Chimney Sweep in Mount Pleasant, SC

CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCBD) – Get carried away at Mount Pleasant’s new southern market and eatery!

Located in the heart of town, Get Carried Away offers everything you need whether it’s a delicious grab-and-go meal or stylish glassware for your next dinner party.

Happening Saturday, Feb. 3rd, the store will celebrate its grand opening of ‘The Perch,’ their outdoor patio and your new favorite hangout spot for an afternoon spritz and sandwich.

We caught up with the owners, Sassy and Brian Henry, to learn more about their business ahead of this weekend’s celebration.

“A lot of what we do is entertaining and hosting,” said owner, Brian. The idea for the shop has been derived from their love for food, hosting, and entertaining family and friends.

Get Carried Away’s first location was founded in Pawleys Island, but the Henrys decided to expand services to reach a larger audience. “We felt like Mount Pleasant was a comfortable jump,” Sassy said.

The Henrys want to accommodate Charleston’s vacationers and local folks.

Sassy went on to say, “When people are on vacation and going to the beach, they don’t want to have to cook entertaining-type foods for large groups of people.”

The market offers a variety of items for the typical vacationer to pick up on their way to the beach house or for the everyday locals to sip and shop.

Not only does Get Carried Away offer takeaway meals and a wide selection of beer and wine, but you can also find everyday groceries there such as meat, seafood, fruits, dips, milk, eggs, and so on. And of course, you can’t miss out on their famous chicken salad or pimento cheese!

You can get carried away in their home section, too, if you’re not careful. It features gorgeous glassware, decorative napkins, kitchen towels, candles, and much more! “We’re trying to keep it all food and beverage oriented,” Sassy mentioned about the products featured in the home section. It’s worth checking out if you’re looking to elevate your tablescape.

The fun doesn’t stop there! You and your family can join the Henrys on Saturday, Feb. 3rd from 12:00 p.m. until 4:00 p.m. for the grand opening of ‘The Perch,’ their outdoor patio and bar. The celebration will include a complimentary Lowcountry boil as well as their homemade crowd-pleaser appetizers.

‘The Perch’ will provide a full lunch and drink menu this spring with specialty cocktails: The Perch Punch, Coleman Cosmo, Old Village Fashioned, and the Moultrie Margarita.

Get Carried Away is located at 644 Coleman Boulevard in Mount Pleasant. They’re open from 10:00 a.m. until 6:00 p.m. Monday through Saturday and closed on Sundays.

An Atlanta-based merchant is laying down plans for a second big-box store in the Charleston area.

Floor & Decor is eyeing a site at 2233 U.S. Highway 17 next to Home Depot in Mount Pleasant to build a 64,450-square-foot retail outlet.

The building is slated for roughly 8 acres on the back portion of a parcel that formerly housed longtime dive bar Richard's, which was demolished last year, and a small office building. A Spinx gas station and convenience store is going on the front of the tract.

Real Estate

Floor & Decor's East Cooper expansion is making its way through the town's approval process. A company representative did not immediately respond for comment.

The flooring merchant opened its first South Carolina store on Rivers Avenue in North Charleston in 2019.

Publicly traded Floor & Decor operates 203 warehouse stores and five design studios across 36 states, including other Palmetto State locations in Columbia and Greenville.

Opening soon

An Ohio-based restaurant chain is just a few days away from opening a new venue in the Lowcountry, its second in South Carolina.

Condado Tacos will open at 11 a.m. Nov. 4 at 1712 Towne Centre Way next to Lenscrafters in Mount Pleasant Towne Centre.

The first 100 people in line who enter the doors on opening day will win a "Year of Yum," or free tacos for a year.

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The restaurant will be open 11 a.m.-11 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and 11 a.m.-midnight Friday and Saturday. Happy hour is 3-6 p.m. weekdays, offering $5 margaritas, $1 off tacos and other food and drink specials.

Condado Tacos has one other restaurant in South Carolina. The Greenville location on Woodruff Road opened earlier this year. The company has 45 locations in nine states across the South, Midwest and Northeast.

(Note: Condado Tacos changed the opening date twice before settling on Nov. 4. This story has been updated to reflect the latest change.)

New tenants

A Mount Pleasant retail site where a proposal has been in the works to redevelop a former grocery store recently landed four new tenants.

Dear Lucy Shoes, The Works Cycle, facial bar Clean Your Dirty Face and Findings Boutique joined Oyster Park Shopping Center at 1400-1421 Shucker Circle and 1440 Ben Sawyer Blvd.

Tim Rowley of the commercial real estate firm Coldwell Banker Commercial Atlantic represented the landlord, an affiliate of Atlanta-based Dewberry Capital.

The property owner presented plans to the town in 2021 to transform the long-vacant former Bi-Lo grocery store building into office and retail space. Oyster Park already includes a 269-unit apartment development.

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Rowley also represented Paragano Associates of Mount Pleasant, the owner of the redeveloped Montague Corners Shopping Center at 5060 Dorchester Road in North Charleston in several leases.

Among the tenants are Latin fusion restaurant El Callao, Silver Crowne Liquors, sports bar Whiskey Run Grill, Sticky Fingers Rib House, Kanji Sushi & Hibachi restaurant, 540 Vape, Platia Greek Goodness dining spot and The Montague Room, an upscale steak and martini lounge.

He also represented Ruby's New York Style Bagels, which opened in August in the shopping center. Ruby's will offer new locations in Carolina Park in northern Mount Pleasant and The Market at Carnes Crossroads in Goose Creek in 2024.

Ruby's opened its first location on Coleman Boulevard in East Cooper in 2022. Another one recently opened on Ashley River Road in Crossroads Centre in West Ashley.

Going dark

A women's clothing store in downtown Charleston soon will turn out the lights.

Souchi at 141 Broad St. will close Oct. 27. The owner has decided to move to the Seattle area and open a shop there. The store is open 11 a.m.-5 p.m.

Spa treatment

A new holistic health business is ready to welcome customers on the Charleston peninsula.

Solt Wellness at 137-A President St. will host its official opening 5:30-7:30 p.m. Oct. 26. Owned by Fiona Scott, the site will offer a range of natural therapies, including a Himalayan salt room, infrared saunas, float pod, red light therapy, meditation pod, skin care and body work.

Scott said benefits include detoxification, relief of muscle and joint pain, reduced stress and anxiety, increased energy, strengthened immunity, improved skin and better sleep.

Real Estate

Born in Hong Kong to Scottish parents, Scott has a diverse background in sports development, health and fitness management and a decadelong experience in luxury resort development across the globe.

She decided to look into the business after being diagnosed with a chronic lung condition in 2007 and undergoing therapy in a salt room.

The opening event will offer guided tours, therapy demonstrations, complimentary consultations and exclusive opening discounts. It's open 10 a.m.-7 p.m. weekdays and 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday.

On display

An upscale women's clothing store in downtown Charleston will host a fashion event and cocktail party 5-8 p.m. Oct. 26 as the kickoff to the arrival of a special clothing collection from a French design firm. RTW at 186 King St. will have a collection of offerings from Balmain Paris that can be previewed through Nov. 16.

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Mount Pleasant seems certain to extend its moratorium on new apartments yet again. This needs to be the last time — and it needs to be lifted as soon as the town's new zoning regulations are in place.

We agree with Mayor Will Haynie, who has supported these moratoriums while also acknowledging that they represent a sort of failure of local government. Specifically, they reflect a failure of earlier town leaders to ensure that new apartments are built in the right place and with the necessary public infrastructure to support them — and to minimize any negative impacts on existing residents.

But the moratorium also reflects a failure of Town Council to consider those who work in the town and who want to live there but cannot afford to. While the vast majority of Mount Pleasant residents moved to the town, they have supported political candidates who have vowed to make it increasingly difficult and costly for others to do the same. The moratorium has limited new construction and housing supply, helping to drive up both home prices and rental rates. This needs to change.

Almost a decade ago, new apartment projects bothered town voters enough to create a political backlash that ushered in a wave of new council members and, in 2017, the first moratorium on apartments. Since then, the town has regularly renewed the ban, and it worked gradually to revise its comprehensive plan and currently is working to update its zoning and land use regulations to match that plan. The work is expected to finish up in less than a year, after which the moratorium should cease.

It's not just about the need to build more housing; trying to extend it any longer could result in a costly lawsuit for the town. "We knew all along that if we got challenged in court, it would be an uphill battle for us to win," Mr. Haynie tells us. "You have to tie it (the moratorium) to some future occurrence. You can’t just put a moratorium on apartments because we don’t like them." In fact, Mount Pleasant's approximately 8-year-long apartment moratorium might have set a South Carolina record.

Town Council should urge its staff to prioritize updating the code; we see no reason it shouldn't be approved by late summer. Even after the moratorium expires, developers still will see new limits on certain types of residential projects under the town’s building permit allocation system, which limits the number of permits available for single-family housing and multifamily housing developments for several more years. But if Town Council gets this code rewrite right, it also should consider lifting or loosening those permit caps.

Congested roads and overcrowded schools and the loss of forestland and open space have driven these anti-growth measures, but the lack of affordable housing — particularly for those who work in Mount Pleasant's schools, fire stations, hospitals and businesses — is emerging as an equal or even greater concern. And these problems are interrelated: The more people there are who have to commute to Mount Pleasant from Goose Creek, Summerville, Moncks Corner and elsewhere, the worse the traffic.

One thing the town has gotten right is its exemption of multifamily projects with an affordable component from the moratorium. But that has not been enough, particularly as Mount Pleasant has not subsidized such projects to nearly the degree that Charleston has.

The growing problem of too little affordable housing is not a problem only in Mount Pleasant; it's a regional problem. But it's a problem every government in our region must do what it can to solve.

If you’re dreaming of a white Christmas, you’ve come to the wrong place. It’s not likely that snow will be in our forecast for the holidays, but in these days of wacky weather, you never can tell. We’ve had our share of sunny and warm Christmas days here in the Lowcountry, but there have also been a few harbingers thrown in. In 2018, just after the holidays ended – and two days after the new year was ushered in with temperatures in the 70s – the year started out with more than 5 inches of snow, the third highest amount ever recorded here. The snowfall was followed by nearly a week of below-freezing temperatures and highs reaching only into the teens. Drivers were warned to stay off the roads due to the hazardous icy conditions, but several fatalities occurred when people attempted to simply walk on the ice.

Another bizarre winter storm that many long-time locals remember is the 1989 snowstorm, which happened just three months after Hurricane Hugo wreaked havoc. That one did give us a white Christmas – and even provided a bit of Christmas magic by covering up the mounds of debris and devastation that the hurricane had left behind. Eight inches of snow fell from the evening of Dec. 22 to the 23 and stayed around through Christmas Day.

But even without snow in the mix, there have been terrible ice storms when sleet and freezing rain has chilled the Lowcountry to the core, like in January 2011 when icicles draped live oak and palm trees as well as power lines. That meant many folks lost electricity when those power lines came crashing down—which made things pretty miserable since it meant that many homes had no heat. Along the coast, nearly an inch of ice accumulated. Three years later, the Lowcountry was hit with two consecutive ice storms – one in January and an even more severe one just weeks later which brought a third of an inch of freezing rain. That one forced the authorities to close the Ravenel Bridge when giant icicles hung on the bridge’s cables and later fell onto unsuspecting vehicles.

Even though such occurrences might (thankfully) be the exception rather than the norm for our area, early European settlers in the Lowcountry found that their new home would have its trials and tribulations during the winter. A local newspaper, the South Carolina Gazette, reported on Jan. 2, 1737, that frozen ponds and creeks were covered with a layer of ice 3 inches thick.

But winter storms don’t confine themselves to January, often considered the coldest month of the year. On Feb. 12, 1899, a severe blizzard blasted most of the Southeast, including the Lowcountry. Temperatures here plummeted to 7 degrees F and 4 inches of snow blanketed our area. Another February storm occurred in 1934. Lowcountry resident Yvonne Kanapaux said her parents got married on Feb. 10 during that ice storm. She remembered being told that her father had always jokingly predicted that “it would be a cold day in hell when he got married!” And February 1973 brought a record snowfall of 7 inches. Some locals seized that opportunity to use the old Cooper River Bridge as a ski slope.

The winter of 1784 proved to be a particularly bizarre set of weather anomalies. Due to the El Nino effect ushering in unusually cold temperatures to eastern North America coupled with the effects of an atmospheric low caused by a volcanic eruption in Iceland, frigid water temperatures froze up Charleston Harbor. It was reported at the time that some daring local residents ice skated on the surface of the harbor. Hard to imagine, but fact or fiction, it does allude to an extreme weather event.

Snow and icicles adorning the Palmetto State’s namesake trees might make for an interesting holiday photo replacing the iconic images of snow that appear on commercially produced Christmas cards – scenes that Lowcountry residents have never been able to relate to anyway. But when Old Man Winter pays a visit to our area, it’s not exactly picture-perfect. So this holiday season, just be careful what you wish for!

By Mary Coy

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MOUNT PLEASANT, S.C. (WCSC) - The town of Mount Pleasant is looking to extend limiting building permits for another five years in an effort to slow growth down and build infrastructure up.

A proposal to extend the building permit allocation system was presented at a planning commission meeting Wednesday night with one more final vote left from the town council.

As people continue to move to the Lowcountry, the town of Mount Pleasant put this building permit allocation into effect back in 2019 and is now looking to extend it until 2029.

“The council is very serious about maintaining our level of service,” Mount Pleasant’s Director of Planning, Land Use and Neighborhoods Michelle Reed says.

“Keeping the growth slowed down, the way they have the last five years, and slowing that growth rate down, has really allowed them to continue the levels of service that we provide to our citizens,” she adds.

The goal is to finish major capital improvement projects before allowing more growth to happen in the town.

“I think the idea is really to allow the town to continue with their infrastructure improvements and to catch up with all the growth that occurred over the years,” Reed says.

The system is broken down into three categories single-family units, accessory dwelling units and multifamily units with a certain number of permits to be issued on a semi-annual basis.

Reed says they never maxed out single-family permits with 480 available and a large amount carrying over into the next year, not really affecting single-family builds.

But if you want to add another dwelling unit to your property, only 20 permits are available each year with a large waitlist putting people on a list for July of 2024.

Five hundred multifamily units were available on a first come first serve basis when the system was put into place, with the permits going quickly to builds at Patriots Point and South Bay.

“Those are the two really that were most affected; your average person that’s coming here and is going to build a single-family home, really didn’t affect them,” Reed says.

But looking at the status of real estate in Mount Pleasant, Charleston Trident Association of Realtors Government Affairs Director Josh Dix says they find the most problems with the dwelling unit permits.

“You have this permit allocation taking place on single-family residential, but it extends beyond just single family,” Dix says. “It’s if you want to add a grandmother, in-law suite, or some duplex on a single-family lot, all of that is contained by this extension.”

Dix adds people are going to be priced out of the area with regulations like the building permit allocation system.

“You have folks in Mount Pleasant, this is an aging demographic, and we want them to be able to age in place,” he says.

“I think permit allocations and caps like what we’re seeing in Mount Pleasant is not the answer to keeping communities and residents in place, where they currently live and exist in their neighborhoods,” Dix adds.

Pricing is also affected, with single-family homes in Mount Pleasant that used to cost $500,000 are now in the millions, Dix says.

“The everyday, middle American that lives here in Charleston, they are being priced out of Mount Pleasant because of these onerous regulations,” he says.

Mount Pleasant Town Council will vote on the final approval for the permit building allocation system in January.

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