The City of Charleston has closed on a 2.44-acre site at 899 Morrison Drive on the upper peninsula for $18 million, and plans to develop the parcel into 190 mixed-use, mixed-income homes as part of Mayor William Cogswell’s Project 3500 affordable housing initiative. The closing was completed Aug. 31, and the city has already issued requests for proposals for design, civil engineering and landscape architecture services.
Project 3500 aims to add a net 3,500 affordable homes across the city by 2032, a target Cogswell has framed as a response to years of price growth that has priced service workers, teachers and other essential staff out of the peninsula and adjacent neighborhoods. Morrison Drive, once dominated by industrial and warehouse uses, sits at the northern edge of the peninsula and has attracted a wave of mixed-use development in recent years.
The Morrison Drive purchase is one of the first city-controlled acquisitions under Project 3500, distinguishing it from private developments negotiated through zoning incentives. City officials plan to partner with the private sector to deliver the housing, and the specific mix of income tiers, unit sizes and any retail component will be defined during the design-selection process this fall.
Cogswell has also pressed Charleston County to join the effort. In a separate proposal to the County Council Finance Committee, the mayor pitched a private-sector joint venture structure that would extend the city’s affordable housing pipeline countywide. The county’s participation remains under discussion; no county funding is committed to the Morrison Drive site.
Design contracts for the 190-home development are expected to be awarded later this year, with construction timing to follow. Because the city already controls the land, the schedule will be paced by design and permitting rather than by land-acquisition negotiations that have slowed previous affordable housing efforts on the peninsula.
