretch of waterfront in Charleston, to public and private development.  This would help open up the city’s cultivated charm to new visitors.

Last month, a $2.4 million contract to design the new terminal, which will cost $25 million, was awarded to a Colorado company, CH2M Hill. The company plans to convert an empty 100,000-square-foot steel warehouse at the north end of the 67-acre Union Pier complex to replace the existing 18,000-square-foot cinder block terminal, built in 1973, at the south end.

The terminal is seen as an essential step in what the South Carolina State Ports Authority, the project’s developer, says will be a much larger demolition and mixed-use development project that will divide the Union Pier complex in two. Twenty-two acres at the north end is reserved for the terminal and parking for cruise ship passengers. Some eight acres of pilings and concrete deck would be removed. And 35 acres of shoreline property with exquisite views of the harbor will be made available for private development.

There will be a combination of public spaces, waterfront access, residential and commercial development. The conceptual plan is the starting point for a new part of Charleston that begins along the water’s edge, and from there mixes with the low-rise 18th- and 19th-century-scale city.

The critics don’t want to hurt residential real estate sales, the city’s historic charm, character, or detract from the new shoreline development.

The debate over preservation aside, Charleston has fared better than most during the downturn. The marine terminal is one of three active public sector projects intended to strengthen the tourism industry, valued by the city at $3 billion annually. Cruise ship passengers make up less than 4 percent of the city’s 4.5 million annual visitors.

 Ann Spann the sales coordinator for the Birds I View Gallery, two blocks from the market said; “We do get people who come through and get on a cruise and then come back because they find Charleston irresistible”. “It’s wonderful to have the ships here. It’s not hurting Charleston, I can tell you that.”

In  September 2009  the Carnival Corporation announced that Union Pier would be the home port for the 855-foot, 2,056-passenger Carnival Fantasy, which arrived in May 2010 for its initial five-, six-, and seven-day home port cruises to Key West, Fla., and the Bahamas.

Last September, the Charleston City Council unanimously approved the port’s proposal to establish the terminal at the north end of Union Pier and turn the south end into a new residential neighborhood. In addition, Mr. Newsome reached an informal agreement with Mayor Riley to limit voluntarily the number of ships calling on the port to two a week, or 104 annually.