1 week Ago
A waterfront labor organization that helps move cargo in and out of the Port of Charleston has unloaded a whopper. Its former Morrison Drive union hall. The International Longshoremen's Association Local 1422 last week sold its vacant upper peninsula property to a West Coast real estate developer after years of fits and starts.
The two-story brick structure fetched $24.5 million, in a deal financed partly by the union and a local bank. The sale included nearly 41⁄2 acres of prime real estate in a rapidly redeveloping area of Charleston, where old-school industrial uses are giving way to a rising mix of upscale apartments, technology businesses and restaurants.
The firm founded by civil rights activist and architect Harvey Gantt (above) designed the International Longshoremen's Association union hall on Morrison Drive in Charleston. With a distinctive circular corner feature that resembles a ship's smokestack, the former ILA hall was designed by the architecture firm founded by Harvey Gantt . The son of a local shipyard worker and a Burke High School graduate, he became the first Black student to be admitted to Clemson University in 1963.
He also was elected mayor of Charlotte and ran unsuccessfully for a U.S. Senate seat.
The building at 1148 Morrison Dr. was completed in 2002. It went on to become a popular venue for Democratic political rallies, as well as banquets, wedding receptions and other social events.
The leadership of Local 1422 began looking to sell the 31,640-square-foot property around 2018, saying the union needed more space. Some of the membership resisted the idea at first. And, citing Gannt's connection to the property, calls went up to save the structure, which is too new and too far from the Historic District to be protected from the wrecking ball under the city's preservation rules.
The buyer of the former International Longhoremen's Association union hall on Morrison Drive has submitted an environmental cleanup plan with the state for the 4.45-acre property. Lennar Corp .
was among the most serious lookers. The Miami-based homebuilding giant was set to pay $20 million for the real estate and replace the union hall with a large apartment complex comprising more than 400 rental units. The company dropped the plan about three years ago.
The ILA found its buyer on April 4, a few months after union members voted to approve the sale, according to public land records filed last week. The new owner is Morrison OZB LLC. It's led by California developer Daniel Pourbaba of Los Angeles-based Category Co.
and lists a Broad Street law firm's office as its local address. The buyer didn't respond to a request for comment last week, but it offered some details in a filing with the S.C.
Department of Environmental Services. Its plan is "to demolish the existing building and replace it with mixed-use development, including an open-air parking deck and multiple mixed-use commercial and residential buildings, the lower levels of which are planned to consist of retail space and a residential lobby," according to the document. Brian Turner is president and CEO of The Preservation Society of Charleston.
The new ownership can expect feedback from the likes of the Preservation Society of Charleston about the future of the former ILA union hall. CEO Brian Turner said in a written statement that his advocacy group "would welcome a dialogue" to discuss ways to honor Gannt "that would be lost forever if this building were to be recklessly cast aside.” “Undoubtedly, there are creative ways a new owner can incorporate this design in a project while adding density to the site," he said.
Winslow Hastie is president and CEO of Historic Charleston Foundation. Winslow Hastie, CEO of Historic Charleston, said he's not sure the entire building is worth saving, but he's interested in what the buyers of the union hall are proposing. As for the ILA, it relocated its operations to a 17-acre site it bought in 2019 on Corporate Road near Leeds Avenue and Interstate 526 in North Charleston.
The union plans to reinvest some of the proceeds from the sale into that property, according to Ken Riley, the recently re-elected president of Local 1422, who held that same title when the Morrison Drive hall was completed in 2002. "We're looking forward to ..
. the opportunity to expand and grow as port grows," Riley said last week..
