Savannah Highway’s Crossroads

If West Ashley was its own U.S. state, its license plate motto these days might read, “Land of a Thousand Improvements.”
It seems like everywhere you look these days, there are major projects starting, or renovation projects in the works.
This week it was announced that after months of waiting for the market to be just right, the state Department of Transportation has accepted a bid and signed a contract with a Columbia asphalt grading company to make the busy Avondale Point intersection safer for pedestrians.
The project, which is scheduled to be completed by November, will include curb ramps and a “raised, planted median” in the middle of Savannah Highway between Daniel and Magnolia roads, according to a state DOT source.
The project, which was bid out separately, may be finished quicker than that, especially if the contractor, L-J Inc., likes the idea of getting paid sooner for completed work.
City Councilman Aubry Alexander said the median would provide a respite, a “safe harbor” for pedestrians trying to cross from one side of the highway to the other. Three pedestrians have come close to death over the last two years in collisions with passing cars.
A privately held planning session earlier this year put together a non-binding project that included a wide array of improvements, little of which ended up in the bidded project.
Christopher Morgan, director of the city Planning Division, said the city might have to go back and put down safety paint after the project is completed.
Both Alexander and Morgan said the median would also subtly signal to drivers to slow down, giving them a “sense” they’ve entered onto a different area along the four-lane highway.
“The idea is to calm traffic along that stretch,” said Morgan, while Alexander worried why it took the state agency three rounds of bidding before relenting to committing fully to the project.
Two blocks up, Swig & Swine, a new barbecue restaurant, is set to open in a few weeks next to the Glass Onion.
Further down the road, a nearly dormant Kmart has been sold to Hendrick Auto Group, and could provide another cog in the city’s “motor mile.” The Kmart has been holding a several-weeks long liquidation sale.
A spokesman from the auto giant declined to comment directly on where in the development process Hendrick is currently.
But whatever happens on the enormous spot it would join several large improvements along the motor mile, including an expansion program that last year garnered competitor Baker Motor Company another property fronting onto the highway and several other dealerships upgrading.
Around the corner along St. Andrews Boulevard and up Old Towne Road to Northbridge, the city has announced and begun work on three new waterfront park projects that will be linked one day by a riverwalk stretching past Charles Towne Landing into Maryville.
On Old Towne Road, Ashley Landings shopping center was recently bought by a Charlotte-based property company that is already looking to lease outparcels.
Alexander said a deal is in the works for the closed Piggly Wiggly nearby, but the potential new owners have not released the end result business.
That shuttered grocery store stands near the corner of Old Towne Road and Sam Rittenberg Boulevard, where city planners like Morgan and Tim Keane have joined with local planning companies to address commercial property woes stretching up to Citadel Mall.
So why is all this happening in West Ashley? And why now? Is it more than the economic recovery?
“All this just goes to show that Charleston is still a very, very desirable place to move, to invest in,” said Morgan. “And West Ashley is getting its share. We (at City Hall) see some things happen in West Ashley we are very excited about.”
Alexander said that he and the four other City Councilmen whose districts about in West Ashley have tried hard to make sure this part of town gets its fair share.
Well, it’s a good start.