Town of Summerville Planning Area - BCD Council of Governments

Business Locations and FacilitiesExisting Business FacilitiesThe Summerville Planning Area has a wide range of office, retail, and industrial locations that are availablefor businesses, much of which has been constructed in the last 35 years. The majority of business locationswithin the Summerville Planning Area are along the transportation corridors identified in the Future LandUse Element of the 2009 Comprehensive Plan Update, including along Alternate US 17, both withinDowntown and in the vicinity of Interstate 26, along Old Trolley Road going southwest from downtown tothe Oakbrook area, along Berlin Myers Parkway, and along US 78 (West 5 th Street North). A summary of theexisting office, retail, and industrial facilities located within Summerville are included in the followingsections.Existing Office FacilitiesOwing to Summerville’s location at the outer edge of the urbanized Charleston area, there has traditionallybeen less demand for office space than in areas closer to the center of the region. Consequently, limitedoffice development has taken place in the Summerville area. Most of the existing business complexescurrently located within the Summerville Planning Area are small in size, in contrast to the larger office andindustrial parks that are located in other sections of the metro Charleston region, such as Mount Pleasant,North Charleston, and Daniel Island. Many of these office facilities are located within areas designated asEmployment Centers in the Future Land Use Element of the Comprehensive Plan.The Urban Land Institute (ULI), in its Office Development Handbook, provides a definition for the varioustypes of office space that might exist in a community, ranging from Class A to Class C office space. Accordingto the ULI, Class A space can be characterized as buildings that have excellent location and access, attracthigh quality tenants, and are managed professionally. Building materials are high quality and rents arecompetitive with other new buildings. Class B buildings have good locations, management, and construction,and tenant standards are high. Class B office buildings should have very little functional obsolescence anddeterioration. Class C buildings are typically 15 to 25 years old or older and have typically not have beenupdated, but are maintaining steady occupancy.Based on the ULI definition given above, it is a reasonable assumption that much of the office spacecurrently utilized in Summerville is of a Class B variety, due to the design and age of the buildings. Becauseof this, office space in Summerville tends to rent for considerably less than elsewhere in the region, due tothe quality of the existing space and the demand that exists in the Summerville market. A listing of officefacilities of greater than 10,000 square feet in size located in Summerville is provided as Table ED6.Economic Development Element Page 10