Beach Co. to buy small land parcel

Firm will own entire 40-acre redevelopment tract

The Charleston Water System has agreed to sell a small property in North Charleston to The Beach Company, which would give the company control of the only parcel it did not already own within the 40-acre redevelopment site known as Garco Park.

The gravel lot at Virginia Avenue and Empire Street, covering just under a quarter-acre, was the site of a water tower that was taken down about 20 years ago.

"It's 100 feet by 100 feet, but it sits at a very important corner," said Kent Johnson, vice president of The Beach Company. "It's kind of like a missing tooth."

The parcel sits adjacent to industrial land that was home to asbestos and rubber manufacturing, where The Beach Company plans to conduct an environmental cleanup and then build a mixed-use development of offices, retail, condominiums and a large grocery store.

Johnson said there is no specific plans for the small parcel Charleston Water System is selling.

"We want to be able to landscape it and incorporate it into the adjacent parcel, which is the loft-condominium parcel," he said.

The commissioners of Charleston Water System had the property appraised, concluded that it was worth $80,000 and agreed to sell it to The Beach Company for that price plus sale-related expenses, without seeking bids.

The commissioners approved a resolution Tuesday authorizing the no-bid sale after concluding that the deal was in the public interest, which allows them to waive the bid requirement.

The Garco Park redevelopment is governed by an agreement the city of North Charleston signed with The Beach Company in March, though the company has owned most of the land since 2001.

Garco is a reference to the General Asbestos and Rubber Co., formed under a different name in 1895, which developed that section of North Charleston and once employed hundreds of workers.

Through a series of mergers and acquisitions, the company became Raybestos-Manhattan, and later RM Engineered Products Inc., which filed for bankruptcy protection in 2001.