Charleston City Council has cleared the way for a new municipal office complex in West Ashley, giving final approval to a construction budget of nearly $33.4 million for the first of what officials describe as a multi-building campus on Ingram Road.
The council took its final reading on the guaranteed maximum construction price on Sept. 8, locking in the funding envelope for a project that will sit across from the Publix-anchored Ashley Landing shopping center.
The city purchased 1660 and 1662 Ingram Road from the Catholic Diocese of Charleston in May 2025 for $6.5 million. The 1662 building opened on July 25, 1966, as the Charleston Home for Children, a use it retained for decades. The southern section of 1660 Ingram Road dates to the same era as the neighboring Carter-May Home convent, while an addition was made in the late 1990s. Both sites sit inside the West Ashley Tax Increment Financing District, which channels a portion of property-tax growth back into neighborhood investment.
The first office building will measure 49,000 square feet and house as many as 140 city employees. The July 2028 target completion is tied to the expiration of the city’s downtown office lease, giving planners a hard deadline to open the doors.
City officials describe the development as the first new municipal office space in West Ashley in nearly 15 years, part of a broader effort to bring city services and jobs closer to residents who live west of the Ashley River. Design and permitting work stretched from August 2025 into early 2026 before the construction budget went to final passage this month.
