What will happen with the rail plan in Park Circle?

Park Circle residents turn out for rail meeting

By Daniel Brock
Published Jan. 12, 2011

Residents of a North Charleston neighborhood are mobilizing in their fight against the state’s rail plan.

More than 120 community members attended the Olde North Charleston Neighborhood Council’s monthly meeting Tuesday night, a gathering that usually attracts a crowd of fewer than 10.

Worried faces filled the room on East Montague Avenue as citizens voiced their concerns over the S.C. Commerce Department’s rail plan, which city officials say likely will have a dramatic effect on quality of life in the area.

The plan calls for construction of an intermodal rail yard on 71 acres near the Clemson University Restoration Institute’s wind turbine test facility at the former North Charleston Navy base. The rail yard would provide near-dock access to the S.C. State Ports Authority terminal under construction at the base’s southern end. The region’s two Class I railroads, CSX Corp. and Norfolk Southern Corp., would use the yard.

North Charleston officials warn that the state’s plan would triple train traffic in the Park Circle area while greatly expanding the trains’ size — to almost two miles long in some cases. Residents questioned how the plan would affect emergency services, traffic patterns and property values.

City officials contend the Commerce proposal goes against a 2002 agreement with the SPA prohibiting that agency from using track that runs out the base’s north end and past areas North Charleston has spent millions to redevelop in the past decade.

Norfolk Southern trains would access the Commerce facility via tracks that run next to Park Circle, and CSX would arrive at the yard from the south.

“We’re going to spend a lot of money” on a legal fight against the plan, North Charleston Mayor Keith Summey told the crowd.

Summey said that the city has spent $15 million on its Waterfront Park, $2.1 million on another park on the south end of town and $3 million on redevelopment of the East Montague area, based on the belief that heavy trains would not rumble through the area.

He added that a renaissance in the area that includes extensive business and residential growth would have never happened had people thought they would one day have a rail yard as a neighbor.

Asked who had moved to Park Circle during the past eight years, nearly everyone in attendance raised a hand.

“We’re in for a fight folks, and we need your help,” said Summey, who said he wanted to bring 250 residents on a trip to address the state Legislature.

Already, a group of residents has formed a Facebook group, which is growing rapidly, and a website has popped up. The site allows users to sign an online petition and write letters of support.

A large e-mail list was compiled by meeting organizers during the gathering, and 100 bumper stickers that read “Save Park Circle No More Rails” were long gone moments after the crowd was dismissed.

Nicholai Burton, 28, lives in Park Circle and operates a nonprofit movie theater on East Montague Avenue. He helped design the website and said that TV ads and more Internet campaigns are on the way.

“We’re going to do what we can,” Burton said.

Economist sees slow revival in commercial real estate

Thursday, 04 February 2010
By Mike Fitts

COLUMBIA -- Real estate markets are likely to be bottoming out in 2010 and the slow pace of deals will begin to revive, according to a top economist at Grubb & Ellis.

Robert Bach, the national firm’s chief economist, gave his forecast of the market’s future to a gathering of Columbia real estate professionals Wednesday morning. While values and prices might still descend further, much of the damage has been done, he said.

“This is the year when people will be peeking out of their bunkers,” Bach said.

His optimism was reflected in an instant electronic survey of the room conducted by the firm’s local affiliate, Grubb & Ellis Wilson Kibler. The survey found that 69% of those in attendance held more optimism for 2010 over the past year.

Commercial real estate credit will continue to be tight, but lenders are expected to extend loans to existing customers, rather than take over properties in such a market, Bach said.

Credit is still a major problem for local real estate, according to the company’s audience survey. The survey found that 49% said that financing is the biggest obstacle to their success right now.

Office vacancy rates nationally are near a 20-year high and could peak in 2010. Rents will continue a gradual decline, he said.

Tenants are looking to make new leases in their current locations at better rates, more often than they are seeking to relocate, Bach said.

In Columbia, office vacancies will peak by mid-year, with rents reaching a low too, according to the company’s market projection.

Nationally, employment will bottom out, with better and worse months alternating. A revival in employment and wage growth is necessary to get consumers back into spending, he said. When they do, there is some pent-up consumer demand that could buoy retailers.

“My sense overall is that the economy will make it through this,” Bach said.