Charleston leaders to share plans for West Ashley office space, church’s future

CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCSC) – The City of Charleston is hosting a public meeting to hear feedback on plans moving forward to build municipal office buildings in the city’s largest residential area.

Plans call for construction in the 1600 block of Ingram Road in West Ashley, replacing a former Catholic Charities Church and Senior Living Home.

City leaders say while they expect some residents to raise concerns, but they see the project as a benefit. Before the city purchased the property, developers had hoped to build a 125-unit apartment complex there. City leaders said they intervened after determining that additional residential development would worsen traffic in one of the city’s most congested areas.

“It made a lot of financial sense for us to do this,” Charleston Mayor William Cogswell Jr. said. “The goal would be to put this new office space that would be taking the place of this old building, part of an effort to help activate and invest in West Ashley, particularly that area that I think has been long neglected.”

A large portion of Charleston’s workforce already lives in West Ashley, according to city officials. Locating offices in the area could reduce cross-town commutes into downtown and help balance development throughout the city. The project is part of Charleston’s 20-year capital improvement budget.

One of the biggest concerns the city expects to hear at the meeting is finding ways to restore the mid-century architecture of the catholic church at 1660 Ingram Road by incorporating aspects of its foundation into the soon-to-be modern office buildings.

“We’re going to look at doing some pretty creative things on incorporating those design elements and features of that building into the new facility,” Cogswell said. “But in terms of that actual building and the modifications that have been done on it over the years, a lot of what its original structure is has been modified and there are also significant environmental problems with it.”

The church opened in 1966 as an orphanage, housing 32 children until closing in 1990. Since then, the property has served as a hub for diocesan administrative offices, social outreach, and the first and only Catholic assisted living facility in South Carolina.

While the city expressed hope to preserve the church’s structure, many aspects of the church are not in its original form, including its siding and windows. Their main priority is to remove the significant asbestos and mold currently in the building and prevent traffic congestion.

“We’ve kind of looked at it again holistically, all of the city’s assets and who needs to go where and as the city grows,” Cogswell said. “Where people are coming from, where people are commuting to because we want to try and alleviate some of the traffic woes that our residents are experiencing. So that starts with us putting the jobs where the people are.”

The public meeting will be at Founders Hall in West Ashley Monday at 5:30 p.m.

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