The sign indicating that Town Hall had moved apparently has been on the door of the former Town Hall since the building was abandoned.
The Fort Moultrie-era building at 1608 and 1610 Middle St. served as Sullivan’s Island’s Town Hall until 2011.
To preserve its employees’ health and well-being, the town of Sullivan’s Island abandoned the building that served as its administrative hub for more than 40 years in June 2011. Now a Council member thinks it might be a good idea to transform the former Town Hall into low-cost housing for people who work for the town and possibly for teachers as well.
Mold and rats were among the issues when the town chose to move from the Fort Moultrie-era building to trailers between the fire station and the sewer plant until a new Town Hall could be built.
At the Council’s March 6 workshop, Gary Visser suggested that the building, located at 1608 and 1610 Middle St., could be subdivided into single-bedroom apartments and rented to fire, police, public facilities and administrative personnel and Sullivan’s Island Elementary School teachers, if that could be worked out with the Charleston County School District.
“It would be a better way to attract long-term employees,” Visser said. “They can’t even afford to rent an apartment in Mount Pleasant and work here.”
“It’s not going to be cheap,” Visser said at the workshop. “Just the mold remediation might be a million dollars. But it’s a rare opportunity for the town. I think it could become four to eight apartments.”
Council Members Greg Hammond and Kaye Smith disagreed with Visser’s suggestion. Smith said a multi-unit building in a residential area “would get a lot of pushback from the neighbors” and pointed out that the brick structure could serve a different use.
“The Island Club is in really bad shape. If we moved that facility to there, I think it would be a good option,” she noted.
Hammond, meanwhile, said he favored selling the property to a developer who would remediate the mold situation and “turn what could be a liability in terms of maintenance into an asset in the form of cash.”
“That’s still my best-use option, but we’re all happy to disagree and debate,” Hammond said.
Visser admitted that the building is “clearly damaged goods” and that the town would need a zoning change for his plan to work. He added that parking would be an issue and that it would be important to talk with neighbors before making a decision.
“There are neighbors, and neighbors should be selfish. It’s their neighborhood,” Visser said.
In addition, because it is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, there might be limits on changes the town can make to the building.
The building was constructed in 1911 by the U.S. Army, according to Town Administrator Andy Benke, who said it was used to store ordnance, gunpowder and projectiles. He said a previous estimate put the cost of mold remediation at $1.5 million and that the condition of the roof and seismic issues would have to be addressed as well.
“Who knows what it would cost?” he asked.
He added that a building behind but connected to the former Town Hall had at one time been used to store old files.
Sullivan’s Island’s new Town Hall was completed in November 2016 and dedicated the following February.
Local historian Mike Walsh said a 1912 map of Fort Moultrie indicates that the building that served as Sullivan’s Island’s Town Hall beginning in 1970 was an Army ordnance office.
