The South Carolina State Ports Authority will sell Union Pier, its roughly 65-acre waterfront terminal in downtown Charleston, to businessman and philanthropist Ben Navarro.

The authority’s board voted unanimously Tuesday to approve the sale, The Post and Courier reported. The buyer is Marti Holdings LLC, an affiliate of Beemok Capital LLC, the family office of Navarro, according to the board’s resolution.

Financial terms won’t be released until the deal closes, the newspaper reported. Board Chairman Bill Stern said the property sold “above appraised value.”

Stern called Union Pier “probably the most valuable piece of oceanfront property on the East Coast” and said it will become “the centerpiece of downtown Charleston.”

“He has the ability to pull this off,” Stern said of Navarro, according to The Post and Courier. “He wants to work with the city of Charleston. He wants to work with the mayor. He wants to hear from the citizens of Charleston, and he wants to do what’s right for the people of Charleston.”

Why the port is selling

The property runs along Charleston Harbor between Concord and Laurens streets. It has been used as a parking lot and as a cruise terminal for Carnival Cruise Line and others, the newspaper reported. The resolution says it is no longer needed for maritime purposes.

The authority, “in consultation with and at the behest of the City of Charleston,” sought a Charleston-based owner for the entire property rather than a “piecemeal” sale, the resolution says. It authorizes CEO Barbara Melvin, Chief Financial Officer Phil Padgett and General Counsel Randolph Lowell to complete the deal.

The money will help pay for port projects such as the North Charleston Terminal expansion and future phases of the Hugh K. Leatherman Terminal, the newspaper reported. At the same meeting, the authority announced that it will also buy the former WestRock paper mill site in North Charleston to expand its container terminal there, The Post and Courier reported.

How the first plan fell apart

In March 2020, the authority’s board approved an agreement with the developer Lowe to plan the non-maritime part of Union Pier for redevelopment and then sell it, according to the authority.

The authority and Lowe submitted a plan to the city in early 2023 for a high-density mix of condominiums, offices and shops, along with parks and waterfront access. Residents and conservation groups fought it, The Post and Courier reported.

In June 2023, the authority and the city agreed to a new, city-led planning process, and the authority put its request to the Planning Commission on hold, the authority said at the time. By November, it had agreed to pay Lowe nearly $10 million to end their relationship, the newspaper reported.

An advisory group working with the College of Charleston’s Joseph P. Riley Jr. Center for Livable Communities has since held more than 200 meetings and engaged directly with more than 1,000 residents, a center spokeswoman told the newspaper.

Stern said the authority approached several Charleston-area business leaders with the means to redevelop the site, and Navarro showed interest from the start.

“We met multiple times in the December, January time frame, and we hopped on the phone multiple times,” Stern said.

Who is buying

Navarro founded Charleston-based Sherman Financial Group, which owns Credit One Bank, according to the newspaper. His family-owned Beemok Hospitality Collection owns The Charleston Place hotel, the Riviera Theater and the Italian bistro Sorelle, and is building The Cooper, a hotel between Union Pier and Joe Riley Waterfront Park.

In a commentary published by The Post and Courier on Tuesday, Navarro wrote that the project “needs a long-term steward, not an out-of-town developer.”

His list of basic tenets begins with “Seeking to eliminate the cruise ships.” It also includes “Significantly reducing overall density versus the previous plan” and “Providing public access to the waterfront.” He also wrote that the port “needed to receive a fair price in order to sell.”

“I will always have the interests of the residents of Charleston in mind and the humility to be a good listener as we move forward with adding this critical missing piece to the Peninsula,” Navarro wrote.

The city’s role

Any redevelopment will need significant city input on zoning, code changes and environmental cleanup, the newspaper reported. Mayor William Cogswell has said he wants public access to the water, lower density, lower buildings, significant green space and a “meaningful component” of affordability.

“This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for Charleston,” Cogswell said in a statement. “The city controls much of the process going forward.”