The building that used to be Stars Rooftop just got one step closer to reopening as something else

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For more than a decade, Stars Rooftop & Grill Room was the King Street answer to "where should we go for a drink with a view." Then the building sold, Stars closed, and the space spent a stretch as an event rental with no real identity. That's about to change.

The Charleston Board of Architectural Review unanimously granted conceptual approval on Sept. 24 for a full overhaul of the rooftop at 495 King St., clearing the way for the new owner to move from plans to permits.

Some background on how we got here. The building sold in March for $6.95 million, a steep jump from the $1.9 million the previous owner paid back in 2013. The buyer, Andrew Baumgartner, operates out of Columbia and bought it under an entity called 495 King Street LLC. Once the deal closed, Stars shut down and the rooftop got repurposed as bare-bones event space.

Architect Steve Ramos walked the board through what's coming next. The rooftop structure currently up there, added during a 2011 renovation, sits too high above the roofline to provide any real shade, and it's visible from street level in a way the new owner wants fixed. The plan lowers the whole roof form, adds a new sloped standing-seam metal roof, and builds in dedicated space for food service, a stage and restrooms.

"It will be a big improvement for the people up there, and it will look better from the street," Ramos told the Post & Courier.

There's also a smaller, easy-to-miss detail in the filing: a section of the ground-floor storefront installed during the last renovation is getting swapped out too, meaning the changes won't be limited to the roof alone.

The building itself dates back to 1948, which is part of why the board is being careful here. Nobody wants a rooftop addition that reads as a modern box bolted onto a historic King Street facade, and the "less visible from the street" language in the approval suggests that tension shaped the design from the start.

What this becomes still has some blanks to fill in. Conceptual approval is a green light on the big-picture look, not a final sign-off on tenants, operators or an opening date. But the direction is clear: another rooftop bar and event venue, built with more shade, more stage space and less visual clutter from the sidewalk.

King Street rooftop real estate doesn't sit empty for long. Worth watching what fills this one.

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