Mortgage Broker in Charleston, SC

A former Hardee’s fast-food restaurant in North Charleston has been demolished to make way for one of three shops planned across South Carolina by a Nebraska-based coffee chain.

A Scooter’s Coffee venue with a drive-thru is planned for the site at 5641 N. Rhett Ave., according to a company spokeswoman. It’s tentatively set to open in late summer.

The lot next to Food Lion supermarket is owned by an affiliate of Buck Management Corp. of Charleston, which bought the property in 2020 for $700,000, according to Charleston County land records.

Two other Scooter’s Coffee shops are planned across the Palmetto State at 2027 Wade Hampton Blvd. in Greenville and 81 Tulip Oak Drive near Killian Road in Columbia.

Founded in 1998, Scooter’s had just under 500 locations in 23 states with commitments to open in seven more states as of last August, according to franchising.com.

On the homefront

A new home furnishing and decor store is opening in a newly built structure at an East Cooper shopping center.

North Crate & Co., which offers handmade furniture and other items, will open in a 1,500-square-foot space on March 7 around the corner from Nordstrom Rack in Bowman Place Shopping Center off Bowman Road.

The retailer, which was previously at Mount Pleasant Towne Centre, will be open 10-6 p.m. Monday-Saturday and noon-6 p.m. Sunday. Josh and Tanya Miller are the owners.

The shop will sit next to The Gallery, a hair salon that plans to relocate from the Shops at Shelmore Village at 720 S. Shelmore Blvd. near I’On in Mount Pleasant, according to real estate agent Josh McConnell, who is handling leasing for the existing 720-square-foot Gallery site.

He leads Isle of Palms-based McConnell Real Estate Partners, which is expanding to serve commercial clients.

Now open

Also in the realm of home decor and furnishings, an Atlanta-based retailer is now welcoming customers to its first stand-alone store and first South Carolina location.

Ballard Designs opened Feb. 24 in the 9,077-square-foot space formerly occupied by Pier 1 Imports at 1128 Market Centre Blvd. in Mount Pleasant Towne Centre. It said it features a “uniquely curated” selection of classic and contemporary pieces.

“With its beautiful homes, active lifestyles and gorgeous coastal location, the Charleston area is the ideal choice for our first South Carolina store,” said Dominic Milanese, vice president of retail at Ballard Designs.

The shop carries indoor and outdoor furniture, performance fabrics, rugs and coastal accents.

A shopping center representative called Ballard “the perfect addition” to the mix of retailers in the complex on U.S. Highway 17 near the Isle of Palms connector.

The store will be open daily, with abbreviated hours on Sunday. Founded in 1982, Ballard Designs operates 19 retail stores across 13 states in the U.S.

On the way

A downtown Charleston dining spot plans to move its restaurant operations to a new location and transform the existing space into an events venue.

Bistro A Vin will move later this month from 40 Archdale St. to around the corner at 159 Market St., where Cafe Framboise once operated. The restaurant and cocktail bar will be rebranded as Azur and include an expanded menu of French dishes.

The Archdale Street site will become Azur Events, a private event space. It, too, will open in March.

The updated restaurant menu comes from executive chef and co-owner Dominic Chantepie. The venue also will include a curated wine list and house-made desserts.

The cocktail list will be provided by Mathis Chantepie, son of Dominic and Florence Chantepie. Joining the Chantepies as co-owner and general manager is Benjamin Boisson.

Gassing up

A convenience store and gas station is in the works in the Johns Island area.

A 4,725-square-foot store with a canopied fueling station is being proposed on Main Road at McLernon Trace near Marsh View Place Apartments. Gilligan’s Seafood Restaurant is to the south about one block.

The development is referred to as McLernon Trace Fuel Station. Site plans do not indicate the brand of fuel.

The city’s Design Review Board will consider the proposal March 6.

Brush strokes

A new fine art gallery is now operating in West Ashley.

Stono Gallery opened March 1 at 3874 Savannah Highway in Red Top Village near Rantowles Creek.

Owner Simon Schatmeyer called his new venture a “bohemian art gallery,” featuring dozens of original abstracts and art deco items.

Schatmeyer sells his own art and exhibits and sells pieces created by other local, national and international artists. The shop also carries hand-painted pottery as well as vintage and new handmade jewelry.

Gallery hours are 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesday -Saturday and noon-4 p.m. Sunday. It’s closed on Monday.

Read all about it

The Charleston Friends of the Library’s first book sale of the year is coming up in conjunction with National Reading Month.

The event will take place 10 a.m.-5:30 p.m. March 3 and 10 a.m.-4 p.m. March 4 at Charleston County Public Library’s newly renovated branch at 6325 Dorchester Road in North Charleston.

A pre-sale for host members is set for 4-7 p.m. March 2.

Outfitting the outdoors

A North Charleston-based retailer is celebrating three decades of outfitting outdoor enthusiasts.

Half-Moon Outfitters will mark its 30th anniversary with a performance by singer Justin Osborne 4-7 p.m. March 1 at 94 Folly Road in South Windermere Shopping Center in West Ashley.

Participants can enjoy prizes, libations and live music.

Beezer Molten launched Half-Moon Outfitters in 1993. The business has grown to eight locations across South Carolina and Georgia, including three in the Charleston area. Another is on the way to Summerville.

We’re following up on our new and coming soon developments story with a guide to development terminology. Check out these definitions of common terms paired with ongoing projects and examples you might recognize in the Holy City.

These are projects that provide more than one purpose in the community, like a building with apartments on top and shops on the bottom. Expect to see combinations of housing, retail, parking, commercial, and industrial components.

Think: Plans for the Union Pier redevelopment, which include a mixed-use neighborhood with housing, hotel rooms, civic spaces, and public parks. Check out the Master Plan.

This changes an area of land from the city’s designated use. Examples of rezoning requests include developers looking to build a high-rise in a neighborhood with a certain building height restriction, or open a business in an area marked residential.

Think: Zoning changes approved by the City of Charleston Planning Commission for a proposed luxury hotel on Meeting Street where the Days Inn used to be. (The Post and Courier)

PUD stands for Planned Unit Development. Instead of following standard zoning requirements, these housing developments work with the local government to determine guidelines for public and private areas. The PUD acts as a framework for future development.

Think: Union Pier, again. The project’s PUD application is currently under review by the city’s Technical Review Committee and is expected to be reviewed by the Planning Commission and City Council as well.

Opportunity Zones are a community development program in SC with the goal of encouraging long-term private investments in low-income communities.

Example: The Holy City has four designated Opportunity Zones that make up approximately 7% of the city’s total population.

This type of path is separate from vehicular traffic and may be used by pedestrians, bicyclists, skaters, joggers, and other non-motorized users.

Think: A county project is underway on James Island to build a 10-ft-wide multi-use path along Riverland Drive, set to continue through September.

This is a freestanding building that shares no walls with other homes or structures. Single-family is a type of zoning district in the city.

Think: Historic homes in downtown Charleston.

This is a building that contains multiple housing units.

Think: Apartments and residential condominiums.

The principal use is the primary activity or function of a site. A site’s principal use must be aligned with the zoning ordinances of the land it’s on.

Example: Living in a home within a residential zone is an allowable principal use.

An activity or function of a site labeled subordinate or incidental.

Example: The garage or shed on your home property might be labeled an accessory use.

CHARLESTON, S.C. — “Well, look at you in that fancy skirt! Don’t you look sassy,” said the woman at the front desk of the Charleston Place hotel. Frankly, we’d fly two hours from Boston just to be called “sassy” by someone with a Southern accent.

How was it that we’d never visited Charleston before? This gorgeous, historic city in South Carolina has cropped up on so many “best” lists, it should have its number retired. We decided to plan a girlfriend getaway to the Holy City — so-called due to its 400 places of worship — to meet up with an old friend, Courtney, and see what we’d been missing. Would this coastal Carolina burg (population around 60,000) live up to the hype?

We’re suckers for beauty, and this place nails it. The oldest city in South Carolina, Charleston has nearly 3,000 historic buildings reflecting eight architectural styles: Colonial, Georgian, Federal, Classic Revival, Gothic Revival, Italianate, Victorian, and Art Deco. Not to mention, it’s a short (just over two hours), nonstop flight from Boston. And the weather is pretty darn fine.

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Since we love to explore on foot, we chose lodgings in the heart of the action, the independently-owned Charleston Place (from $400; www.charlestonplace.com). It sits alongside King Street, a major shopping and dining zone. Good museums are a short stroll away. Oh, and one of Charleston’s must-do restaurants, FIG, is just down the block. Plus, the hotel has a terrific on-site spa — a girlfriend getaway requirement and its own much-lauded eatery, Charleston Grill. (Chef Michelle Weaver, props to you for the best scallops we’ve ever had.)

Everyone you meet is quick to tell you how friendly Charlestonians are, lest you expect a passel of sour-pussed Lindsey Grahams. “Good cheer” seems to be the default setting. But it’s not all sunshine and sweet tea. Local folks — tour guides, museum docents, pedicab drivers — aren’t shy about discussing the horrifying aspects of hometown history.

In Colonial America, Charleston was the fourth largest city, and the richest, its wealth built on the backs of enslaved people who farmed rice, indigo, and Sea Island cotton. “About 40 to 60 percent of enslaved people in the US came through the port of Charleston,” says Tyler Page Wright, tour guide and owner of Walk & Talk Charleston ($30; www.walkandtalkchs.com). Placards marking slave auction sites dot the city. The Charleston Museum (adults, $12; www.charlestonmuseum.org) offers an in-depth look at the lives of enslaved people on Low Country plantations. And everyone is buzzing about the new International African American Museum, slated to open later this year.

Set between the Cooper and Ashley rivers, which meet to form Charleston Harbor, Charleston is a peninsula. Handsome pastel-hued stucco homes with ornate ironwork line downtown streets, comprising a 2-square-mile historic district. A walking tour offers an excellent overview of all this, including famous sites like the Circular Congregational Church. Horse-and-carriage tours are also popular. Wright is a gregarious guide, happy to answer questions like: What is a haint? (Answer: A trapped spirit.) Why does Charleston have so many window boxes? (Answer: It’s a thing here, and residents are super-competitive about it.) And, who are the ladies selling woven sweetgrass baskets? (Answer: Gullah Geechee women, who are descendants of the enslaved Africans who worked on the plantations.) Their beautiful baskets are the ultimate Charleston souvenir.

Besides sweetgrass baskets, what else makes a wonderful souvenir of Charleston? After prowling the shops on King Street, we’d say a goldbug from Croghan’s Jewel Box (www.croghansjewelbox.com), a century-old jeweler known for designing every Charlestonian’s engagement ring. This sparkly shop sells Charleston-themed pieces like cuff bracelets inlaid with the city skyline. But we fell hard for goldbugs, a whimsical take on the cockroach (a.k.a. Palmetto bug), designed by founder William Croghan’s great-granddaughter, Mini Hay, and featured in Vogue magazine. Yep, we’re talking gilded cockroaches.

Want to get a conversation going? Ask a Charlestonian about pluff mud. This squishy marshland material, made of decomposed grasses and sea life, smells foul to visitors, but to locals, it smells like home. We got a good whiff (it smells earthy and slightly rotten-eggy) on a sunset kayak tour of Shem Creek with Coastal Expeditions (from $65; www.coastalexpeditions.com), just over the bridge from Charleston in Mount Pleasant. On this guided sea kayak tour, fine for beginners and families, you paddle alongside tall spartina grass and, yes, pluff mud. We saw great blue herons and egrets along the creek; sometimes paddlers spot manatees. Heading back toward a passage lined with seafood shacks, we encountered a pod of dolphins, who came thisclose to our vessels. “Paddles up!” our guide, Morgan, instructed, so we wouldn’t coldcock the cetaceans. After that, the creamsicle-hued sunset was anticlimactic.

Speaking of creamsicles, we quickly discovered the place to go for that girlfriend getaway staple, a spiked milkshake: Carmella’s Café & Dessert Bar (www.carmellasdessertbar.com) on East Bay Street. And they do mean bar; there’s a full bar at this spot, along with gelato, excellent cookies, Italian pastries, and sandwiches. Carmella’s has indoor seating, and some outdoor bistro tables, but it’s double the pleasure if you munch/sip as you walk along the waterfront. In Charleston, winter temps are typically in the high 50s and lower 60s — that’s shorts-and-T-shirt weather here in Boston.

Charlestonians — and the 6 million tourists who visit each year — are obsessed with food. We were practically delirious to secure a coveted reservation at FIG (Food Is Good; entrees from $39; www.eatatfig.com ), a Charleston mainstay co-owned by James Beard award-winning chef Mike Lata. It’s a splurgy night out but, wow: The ricotta gnocchi ala Bolognese was a triumph of pillowy deliciousness. Chef Lata also operates a seafood restaurant in the city, The Ordinary. But we were eager to try another buzzed-about seafood place, 167 Raw (from $8; www.167raw.com). The owners also operate a place on Nantucket (which may explain the lobster roll on the menu), but we went local, opting for crab dip, a shrimp po’boy, and shrimp tacos. We never got around to ordering shrimp and grits during our trip, the most popular dish among the tourist set.

We never made it to the beach, either. Oops. “Everyone comes for the history and the food, so the beaches are kind of a secret,” says Ike High of Explore Charleston. Located about 25 minutes from the city proper are beaches including Isle of Palms, Kiawah Island, Sullivan Island, Seabrook Beach, and Folly Beach. We’re told they’re wide and firm, with tawny sand, but we’ve never actually seen them. And it wasn’t until we were at the airport that we realized we’d forgotten another major item on our to-do list: the 12-layer Ultimate Coconut Cake at the Peninsula Grill (www.peninsulagrill.com). It is, quite possibly, the best thing to eat in food-crazed Charleston, says everyone.

Guess we’ll be back for some cake — maybe in springtime, when the temps edge up to the 70s or so. We’ll pack swimsuits for the beach — and a fancy skirt or two. We’re aiming for sassy.

www.explorecharleston.com.

Charleston Southern Buccaneers (9-20) vs. UNC Asheville Bulldogs (24-7)

The Line: UNC Asheville Bulldogs -8 / Charleston Southern Buccaneers +8; Over/Under: - (Get latest betting odds)

The Charleston Southern Buccaneers and the UNC Asheville Bulldogs meet Friday in Big South Tournament college basketball action from Bojangles’ Coliseum. Charleston Southern is coming off a tournament win Wednesday versus High Point. As for UNC Asheville, they’re sitting at 24-7 overall on the year following a win over Longwood over the weekend. Check back all season long for free college basketball picks at Sports Chat Place.

Charleston Southern Buccaneers

The Buccaneers limped to a pretty rough 8-14 record over their first 22 games this year. Charleston Southern finished off the year with a 1-6 run, taking losses to High Point, USC Upstate, Radford, Campbell, Winthrop and UNC Asheville.

In the tournament game versus High Point on Wednesday, the Buccaneers were down 40-30 by halftime. Charleston Southern rallied on a 42-30 second half and won 72-70. Claudell Harris topped the team with 20 points and four rebounds.

UNC Asheville Bulldogs

Over on the UNC Asheville side, they managed an 18-6 run through their first 24 outings. The Bulldogs then took a loss to USC Upstate before beating Winthrop, Presbyterian, Radford, Gardner-Webb, Charleston Southern and Longwood in succession.

Matched up against Longwood on Saturday, UNC Asheville was down 38-33 going into the second half. The Bulldogs came back on a 43-28 run and took the win 76-66. Fletcher Abee put up 20 points and Drew Pember added 19 points in the victory.

ANDREW’S FREE PICK

I’ll probably stay with UNC Asheville. The Bulldogs are on a six-game win streak right now, and they’ve scored 70 or more points in nine of their last 10 games. UNC Asheville won both meetings between these teams this year. The first was 73-63 on January 18 at CSU Field House, then at Kimmel Arena on February 22 the Bulldogs won 80-62 thanks to a 43-26 second half. The Buccaneers have been a very shaky team lately and I don’t think they’ll be able to keep pace if UNC Asheville gets going.