Mount Pleasant Magazine Sept/Oct 2016

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In OctOber 2013, rObert S. “tex”
Small Jr. thought he had an agreement with the
town of Mount Pleasant to build a combination
parking garage/office building near Shem Creek,
at the corner of Coleman Boulevard and Mill
Street.
One municipal election and the specter
of what might happen when the votes were counted in
another apparently served as the impetus that altered that
agreement, transforming a public/private project into a
strictly private enterprise. The building provided the spark
that set off a firestorm of controversy which cost three
sitting town councilmen their jobs, as the frustration of
some local residents over construction in and near the Old
Village and Shem Creek bubbled to the surface.
Despite several pending lawsuits, construction continues.
According to Small, CEO of AVTEX Commercial
Properties, the
parking garage
will be open for
business by the
end of this year,
while he expects
tenants to start
moving into the
40,000-square-
foot office
building in
January 2017.
From Small’s
point of view,
the story began
when Billy
Swails was
mayor of Mount Pleasant, and his company shared the cost
of a parking study with the town. The survey showed that
there was a tremendous demand for parking on nights and
weekends to handle the bar and restaurant traffic around
Shem Creek. The economy was struggling, no action was
taken and, eventually, the property at Mill and Coleman,
owned by the Simmons family, was leased to Roper
Hospital.
When the market bounced back, Roper chose to build
on the north side of Mount Pleasant, and AVTEX and the
town renewed negotiations concerning an office building/
parking garage.
“It’s all about supply and demand. There was a demand
for parking,” Small explained. “People were parking in the
nearby neighborhoods. The town encouraged us to build
twice the number of parking spaces than we needed for the
office building.”
According to an agreement reached between AVTEX
and the town in October 2013, 132 parking spaces would
be reserved for occupants of the building, while another
144 would be available for the general public. For its part,
the town agreed to pay AVTEX $185,000 a year for 15
years, out of its accommodations tax, and a dollar a year
after that. The town’s share of the cost could have been
reduced if the garage showed a net profit.
So why did the town back out of the project and require
Small to redesign the building, reducing the total number
of parking spaces from 276 to 234?
“Earl’s Court and The Boulevard were already built. Our
project was the next one up,” Small said. “The Save Shem
Creek people became proactive against the garage and office
building.”
“Public records will show that the Council changed the
setback line
from 5 feet
to 20 feet on
Mill Street
and Church
Street (now
Ronnie Boals
Boulevard),” he
added. “They
only did it
for these two
streets. Did
they do that to
kill the project?
Absolutely.”
Mark
Smith, who
won a seat on the Council in November 2013, after the
initial agreement had been signed, pointed out that “There
was significant political pressure on the Council to cancel
the whole deal.”
“There was a growing frustration with development
along Coleman Boulevard,” he added. “For me personally, I
spent time struggling to balance the political pressure on me
as a Council member and what I felt as a person of integrity
to uphold existing agreements that were put in place prior
to me being in office.”
Smith said he was torn in opposite directions. He knew
local residents were upset about Earl’s Court, cottage-style
homes built in the Old Village, and The Boulevard, the
large apartment complex on Coleman. He also was well
aware that the town had signed an agreement in good faith
with the developer.
This is an artist’s rendering of the parking garage/office building under construction at Coleman
Boulevard and Mill Street.
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