A new housing development rising on Nassau Street will return some reasonable price-points to the rapidly gentrifying East Side neighborhood in downtown Charleston.
The Charleston Housing Authority is set to break ground on the new Grace Homes affordable housing complex Aug. 9, with construction likely starting soon after Labor Day.
The three-story building a block east of Meeting Street will offer 62 units, with 34 set aside for very low-income people, 22 two-bedroom "workforce housing" apartments for people earning no more than 80 percent of the area's median income, and six three-bedroom units to be sold to people earning up to 120 percent of the area's median income through the city of Charleston's Homeownership Initiative.
The plan to bring affordable housing to that area has been in the works for more than a decade, since the S.C. Department of Transportation removed remnants of the former Cooper River bridge and rebuilt the surrounding roads and sidewalks.
The Charleston Housing Authority is breaking ground on the new Grace Homes affordable housing complex on Meeting Street this fall. T.Y. Lin International/Provided
The city, which owns acres of land in the area, gave the property to the housing authority for the project, and that's partly why it's able to serve very low-income people, said Donald Cameron, executive director of the authority.
The project is estimated to cost $15 million, with the city paying $2 million plus another $300,000 for the drainage system. The rest will be covered by the authority with a traditional bank loan.
Cameron said the authority didn't pursue tax credit funding or other subsidies because it would take too long. Instead, the debt will be paid off with rent revenues and the proceeds from selling six of the units.
"We considered it our best option because we could move much more quickly," he said.
Even amid a building boom of apartment complexes on Charleston's upper peninsula, housing at truly affordable prices still seems to be going extinct in the area.
Cameron said nearby residents and City Councilman Robert Mitchell, who represents the East Side, were adamant that the project serve downtown residents who might otherwise be displaced from the peninsula.
"There was a commitment made years ago for this affordability, and we’re able to pull it off," Cameron said.
Geona Shaw-Johnson, director of the city's Department of Housing and Community Development, said there may be more projects like Grace Homes in the near future.
"This speaks to what we see as the needs in our community," she said. "We are meeting the need in a small way, but we hope this is just one of many to come."
The construction contract was awarded Monday to M.B. Kahn Construction Co. Inc. of Columbia. Cameron said if all goes smoothly, the project could be completed in a year and half, by early 2020.