Division of Amazon signs lease for old North Charleston City Hall

The former five-story North Charleston City Hall building is getting new life.

CreateSpace, a part of the Amazon group of companies, announced Tuesday that is has signed a lease for the 56,000-square-foot building that served as the center of government for North Charleston for more than three decades.

“We’ll be moving some of our current employees to the building in the coming months and also retaining the lease for our current building,” David Symonds, site leader for CreateSpace, said. “As a Charleston business for over 12 years, we look forward to furthering our investment in the community.”

Last month, North Charleston City Council unanimously approved severing the old lease and approving a new lease to a company then called “Project X” that employ 200 people at first and up to 330 later on.

The building needs about $2.5 million in renovation to accommodate the new tenant, and Mayor Keith Summey said Tuesday there is still some work to be done.

CreateSpace, which performs on-demand publishing, is currently located off Ashley Phosphate Road in North Charleston.

In 2009, North Charleston’s government moved to a new City Hall just across Mall Drive from its old site on LaCross Road. The city then leased its former building to 2401 Mall Drive LLC in a 20-year agreement that paid the city about $324,000 a year.

Summey said the Mall Drive LLC actually reached out and found the new tenant, which wanted to lease directly from the city.

Read more in Wednesday’s editions of The Post and Courier.

Reach Warren L. Wise at 937-5524 or twitter.com/warrenlancewise.