Not every member of the Isle of Palms Council agrees about whether the city should spend almost $20,000 to find out if it should dish out better than three times that figure to discover if it would like to budget $400,000 or more to install an elevator at the Islander 71 restaurant at the IOP Marina.
At their March 14 workshop, Council members discussed a $19,270 bid from Coast Architects “to determine the feasibility of adding an elevator to the existing restaurant.” Following the due diligence phase, the cost of the ensuing design phase could range from $40,000 to $70,000, according to a March 6 email from Coast to IOP Director of Building, Planning and Zoning Douglas Kerr. Mayor Phillip Pounds stated at the workshop that the second phase of the project would cost even more – somewhere between $60,000 and $90,000.
Trident Construction suggested last October that installing a commercial grade, limited use elevator would cost between $300,000 and $400,000.
“It seems excessive for us to even go down this path,” Council Member John Bogosian stated. “I don’t know why we’d want to pursue this at this point.”
Pounds said he “totally agreed” but Council Member Rusty Streetman did not. He proceeded to present what he referred to as a history lesson. He said originally, the restaurant’s operators were going to install and pay for an elevator during their complete renovation of the building. That plan did not work, however.
“They couldn’t find a way to do that. We allowed them to go ahead with the project without an elevator. We looked eventually at paying for it with accommodations tax money,” Streetman said. “We at least ought to go through with the proposal to look at the feasibility and see what Coast Architects comes up with.”
Council Member Kevin Popson agreed that “We committed to looking at this.”
Neither Bogosian nor Council Member Katie Miars was convinced that the city should pay money to find out of it needs to pay more money.
“Now we’re going to spend another $20,000 for someone saying it’s not feasible except if you want to spend $350,000 to $400,000,” Bogosian said. “We know what the end result is. I don’t know why we keep asking for a different answer.”
“Why are we going to throw $19,000 in the trash can?” Miars asked.
When Council Member Jan Anderson voiced her opinion that the building should be accessible to all based on the Americans With Disabilities Act, Kerr reminded the Council that Islander 71 is not required to meet ADA standards because the work done there was a renovation rather than the construction of a new building.
In a Nov. 4, 2022, email sent to City Administrator Desiree Fragoso and Kerr, Dave Lorenz, one of the owners of the restaurant, indicated that his company would not pay to have the elevator installed.
“We understand that the City Council recommended that the cost of the elevator would be funded by ATAX funding. As you know, we have spent an extraordinary amount of money to fully renovate the restaurant and have delivered the city an amazing building. At this time and the near future, we would not be able to contribute to the project due to our current and ongoing investment in the building,” the email said.
The Council will discuss the issue further at its regularly scheduled March 28 meeting.
