KEN BURGER: Meeting Street spot the next creative hub?

A vacant building at 1600 Meeting Street is the spot local investors hope to turn into an arts and design center to anchor a creative corridor in that part of town.
Ken Burger/Staff/A vacant building at 1600 Meeting Street is the spot local investors hope to turn into an arts and design center to anchor a creative corridor in that part of town.

There's a strip joint down the street, a tattoo parlor nearby and you can get body piercings around the corner. But that's part of what makes 1600 Meeting St. the perfect incubator for creativity.

Located in the industrial Neck Area of the Charleston peninsula, this big-boned, three-story office building was built by the Exxon Corp. (aka Esso) in 1926 and has served in several other capacities during its lifetime.

But now it sits empty, its concrete columns and wrap-around porches a testament to a time when that area was the muscle that drove the Lowcountry economy.

"I was initially attracted to the building five years ago," said Lindsay Nevin, a local contractor who specializes in restorations. "It was the architecture that drew me to the structure. It needs a little love, but it's built like a tank."

Looking at it now, with a weed-choked parking lot and vacant windows, you can tell it's seen better days.

But if Lindsay's dream comes true, its best days are still ahead.

Cluster hot spot

Along with his wife, Kate, Lindsay sees this 12,000-square-foot structure as home base for what could become a creative corridor in a community bursting at the seams with imagination.

"Our idea is to use this building as a center where local artisans, artists and designers can get together and work in a creative cluster hot spot," said Kate, who works with the Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art at the College of Charleston. "Basically, if you're creative and like to collaborate with other creative people, this is the kind of place for you.

"Right now it's just a building. But we see the end product as a community."

Which is how these 30-somethings think. And in case you haven't noticed, the Lowcountry has become a haven for well-educated, community-minded folks with vision. And unlike their parents' generation, which was steered by the stars of self, their concepts generate creative ideas that incorporate community and let the money matters take care of themselves.

Sometimes it does. Sometimes it doesn't. But they don't let that get in the way of their dreams.

A new wave

"We think this whole area can be the center of what we're loosely calling the creative corridor of Charleston," Kate said. "It all started with the restaurant Taco Boy, which brought people into this part of town, and now there are a lot of other businesses locating in the area that represent a new wave of creativity."

To that end, they're working with the city to designate this swath of upper Meeting Street as a place where new businesses can gather and share the energy generated by this movement. To learn more, check out www.1600meeting.com.

"Every single person that we show a picture of this building to, they recognize it," Lindsay said. "And that means a lot. And everybody seems to love it. We think it can become something that's larger than the sum of its parts."

And the pole-dancing neighbors down the street?

"Hey," Kate said, "they're creative, too."

Reach Ken Burger at 937-5598 or on Twitter at @Ken_Burger.