Get real on Noisette deal

John Knott has got to be kidding.

After a decade, his grand Noisette project at the old Navy Base is hardly a model of progress. A $23 million mortgage is in foreclosure, the mortgage bank in bankruptcy and Noisette's financial operations under court supervision. Other lawsuits are pending.

Yet in Sunday's front-page article, Knott declares: "We are doing very well. ... This project is operating very successfully."

All might be dandy in Knott's view, but his ponderous project's financial pants are on fire.

Noisette seems stranded on ragged rocks that separate vision and accomplishment.

It's just not fair for a community that granted Knott a development franchise and then proudly anticipated a world class redevelopment of a property that largely defines its history.

Mayor Keith Summey and his city council colleagues have walked many an extra mile accommodating Noisette's needs and demands. Even John Knott would understand they'd like to start over and do things differently. Heck, Knott probably would, too.

"This property is part of our history; it's going to be important to our future," said Summey. "This can't be about politics; we have to get it right."

Getting it right is exactly what the public interest demands, and it better happen soon. Time and new opportunities now converge to sharpen the propositions of base redevelopment.

The S.C. Department of Commerce is touting what Secretary Joe Taylor believes are higher and better uses for some of the old naval base property. Turn it into a "green" industry hub, Taylor has proposed. His prospects list includes the Norfolk Southern Railroad which covets better access to port facilities and the old base's current tenants.

The railroad has a development concept for an intermodal yard surrounded by logistics service companies. No doubt, the Norfolk Southern is attracted, too, by the possibilities of an evolving industry that could grow with Clemson's wind turbine research and development programs planned at the old base.

Summey understands Taylor's interest. The mayor and the secretary have discussed some "deal concepts."

But the mayor seems reluctant to give up on his vision that the north end of the old base should be a multi-use waterfront development dominated by residential neighborhoods. And he doesn't want heavy rail operations interfering with that concept.

But you sense the mayor and others can see the picture Taylor paints: Boeing's giant airplane assembly plant at the airport, a labor intensive "green" industry at the old navy base's north end, each flanking the extended Park Circle residential neighborhoods. In this vision, North Charleston's modern destiny could be its history -- a community knitted by thousands of workers in residence -- just like the heyday operations at the old Navy Yard.

Such possibilities and Noisette's troubled status is bound to give Summey and his city council reason to listen to the state's ideas.

They should, but planning options are not as apparent as they might seem.

The Noisette project may be bumbling, but Knott and his team retain legal control of the property. Knott might, in fact, survive his immediate circumstances with new financing and the project might yet soar in a national economic recovery. It's simply difficult for the city to consider options or alternative planning without control of the property.

So for the time being at least, Summey and his council colleagues are all-in with Knott and Noisette. But they should not be shy about regaining control of the Noisette property -- if an opportunity arises. That opportunity could come soon if Noisette fails to secure new financing and the court auctions the note and thus control of the property's future.

A pending lawsuit to determine if rail rights-of-way were part of the property transfers to Noisette also is a major planning key.

If Noisette is declared owner of the track beds, rail operations in the area will be eliminated or certainly highly limited. But if the court rules the S.C. Public Railways Commission retains the rights-of-way, then rail operations will be a reality on the Noisette property.

The future of Noisette will play out as a composition of court actions and political decisions, at a time of unusual opportunities for North Charleston specifically and regional Charleston generally.

Summey and Taylor are preparing for a range of possibilities, and they're talking about some bold and creative approaches.

Knott should refocus on the public's interest and expectations. If Noisette continues in place, Knott and his team should resolve to turn hype into actions, concepts into realities. A "New American City" does evoke excitement and anticipation; we'd like to visit it soon.

Otherwise, a place for lots of good jobs seems exciting, too.

As for Keith Summey, he told Joe Taylor he wanted it all -- a successful Noisette project, Taylor's vibrant "green" industry hub, no north boundary rail access -- and about $35 million of state money.

He wasn't kidding.

Ron Brinson is a former associate editor of this newspaper. He can be reached at rbrin1013@gmail.com.