The last cruise ship left Union Pier Terminal on June 30. The sale of the property has further to go.

The S.C. State Ports Authority’s $250 million deal to sell the 65-acre downtown Charleston terminal to businessman and philanthropist Ben Navarro is expected to close in 2027, The Post and Courier reported in August. Navarro’s Marti Holdings LLC agreed to buy the site in 2024, according to the newspaper.

This year, a railroad dispute over part of the land was settled, cruise calls ended and Navarro’s companies bought property near the terminal. Specific plans for the site itself have not been disclosed, the Post and Courier has reported.

The last ship

The Norwegian Jewel was the final cruise ship to call at Union Pier, arriving from Bermuda and leaving for Virginia on June 30, the Post and Courier reported. A ship that had been scheduled to dock on July 4 was sent instead to the Port of Charleston’s Columbus Street Terminal so it would not interfere with America 250 festivities at Waterfront Park, according to the newspaper. Beemok, Navarro’s private investment firm, announced the change.

Carnival Cruise Line based ships at Union Pier year-round from 2010 until early 2025, when its contract with the port expired, the Post and Courier reported. In an April 2025 commentary in the newspaper, Navarro wrote that his team had reached an agreement to end all cruise ship operations at the terminal in the summer of 2026.

“Trust is earned through action over time, and this is another step toward delivering on the commitments we’ve made to Charleston,” said Miller Harper, who is leading the Union Pier deal for Navarro and his family, according to the Post and Courier.

Beemok said the end of cruise calls “coincides with the city taking a new approach to tourism that will better balance the visitor experience with residents’ quality of life,” the newspaper reported. The city is rewriting its tourism management plan, last updated in 2015, and scheduled its final public input session for Oct. 8, Live 5 News reported.

A railroad dispute, settled

One obstacle to the sale was cleared in January. The Ports Authority sued Norfolk Southern on July 10, 2025, to determine whether a 1957 deed restriction barred it from selling about 14 acres of the terminal, the Post and Courier reported. The deed, written by a forerunner of the railroad, called for the land to be used “for exclusively public purposes.”

Norfolk Southern had told the agency in a May 2023 letter that it wanted $36 million to release the restriction, according to the newspaper. The two sides reached a confidential settlement, and the lawsuit was dismissed on Jan. 13.

Buying at the edges

An LLC associated with Navarro paid $3.8 million in July for parcels at 2, 8, 10 and 12 N. Market St., between East Bay and Concord streets, the Post and Courier reported, citing public records. The parcels hold a construction trailer and a parking lot.

A company associated with Navarro bought the vacant Carroll Building at North Market and East Bay streets for $11.5 million in 2025, and Navarro intends to give it to the College of Charleston for a new School of Business, according to the newspaper. Navarro’s Cooper hotel recently opened just south of Union Pier.

Together, those properties will “activate the area” and draw people toward the harbor, Harper told the Post and Courier. Specific plans for the Market Street parcels have not been proposed, and they will go through the city’s review process, the newspaper reported.

What comes next

The team plans to develop the site, which runs from Laurens Street to Cumberland Street, in small increments over time, starting where it meets the rest of the peninsula, according to architect and planner Christian Sottile, the Post and Courier reported.

The city has already set broad terms for the land. On April 8, 2025, Charleston City Council amended the city’s comprehensive plan to place Union Pier in a new “Urban Waterfront” land use district, according to the Historic Charleston Foundation. The district calls for a mix of housing for residents of different incomes, along with civic and commercial space, public access along the waterfront and buildings of “varying heights and densities.”

“I am the steward of this project, but this is our neighborhood,” Navarro wrote in his 2025 commentary.

Cruises could return elsewhere

The Ports Authority has not given up on cruises. Preliminary work is underway to bring cruise ships back to the Charleston area, though details such as where passengers would board have not been worked out, the Post and Courier reported in July.

“We don’t have all the answers yet,” Ports Authority CEO Micah Mallace said June 24, according to the newspaper. He described the cruise business as small next to cargo but “very profitable.”

Historic Charleston Foundation CEO Winslow Hastie told the Post and Courier the foundation would oppose any cruise operations on the downtown peninsula. He said he would probably be less resistant if ships docked elsewhere, perhaps farther up the Cooper River.

Until the sale closes, the Ports Authority still owns the terminal.