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Charleston has now written the same $25 million check three different ways this year. The number never moved. Who signs it, and what the MUSC Foundation gets on top, keep changing.
Quick backstory. Years ago the city and the MUSC Foundation formed a nonprofit, the WestEdge Foundation, to sell their land on the western edge of the peninsula to private developers. That ground was marsh, then a city landfill, until it got filled in the early 1970s.
TOGETHER WITH VILLAGE BOOKSELLERS
They read 179 books this year. These three won
Three booksellers at Village Booksellers read 179 books between them this year. Their winners: Yesteryear for the book club bestie, A Founding Mother for the historical fiction fan, London Falling for the true crime fanatic. Gift receipts and exchanges at 761 Coleman Blvd.
You know the results. 10 WestEdge has the Publix and 350 apartments. 99 WestEdge added 237 more. 22 WestEdge is the eight-story office and lab building, per the Charleston Business Journal.
Now the city wants to buy the MUSC Foundation out of a leftover piece and build affordable housing on it. Watch the terms move.
Version one landed in February. The city would pay the foundation $10 million by March 31, 2026, then cover the other $15 million with city notes at 7% a year, due by March 2031, Live 5 reported. That works out to about $895,000 a quarter.
Version two went to the city's Committee on Real Estate on Sept. 21. The $10 million would come out of cash already parked in the WestEdge Foundation, and a private joint venture partner would cover the $15 million. MUSC would get a guaranteed 7% return over three years, tied to 200 units of workforce housing for its employees, according to the meeting minutes. Read that one twice. City notes became developer money, which moves the IOU off the city's books and onto whoever wins the bid.
Councilmember Waring wanted that guarantee struck. The committee deferred the whole thing, unanimously.
Version three is the one headed to City Council. The Post & Courier reports Mayor William Cogswell laid it out at an Oct. 26 committee meeting. Same split: $10 million from the WestEdge Foundation account, $15 million from whichever developer the city picks, zero from the operating budget. The site is about 2.5 acres at the Lockwood corner, across from the Publix.
Two details changed. The foundation would get first crack at buying or leasing about 250 units, the P&C reports, up from 200 in September. And the 7% guarantee doesn't show up in that account at all, so whether it survived is the line to check when the agreement posts.
Why the city keeps at it. Cogswell's Project 3500 targets 3,500 affordable units by 2032. In March the city counted 178 finished, Live 5 reported. Every buildable acre on the peninsula counts toward a number that big, and under the city's Project 3500 framework, half the units in a development are meant to be affordable, for incomes from 30% to 120% of the area median.
The price was never the hard part. Council is expected to take up version three this month.
Sources: Charleston Business Journal (WestEdge Foundation origins, landfill history, the three buildings), Live 5 (February deal terms), the City of Charleston Committee on Real Estate minutes (September terms, 7% guarantee, deferral), Live 5 (Project 3500 goal and progress) and the Post & Courier (Oct. 26 terms, 250 units, parcel size, council timing)
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