Charleston’s Union Pier project just got a little bigger — and a little closer to the City Market.
Ben Navarro’s Beemok holding company has scooped up the Carroll Building, a familiar brick complex at the corner of East Bay and Market streets, in a deal that quietly expands the reach of the long-awaited Union Pier redevelopment.
The purchase, made through an affiliate called 24 North Market LLC, closed at $11.5 million, according to county records — a steep drop from the building’s $22 million asking price in 2019.
That price tag buys more than just square footage. It buys a slice of Charleston history.
A Building With Layers
The property’s story stretches back to the early 1900s, when Thomas W. Carroll ran a fish business and icehouse on the site. Most of what stands there today — the three-story office structure and its parking lot — came later, in the 1980s.
For years, the building housed the Art Institute of Charleston, which shuttered its downtown campus in 2018. A hotel was once on deck for the site, but that plan stalled after Historic Charleston Foundation objected, citing an overload of hotel rooms in the Market area.
The foundation — which holds a restrictive easement on the property — took the matter to court and won. The settlement now allows only office, retail, restaurant, and residential uses. No hotels, no short-term rentals.
Fire, Flood, and a Fresh Start
The Carroll Building has seen better days. A 2020 restaurant fire triggered sprinklers that soaked much of the interior. Since then, the space has sat empty, waiting for its next chapter.
Beemok’s environmental filings with the state reveal plans to clean up old fuel contamination — remnants of the site’s past as a gas station — and eventually redevelop the property for mixed use. The public comment period on the cleanup plan closed September 30.
“We are thrilled to have the opportunity to acquire this prominent corner property,” Beemok said in a statement to the Post & Courier. “Revitalizing this site is important to both Union Pier and the surrounding neighborhood.”
A Corner with Momentum
The Carroll Building sits beside another Beemok-linked parcel — a three-acre warehouse the company is buying from the S.C. Ports Authority as part of the broader $250 million Union Pier deal, scheduled to close in 2027.
Just a block away, the U.S. Customhouse is now under federal review for possible disposal, hinting at further changes near the waterfront.
For preservationists, the new activity feels like promise, not threat.
“Once we learn more, we’ll be excited to be part of that conversation,” said Brian Turner, CEO of the Preservation Society of Charleston. “It’s a huge opportunity to improve that corner.”
Bottom line:
From a fire-damaged office building to a potential cornerstone of Charleston’s next waterfront chapter, the Carroll Building’s comeback mirrors the city’s own balancing act — between history and reinvention, preservation and progress.
