Noisette Company completes “first draft” of the 20-year renewal scheme centered around North Charleston’s Noisette Preserve

After 18 months on the drawing board, the Noisette Project-touted as the largest urban redevelopment initiative in the nation’s history-finally has begun to take shape.

The Noisette Co. recently completed what company president and CEO John Knott Jr. calls a “first draft” of the $1 billion, 3,000-acre, 20-year renewal scheme centered around North Charleston’s Noisette Preserve, north of the old Navy base. During two separate design presentations last month-one for North Charleston’s City Council, the other a broader presentation for the tri-county’s business and community leaders-the Noisette team of urban planners, designers and environmentalists displayed proposed renderings of a new North Charleston.

“We’re converting the vision into physical reality,” says Knott. “This is the beginning of reaching the final design stage of the project.”

Knott adds that the Noisette Co. will submit its design plans for North Charleston City Council approval in March 2003.

Last October proved to be a cornerstone month for the Noisette Project, a joint partnership between the Noisette Co. and the city of North Charleston. First came the design presentations, and then, on Oct. 25, the event for which Knott and his Noisette team and supporters had been waiting-a signed deal between the city of North Charleston and the State Ports Authority dividing the 1,500-acre Navy base between the two entities, giving SPA room to expand and the Noisette Project a green light.

The city will sell-for at least $3 million-some 350 acres of the Navy base to the Noisette Co. for redevelopment. The Charleston Naval Complex Redevelopment Authority, which controls most of that acreage, will transfer the land to the city once the RDA gets the deeds from the federal government, which is expected to be soon.

RDA Executive Director Jack Sprott says he has “every confidence” that his state agency will be “the next step forward” for the Noisette Project. Sprott considers the Noisette design “absolutely excellent” and believes that after the project is well underway, “no one will be happier than the RDA, whose mission is to make sure this property gets blended back into the community.”

“We’re going to integrate the Navy base back into North Charleston,” Knott says. “The base will be a new front door to the city. Noisette will be a mixed-income community where people live, work, play, shop, dine, attend cultural events-and the Navy base will play an important part in this.”

Part of the Navy base will be transformed into a waterfront park along the Cooper River, complete with walking trails and an outdoor amphitheater, the base’s power station will become a cultural arts center and Cosgrove, McMillan and Spruill avenues will become tree-lined parkways leading to the base. Other base enhancements include housing, new businesses and a retail district.

Noisette conceptual highlights also include revitalizing East Montague Avenue and its historic Old Village and retail center, re-landscaping Rivers Avenue into a parkway and creating a commercial district at the intersection of Rivers and Durant Avenue, plus renovating the Rivers-and-Cosgrove intersection, rejuvenating residential neighborhoods such as Park Circle, Liberty Hill and Cameron Terrace, renovating the area’s schools, including expanding North Charleston High School into another cultural arts center and establishing a network of streets linking the north end of the Noisette property to the south.
Knott describes Noisette as a “holistic approach to urban renewal.” The project aims to accomplish its North Charleston renaissance by reviving the natural environment, creating a community whose beauty and sense of sanctuary offer spiritual renewal, and encouraging respect for the new community and its inhabitants.
North Charleston Mayor Keith Summey, a long-time Noisette supporter, says the project “has the potential to be the most significant thing we accomplish in the eight years I have been with this city.”
Knott envisions even further greatness for North Charleston. “I asked our urban designers to see themselves not as designers but as healers,” he explains. “They’re healing the city economically, socially and ecologically. They’re rebuilding and re-weaving North Charleston into a world-class sustainable city. There is no reason why North Charleston can’t be the model city for the nation-the new American city.”