Co-Working Space in Summers Corner, SC

SUMMERVILLE, S.C. (WCIV) — A Summerville family says their $535,000 dream house has turned into a nightmare.

“This is what we wanted. We fell in love with the outside, the exterior, everything,” said Michael O’Hea, who moved into the house in the Summers Corner neighborhood in June of 2017. He says immediately after moving in, he and his wife noticed defects cropping up throughout the house.

“You see the cracks in the wall you see the cabinets coming off the wall,” Brandy O’Hea told ABC News 4.

Floors are also uneven in several parts of the home, and two cracks have formed on the both sides of the home’s exterior.

The O’Heas also described mold issues with the home and drainage problems that required the installation of a French drain.

Dan Ryan Builders constructed the home, which the O’Hea’s say is a "Keenleand II" plan.

ABC News 4 called and emailed Dan Ryan builders requesting an interview and asking if the home was being examined for structural issues. Dan Ryan’s regional president emailed the following:

“We are aware of the O’Hea’s concerns with respect to their house. We are in the process of scheduling an engineer to inspect the house and will take appropriate action thereafter.”

The O’Hea’s say Dan Ryan Building sent two structural engineers in the spring who performed a visual inspection of the home, but those engineers were no-shows at the next scheduled appointment.

“We’ve had no shows. Contractors showing up with no materials, no paint,” Michael O’Hea said. “We had seven different personnel but it’s past that now.”

The O’Heas said several of their neighbors are experiencing similar issues with the Keeneland II model. Representatives from Dan Ryan have not yet commented on that.

As it stands, the O’Heas simply want their little slice of suburbia back in one piece.

“I want my home,” Brandy O’Hea said. “I want the home we paid for. We put everything in this home.”

The Better Business Bureau’s website shows 57 complaints filed against Dan Ryan Builders in the last three years, but it also rates the company an A+.

The BBB’s website lists some of the criteria for that score as pertaining to how quickly and appropriately the company has handled complaints.

Dan Ryan told us the building company scheduled its structural engineer to inspect their home less than two days after we contacted them for this story, but that engineer is scheduled for October.

The O’Heas say they’re considering a class action lawsuit.

People living in the Summers Corner development are reaching out to representatives and federal post office officials for help with persistent mail delivery iss

SUMMERVILLE, S.C. (WCSC) - People living in the Summers Corner development are reaching out to representatives and federal post office officials for help with persistent mail delivery issues.

Packages delivered a few days late or a letter arriving a few houses down aren’t the only problems plaguing those who live in the Summers Corner development.

Christy Hurley has lived in Summers Corner since 2022. She says she understands a few weeks of understaffing and a misplaced item occasionally, but her service has been inconsistent for a year.

“We started noticing certain things missing such as debit cards, credit cards, we would have to call those companies and say can you just send a new one? That’s when I started to get nervous because that’s personal information,” Hurley says.

Talking with neighbors, a few people thought it seemed like a community-wide issue. Damone Walsh is one of the residents who helped create a tracking system to get a sense of what is going on.

Over a 90-day period, people living in Summers Corner contributed to a neighborhood-wide spreadsheet tracking mail mishaps. They range from missing tax documents and cards with money, to empty packages left in mailboxes. Their recordings found about 100 issues.

“Frankly, we were surprised. I mean over just during that 90 days, 78 days of actual mail service, at least one to two people were having mail problems every day, every single day and just in our community,” Walsh says.

The spreadsheet creators believe their numbers may be underreported as well. The neighbors sent letters to South Carolina representatives Graham, Scott, Mace and Clyburn, as well as the U.S. Postal Inspection Service and Inspector General.

“It just makes us think that there’s something systemic as opposed to individual problems. I mean, it may be both, but ultimately, I mean, let’s, let’s get it fixed,” Walsh says.

Walsh and Hurley say the postal service will often respond to an individual complaint, citing they are understaffed, or contractors are doing the deliveries.

“Everybody expected and was willing to accept if it’s a couple days off, well, that just makes sense. There’s a lag between whenever they scan it and whenever they deliver it, but then it went on for days, weeks and then just never just never delivered,” Walsh says.

Hurley says she’s gotten to the point that she doesn’t trust the service when it comes to important deliveries.

“We just sent out notices for my college daughter’s graduation and I had to inform all of our family. I said, Look, we’re having so many issues, I would prefer you not send money, gift cards, anything like that in the mail,” she says. “We got a graduation announcement for my sister and the back was torn open. And I said this is getting a little crazy.”

Walsh says the group decided to reach out to their representatives because USPS is a federal service, they need help getting answers from.

“We have a right to expect mail service. It’s embodied in our in our laws. And several people have reached out to the Postal Inspector and the postmaster and complained repeatedly and got nothing, just no result,” Walsh says.

Representative Nancy Mace’s office provided the following response to the community letter:

We’ve gotten a few inquires about this post office and have talked with our postal contact in Columbia. Their response has been that a lot of post offices, including this one, are experiencing staffing shortages and significant slowdowns. They are looking into it though so I’ll add in your inquiry to the others we’ve sent – will help us build the investigative case against them so the PS will have evidence to help find solutions to the issues.

Senator Lindsay Graham’s office also responded asking for more information from Walsh, who submitted the letter.

“We all recognize and believe that most of the Postal Service employees, they just want to do a good job, but it just makes us think that there’s something systemic as opposed to individual problems. I mean, it may be both, but ultimately, let’s get it fixed,” Walsh says. “I think consistent delivery, and I think a component would also be responsiveness from the leadership from within the Postal Service is what we’re looking for.”

The United States Postal Service provided the following statement:

The Postal Service strives is working hard to provide the best possible service to our valued customers. We apologize for any mail services issues that may have been experienced by customers living in the Summer’s Corner community. Some of the proactive steps we’ve taken in Summerville, SC include hiring additional personnel, as well as making staffing adjustments. Local management at the Oakbrook Post Office will continue to work with customers in Summer’s Corner to ensure every effort is being made to meet or exceed their expectations. We urge any customers with concerns or questions about their mail delivery service to contact the Postal Service immediately so that we can look into and resolve those concerns promptly. Customers have a variety of options for contacting the Postal Service, including contacting their local Post Office, calling 1-800-ASK-USPS (1-800-275-8777), or visiting our website.

Copyright 2023 WCSC. All rights reserved.

The restaurant and retail business continues to evolve across the Charleston region with one venue closing, four others in the works and another relocating.

South of Summerville, the only restaurant in the developing Summers Corner community will soon turn out the lights.

Real Estate

Corner House Café at 1609 Beech Hill Road is slated to close April 3, according to a shop owner Jacki Mariest.

Mariest said she was notified by a lawyer with homebuilder Lennar, which owns and is developing Summers Corner, in early March that the company would not be renewing her lease when it expires in June. Rather than wait until then, and to give her 10 employees an earlier chance to land a new job, Mariest said she decided to go ahead and close.

Mariest said Lennar did not offer a reason for not renewing the lease after the restaurant’s nearly four years at the location.

“A lot of homeowners are real upset because this was one of their amenities,” Mariest said.

A Lennar representative did not offer a reason for not renewing the lease but said a new occupant could be announced soon.

“We have a number of prospective new tenants we believe will be embraced and enjoyed by the community,” said Jason Byham, Charleston division president. “We have no intention of leaving it vacant.”

In a Facebook post, Mariest thanked her customers for their support over the past four years.

“You have always stood by our side, especially during COVID,” she said. “We are not closing due to COVID or a lack of community support.”

An online petition to try to change the landlord’s mind had garnered roughly 2,000 signatures by March 30.

Lennar has about 500 houses in Summers Corner with another 100 under construction and hundreds more planned, Byham said.

What’s cooking?

A Mount Pleasant restaurant and bar that’s been closed since last summer plans to welcome customers once again.

Charleston is better-positioned in the commercial real estate sector than much larger U.S. markets to stave off economic distress that could result from higher borrowing costs and the unsettled office sector after the pandemic.

That’s the assessment of industry experts who specialize in office, industrial and retail properties.

“There are more tailwinds than headwinds (for Charleston),” said Manus Clancy, senior managing director at Trepp, a New York City-based financial information service for the commercial real estate industry.

“Charleston is strong across all property types,” he said. “You are punching above your weight when it comes to the metrics.”

Clancy noted “a dramatic difference in geography” across the nation for areas affected by the fallout of the shift toward the hybrid model of in-person and remote office work policies.

Large cities, such as San Francisco, Baltimore and Seattle, where the quality-of-life quotient is offset by long commutes, are not faring well after the global health crisis.

“This puts cities like Charleston, Greenville, Austin and Salt Lake City in the driver’s seat to attract more industries,” Clancy said.

He pointed out housing costs are higher in Charleston than most of the rest of South Carolina, but compared to many large metro areas it’s more affordable and the quality of life is attractive in the Lowcountry.

He also noted the area’s labor force is strong and increasingly better educated.

“People want to flock to places where their students can be educated,” Clancy said. “In Charleston, you have the ability to make that case.”

Clancy added the financial industry has not fully recovered from the spring scare instigated by several high-profile bank failures, and credit, especially for the office sector, is going to be harder to come by.

Still, he noted borrowing continues in the commercial real estate market, but at roughly half the pace as last year.

Cubicle command

The office market is showing the most stress, with delinquencies of commercial mortgage-backed securities more than doubling from less than 2 percent in December to about 5.5 percent nine months later.

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In the Charleston area, vacancy rates for office space average just under 12 percent, based on composite local market reports for the July-September period from the commercial real estate firms of Avison Young, Colliers and Lee & Associates.

The latter firm said it sees an uptick in office occupancy in 2024 as more employers require staffers to show up in person more often. Avison Young echoed the move next year to the hybrid arrangement.

Colliers cited the updated working environments and ease of access as the drivers of the office market, and the firm projected a flattening of vacancies by the first quarter of next year.

Lee Allen, executive managing director for commercial real estate firm JLL in Charleston, said the local office sector never got overbuilt and the risk is lower for newer, more creative offerings.

“What we have seen in the market is a flight to quality,” Allen said.

Business and other employers that are set on bringing workers back to the office two to three days a week want to elevate their experience with a top-notch working environment to keep top talent from jumping ship.

They might not have the bright lights of the big city, the hustle and bustle of crowds on Fifth Avenue or the Miracle Mile, but South Carolina’s metropolitan areas have an appeal all their own.

Not surprisingly, people from large cities across the country have been discovering the benefits of the Palmetto State’s smaller metro areas and have been moving in droves since the pandemic to improve their work-life balance.

As of July 2021, the U.S. Census Bureau reported South Carolina’s population of 5.19 million was 1.4 percent higher than the previous year, and the metropolitan centers accounted for much of the growth.

“These areas have a lot of the same amenities as the bigger cities, like New York and Chicago, good retail, entertainment; they still have that city vibe, that’s what makes them so attractive,” said Laura Ullrich, an economist at the Charlotte branch of the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond.

As the population grows in Charleston, Greenville and Charlotte-Gastonia at the North and South Carolina border, like the Pied Piper, companies are following the crowd of young workers and taking advantage of other amenities the state has to offer.

“Companies want a place where younger people are moving,” said Ullrich.

Add the state’s location on the East Coast, Charleston’s port and tax incentives related to driving additional population growth, and it’s an ideal enticement for businesses to invest in the state, said Ullrich.

Walmart Inc., encouraged by Charleston’s vibrancy, growing population, the state’s pro-business environment and its proximity to the deep-water Port of Charleston, opened a 3 million-square-foot import distribution

“One of the advantages of being a member of this vibrant community is the region’s existing infrastructure, including the Port of Charleston and Interstates 26 and 95,” said Charles Crowson, director of corporate communications.

Other large corporations and smaller businesses are, like Walmart, establishing themselves or expanding in and around the state’s bigger metropolitan areas.

It’s showing up in employment numbers. Statewide, seasonally adjusted figures from the S.C. Department of Employment and Workforce shows 79,900 new jobs were created since July 2021. Charleston drove 23 percent of the growth, with 18,400 jobs added. Greenville was second with 12,300 new positions, or 15 percent of the total.

Greenville Business

Over the last 12 months, $3.8 billion in new investments have been made through 115 projects developed across the state, said Kelly Coakley, director of marketing and communications at the S.C. Department of Commerce.

“We’ve tracked about a billion dollars’ worth of capital infusion announced in the Charleston region over the past year,” said Megan Fink, director of marketing and communications at the Charleston Regional Development Alliance. “That includes capital raises by local firms as well as capital investments by local firms.”

In the 10-county Upstate region that includes Greenville, “We have been remarkably successful coming out of and during COVID,” said John Lummus, president and CEO of the Upstate SC Alliance.

He attributed much of the state’s good economic fortune to the statewide policy that allowed manufacturers to be considered a necessary business and stay open during the pandemic.

From 2020 to last month, 22 new projects brought a total investment of about $495 million to Greenville, according to the alliance.

At its new Dorchester County distribution center, Walmart employs more than 1,300 workers. It anticipates hiring and investing in the training and development of more than 200 more local full-timers.

And for manufacturers — one of the leading job growth sectors in the state — South Carolina has a “real advantage over competitor regions,” said Lummus.

“The state has an incredible manufacturing economy and high-tech companies in the manufacturing sphere,” he said. “In the Upstate, we have 110,000 people working in manufacturing and 2,100 manufacturers.”

Looking at the unemployment rate — 3.2 percent in July — one might think that the industry is having trouble going to find the workforce they need, Lummus said.

“But they are finding workers from employed and underemployed people who can make more by moving up into higher tech jobs,” he said.

Combine that with ReadySC — a workforce training program that is part of the state’s technical college system — and manufacturers have a healthy pool of workers to draw from.

The same holds in Charleston and its suburbs, where Volvo Car USA announced it would build its first US plant in 2015 to manufacture its S60 mid-size sedan and XC90 sport utility vehicle.

“The Lowcountry offers easy access to international ports and infrastructure, a well-trained labor force, an attractive investment environment and experience in the high-tech manufacturing sector,” said Katherine Bergmann, head of communications and community relations. “All of that, combined with the quality of life, makes Charleston a great place to live and build a career.”

Volvo expects to grow its workforce over the next year and is looking for talent from all areas and demographics. As it competes for workers, recruitment challenges exist, Bergmann said.

But workforce challenges are particularly prevalent for smaller businesses in growth sectors, including leisure and hospitality, where 6,000 jobs have been added in the Charleston region over the last 12 months as the industry continued to recover from the pandemic.

One of the Charleston area’s longtime restaurant chains knows the labor challenges all too well. The Kickin’ Chicken is now closed on Tuesdays at all five locations throughout the Lowcountry because it can’t get enough help.

“It’s a struggle at all locations,” said Chip Roberts, president and co-founder of the 25-year-old dining chain. “The problem is from top to bottom, from management all the way down. It’s thin all over.”

The restaurant group should have about 250 employees, but Roberts said it’s operating on about 150.

The Kickin’ Chicken has done better during the summer on hourly staff, but Roberts said, “If they don’t feel like coming to work, they don’t. You are already thin, so what are you going to do, fire them?”

Roberts said the chain considered closing part of the dining rooms to limit demands on the waitstaff, but he noted the restaurants still need someone with management skills to open and close.

“It’s hard to find some skilled labor and cooks,” he said.

Roberts pointed out it’s easier to find help in the Charleston area’s suburbs of Ladson, Goose Creek and Summerville.

Marilyn Knox with Culver’s restaurant experienced that firsthand.

When the franchisee opened her second Charleston-area Culver’s frozen custard and ButterBurger restaurant on Ladson Road on Aug. 29, she already had all 60 new employees lined up.

Knox said it took about a month to hire all the workers she needed at the new restaurant site.

She believes the secret is the way the company takes care of its employees through incentives, bonuses and holiday parties.

“People want to feel like they are part of a team,” she said.

At the newly opened Pasture & Grain restaurant in Mount Pleasant, owner Ira Hill remembered being fully staffed almost immediately after announcing the new eatery planned to open in a former pizza restaurant in June.

“As time went on, we lost 40 percent of those we hired,” he said in mid-August.

“It’s been a labor of love for interviews,” Hill said. “We are short-staffed, but we’re not poorly staffed. It’s universally challenging. You want quality workers as well.”

He also is well aware of the challenges throughout the food-service industry in hiring and retaining workers.

“We are entering the business at one of the worst times in the industry, so we have to get it right and provide quality.”

Construction is another sector grappling since COVID-19 with a nationwide labor shortage driven by a lack of qualified help, and that could impede progress in areas that need improvement to ensure the continued growth of South Carolina’s metropolitan centers.

In South Carolina, more than 90 percent of companies responding to an Associated General Contractors of America survey said they have positions open. Nearly 80 percent are having difficulty finding workers to fill them. Employers that belong to the trade group attribute the crunch to a lack of candidates with the specific jobsite skills they need.

Retail follows rooftops.

While that long-standing commercial real estate maxim is being tested in this Amazon-fueled click-and-order era, it hasn’t dented the expansion ambitions of grocery stores in up-and-coming residential areas.

Around Charleston, the population boom — now expanding at an average net daily rate of 33 residents, according to the latest update — keeps fueling competition among supermarket chains that are angling to be as close as possible to the proliferating housing enclaves that keep their cash registers ringing.

That’s more than 12,000 new residents each year spread across Charleston, Berkeley and Dorchester counties, with many of the newcomers settling on the fringes of the growing region, especially in the large-scale developments in Goose Creek, Moncks Corner and Summerville.

Real Estate

The three counties saw a 20 percent population surge over the past decade to a combined 800,000 residents in 2020, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

Competing grocery chains closely analyze the numbers to decide where to set up shop.

By one account, the general rule for a full-service supermarket of 40,000 square feet or more to be financially viable is to have 10,000 residents, or about 4,000 rooftops, within a 20-mile radius, according to a representative of the national wholesale grocery distributor C&S. If there’s competition in the market, the required number of residents is higher — and vice versa for an area with no rivals.

With that metric in mind, the Lowcountry will see four grocery stores opening this year. Five more are on the drawing boards, with land already secured or plans announced for their arrivals.

Cartload of stores

Florida-based juggernaut Publix is building its 14th store in the Lowcountry on U.S. Highway 52 near Cypress Gardens Road in Moncks Corner and has two more on the way.

The expansion-minded employee-owned chain recently announced plans for a 15th store at Brighton Park Boulevard and Nexton Parkway in an undeveloped part of Nexton that will be called One Nexton. Construction could start by the spring of 2023.

Charleston is better-positioned in the commercial real estate sector than much larger U.S. markets to stave off economic distress that could result from higher borrowing costs and the unsettled office sector after the pandemic.

That’s the assessment of industry experts who specialize in office, industrial and retail properties.

“There are more tailwinds than headwinds (for Charleston),” said Manus Clancy, senior managing director at Trepp, a New York City-based financial information service for the commercial real estate industry.

“Charleston is strong across all property types,” he said. “You are punching above your weight when it comes to the metrics.”

Clancy noted “a dramatic difference in geography” across the nation for areas affected by the fallout of the shift toward the hybrid model of in-person and remote office work policies.

Large cities, such as San Francisco, Baltimore and Seattle, where the quality-of-life quotient is offset by long commutes, are not faring well after the global health crisis.

“This puts cities like Charleston, Greenville, Austin and Salt Lake City in the driver’s seat to attract more industries,” Clancy said.

He pointed out housing costs are higher in Charleston than most of the rest of South Carolina, but compared to many large metro areas it’s more affordable and the quality of life is attractive in the Lowcountry.

He also noted the area’s labor force is strong and increasingly better educated.

“People want to flock to places where their students can be educated,” Clancy said. “In Charleston, you have the ability to make that case.”

Clancy added the financial industry has not fully recovered from the spring scare instigated by several high-profile bank failures, and credit, especially for the office sector, is going to be harder to come by.

Still, he noted borrowing continues in the commercial real estate market, but at roughly half the pace as last year.

Cubicle command

The office market is showing the most stress, with delinquencies of commercial mortgage-backed securities more than doubling from less than 2 percent in December to about 5.5 percent nine months later.

Get the best of the Post and Courier’s Real Estate news, handpicked and delivered to your inbox each Saturday.

Email

In the Charleston area, vacancy rates for office space average just under 12 percent, based on composite local market reports for the July-September period from the commercial real estate firms of Avison Young, Colliers and Lee & Associates.

The latter firm said it sees an uptick in office occupancy in 2024 as more employers require staffers to show up in person more often. Avison Young echoed the move next year to the hybrid arrangement.

Colliers cited the updated working environments and ease of access as the drivers of the office market, and the firm projected a flattening of vacancies by the first quarter of next year.

Lee Allen, executive managing director for commercial real estate firm JLL in Charleston, said the local office sector never got overbuilt and the risk is lower for newer, more creative offerings.

“What we have seen in the market is a flight to quality,” Allen said.

Business and other employers that are set on bringing workers back to the office two to three days a week want to elevate their experience with a top-notch working environment to keep top talent from jumping ship.