Groups to rent part of mansion

Nearly two years after spending $1.4 million to buy a historic East Bay Street mansion that was facing foreclosure, the city of Charleston has agreed to lease most of the building to two nonprofit groups.

The city had partially funded the renovation of the Josiah Smith Tennent house and bought it to protect its investment.

Leasing out three floors of the mansion will bring the city $5,800 a month in rent, and will put Trident Urban League and South Carolina Association for Community Development Corporations offices in the building.

"We are happy to see them coming into the Josiah building, because they can help the community," said Councilman Robert Mitchell, whose district includes the East Side neighborhood where the building is located, near the pedestrian and bike path to the Cooper River bridge.

The city continues to pursue plans to locate a community dental clinic on the remaining floor of the four-story building.

Back in 1993, the building was owned by the city and was little more than an empty shell.

The city gave the property to the nonprofit group Elpis, an affiliate of the Rev. Dallas Wilson's Agape Ministries, and over time gave the organization more than $1 million in grants to renovate the building.

Aided by private donations estimated in the millions and a $1.73 million mortgage that Elpis obtained in 2003, a well-regarded restoration of the building followed.

Part of the building was outfitted as a dental clinic, and Elpis helped established a day care center there.

The building also housed other Agape-affiliated nonprofit groups, and the small front yard of the building, at East Bay and Drake streets, became the Philip Simmons Children's Garden, honoring the master blacksmith.

Many of the community services that Elpis had planned to establish in the building fell by the wayside, however, and in 2008 Elpis defaulted on its mortgage, and the city stepped in that March.

Mayor Joe Riley said Tuesday that the city is close to finalizing plans to re-establish a dental clinic in the building.

Reach David Slade at 937-5552 or dslade@postandcourier.com.