Beemok's urban park is closer to reality in downtown Charleston (2024)

Plans to revitalize two downtown buildings and create a new urban park between Meeting and King streets are underway.

Beemok Hospitality Collection, which owns The Charleston Place and the upcoming Cooper hotel among other visitor-centric businesses, proposed the idea that it calls American Gardens — a privately funded, landscaped community gathering space, adorned with fountains and a large lawn shaded by transplanted mature oaks and crape myrtles.

The project involves three key components that went before the city’s Board of Architectural Review Aug. 28: the outdoor park site and two adjacent buildings, at 141 Meeting St. and 174 King St. All three earned conceptual approval. Plans for the King Street building will have to come back for some refinements and a final approval.

The idea for a public-private civic-minded reuse plan for the narrow 1.06-acre strip that runs between the streets was revived by Charleston businessman Ben Navarro. The Beemok owner formed a company that bought the property from Dominion Energy in April 2023 for $11.5 million.

The reuse of the former South Carolina Electric & Gas Co. building at 141 Meeting has been in question since at least 2015, when the onetime customer-service office closed. In its next life, the shuttered structure will become a connected extension of the neighboring Gibbes Museum of Art, which is expected to buy the property at its appraised value.

Casey Lavin, president of the family-owned Beemok Hospitality, said the company learned about the opportunity about two years ago, after reading about it in a Post and Courier editorial after Dominion asked the S.C. Public Service Commission for permission to sell the property. He said the article posed the question of whether a sale would mean Charleston was losing its chance to create a community park in the heart of downtown.

Under Beemok’s direction, it’s now closer to becoming a reality.

“Having received conceptual approval on BHC’s plans for American Gardens, we are one step closer to creating a beautiful green space for the community to gather,” Lavin said, adding it will move on to the city’s Technical Review Committee and be welcoming the public by 2025 if all goes according to plan.

Beemok plans to renovate the King Street building and create a grab-and-go café concept similar to the vendors in New York City’s Central Park. The structure also will be equipped with restrooms.

On the web

Patriots Point Naval & Maritime Museum‘s new website set sail this month, but it’s now more than just a landing page to purchase tickets.

The site now acts as a resource, providing tools for tourists to curate a customized itinerary for their visit and public access to thousands of digitized artifacts from the Mount Pleasant attraction’s collection.

It’s taken more than a year to develop the website centered around an immersive and user-friendly experience that allows visitors to browse the artifacts and exhibits before ever setting foot on a ship.

An interactive map of Patriots Point highlights key areas, such as the hangar bays and flight deck on the aircraft carrier Yorktown, to help visitors locate points of interest.

Allison Hunt, executive director, said the reboot has been a major ongoing project. “Our goal was to create a new website that made our online presence just as exciting as a day spent walking in the steps of heroes aboard our ships,” Hunt said. “Our team did a great job at building a digital space that supports the needs and interests of all our guests, whether they are first-time visitors, long-time supporters, or even researchers digging for information about our ships and stories.”

Closed set

Cypress Gardens will be closed to the public Sept. 3-6, 2024 while filming takes place.

The Berkeley County Park and Recreation Department, which oversees the property, said it could not release the name of the project.

The park is adding a free Saturday event on Dec. 28, which gives residents free admission with proof of residency.