BAR allows King St. hotel plans to move forward

Plans for a controversial, 185-room hotel on King Street abutting Marion Square edged forward Wednesday when the majority on Charleston’s Board of Architectural Review said they were supportive of the project, but felt that it needed more work.

Opponents had urged the BAR to reject the request for preliminary approval at the end of a more than two-hour hearing that at least 100 people attended.

While the board did not grant approval, the decision to defer action gives the developers an opportunity to fine-tune their plan, address the architectural concerns of the board and city staff, and come back when they are ready.

The hotel has already received zoning approval, which is being challenged by opponents in court, and the plan won conceptual approval from the BAR in 2005.

Opponents argued that the plan changed enough since 2005 that it should go back to the conceptual-approval stage of review, but most BAR members disagreed.

The nine-story hotel would feature street-level shops, underground parking, dining along Marion Square and a rooftop pool.

The plan is opposed by preservationists including the Historic Charleston Foundation and the Preservation Society, and supported by The Committee to Save the City. The hotel enjoys support on Charleston City Council and from Mayor Joe Riley, while neighborhood groups have been divided.

At the BAR meeting, Chairman Craig Bennett asked for a show of hands to see what the large audience thought, and supporters were narrowly the majority.

In general, opponents say the hotel is too tall and too massive for Marion Square, where it would replace the former Charleston County Library adjacent to the Old Citadel, which is now an Embassy Suites Hotel.

The proposed hotel, with its red metal roof and stucco walls, “epitomizes the South Florida resort mentality,” said Robert Gurley of the Preservation Society. “That’s probably more stucco in one place than on the entire peninsula.”

The Bennett Hofford Co. is the developer, and the owner of the Embassy Suites.

Supporters say the hotel is appropriate for Marion Square and the revitalized Upper King Street shopping district, and note that the hotel would be shorter than the Francis Marion Hotel and about the height of the L. Mendel Rivers Federal Building.

“We have an opportunity for this structure to be the gateway to greatness,” said Wayne Nix, of Land South Asset Management, who owns property across Hutson Street from the hotel site. “It will forever change Upper King Street, for the better.

The BAR deferred action on the hotel by a 5-1 vote, with Robert Stockton saying the plan should have been kicked back to the concept stage. The developer was urged to come back with a plan that gives the hotel more of a “Charleston” feel, upgrade the materials used in the design, and make other changes.

In other business, the BAR granted conceptual approval for MUSC’s Drug Discovery Building at President and Doughty streets. The building will include space for School of Pharmacy labs, an auditorium and an animal facility.

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