Junk Removal in Daniel Island, SC

Charleston Playhouse announces Broadway Cabaret Series Season

Charleston Playhouse, Charleston’s first Professional Equity Theatre Company, announced its 2023 Broadway Cabaret Series Season. After a very successful 2022 season, the slate in 2023 will feature Broadway performers Darilyn Castillo (“Hamilton,” “The Lion King,”

“Motown the Musical”), Hayley Podschun (Glinda in “Wicked,” “Hello Dolly!”, “Something Rotten!,” “Chaplin,” “Anything Goes,” “Pal Joey,” “Sunday in the Park with George,” “Hairspray,” “The Sound of Music”), Jenny DiNoia (Elphaba in “Wicked” in seven companies across four countries, more than any other actress in the show’s history, including Broadway, London, Chicago, Seoul, Sydney, and the first and second national tours), Jenny Lee Stern (“Rocky, A Christmas Story”), and local professionals Clyde Moser, Aaron Hancock, and Lauren Wagner. Tickets can be purchased at CharlestonPlayhouse.com.

Charleston Playhouse, a nonprofit organization in residence at the College of Charleston Sottile Theatre, features Broadway actors, Equity members, and local professional talent. The productions provide top-quality entertainment in the heart of Charleston’s charming historic district. Stars such as Carol Burnett, Kristen Chenoweth, and other Tony Award winners, along with Mayor John Tecklenburg, Daniel Island resident Ed Marinaro, Renee Dobbins Anderson, and many others have joined Charleston Playhouse’s Advisory Committee in support of this endeavor. Doug Coupe, another resident of Daniel Island, is on Charleston Playhouse’s Board of Directors.

Charleston Playhouse, an advocate for the arts and the artists in the community, is also planning its inaugural Mainstage Season, producing four large-scale Broadway-caliber productions in the Sottile Theatre, while continuing to add additional foundational funding and growing its robust donor base leading up to that announcement. Charleston Playhouse will not only be the first professional Equity Theatre in Charleston, but the largest in the state of South Carolina.

Hope Scholars Academy open house to feature new faculty

Hope Scholars Academy has appointed two new faculty members who will be introduced at an open house at 7 p.m., Tuesday, Jan. 24.

Rachel Hudson will be teaching 11th grade literature and composition. Hudson has a bachelor of arts in English from Southern Wesleyan University and a master of arts in adolescent literature. She has taught for eight years at the middle school level and served as a mentor for teachers in those grades.

Melissa Bennett will lead classes in Bible for the eighth through 10th grades. Bennett graduated from Geneva College with a bachelor of arts in student ministries. She is currently pursuing her master’s degree at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. She has taught Bible for more than 20 years. Bennett is married to the Reverend Jonathan Bennett; they have three children and are also foster parents.

At the open house, families will have an opportunity to tour the school and meet the new faculty. In addition, the continuing faculty members will be on hand for questions about the full curriculum including science, math, engineering, Bible, world view, art and languages. To sign up, go to hopescholarsacademy.org.

Hope Scholars is located in Cooper River Baptist Church, 1059 Crawford St., in Park Circle near the intersection of I-26 and I-526.

Many cities and smaller communities in Ukraine have suffered immense damage to public water and power infrastructure as a result of the Russian military offensives. Safe water access is critical to the country’s citizens in the cold winter months. Water Mission, a N. Charleston based nonprofit, is expanding its efforts to provide safe drinking to citizens in the war torn country.

Water Mission received a $2.27 million grant from the United Nation’s International Organization for Migration (IOM) to expand emergency safe water access in areas affected by the war in Ukraine, the organization shared in a press release. The project, known as "Safe Water Ukraine,” will increase Water Mission’s existing impact by scaling safe water operations across four war-torn regions in southeastern Ukraine. Funding provides 40 fixed systems and five mobile safe water systems to serve residents desperately in need of safe, clean water.

“This grant provides critical funding enabling us to quickly scale our efforts to bring emergency safe water throughout southeastern Ukraine,” said George C. Greene IV, PE, CEO, and president of Water Mission, which is a Christian based nonprofit. “We are thankful for IOM’s trust and support in helping our in-country teams bring relief to people without water due to extensive damage to public infrastructure.”

In February 2022, Water Mission immediately deployed to serve people in need seeking safety in bordering countries. By April, Water Mission was one of the first organizations to provide safe water access for internally displaced people (IDPs) within Ukraine.

As of December 2022, Water Mission installed more than 40 emergency safe water systems across seven Ukrainian cities, according to information provided by the organization. These systems have produced more than 20 million liters of safe water, serving more than 100,000 people. Additionally, Water Mission teams have provided on the ground engineering expertise, consulting, and water quality testing services to local municipal water operators. Water Mission has also worked with partners to ensure dignified and hygienic living conditions for people in need by distributing necessary hygiene items, more than 10,000 hygiene kits, and three million water purification packets.

Water Mission will continue to expand its response by working collaboratively with regional city officials, local governments, and churches to address the most critical safe water needs, a press release promised.

To learn more or support the response, visit watermission.org.

About Water Mission

Water Mission is a Christian engineering nonprofit that builds sustainable safe water solutions for people in developing countries. Refugee camps, and disaster areas. Since 2001, Water Mission has served more than 7 million people in 57 countries, sharing safe water and the message of God’s love. Water Mission’s global headquarters is in North Charleston, SC, and the organization has over 400 staff members based in Africa; Asia; North, South, and Central America; and the Caribbean. Charity Navigator has awarded Water Mission its top four-star rating 15 years in a row, a distinction shared by less than 1% of the charities rated by the organization. To learn more, visit watermission.org, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, or Twitter.

The holiday season for most winter and spring sports teams is used as downtime to recuperate. At Bishop England, it’s not a time to relax, but rather a time to give back.

In December, at the beginning of Christmas break, BE’s wrestling team volunteered at the Lowcountry Food Bank. The wrestlers and their families packed more than 550 boxes for seniors and families in need in the community.

“I think it is important for our athletes to give back to the community and those who do not have as much,” BE wrestling coach Paul Spence said. “I loved the fact that so many of my team participated before they went off on vacation. I was happy that they worked hard and had fun doing so.”

The rate of food-insecurity in the 10 coastal counties of South Carolina hovers around 11%, which is 1% higher than the national average. In 2022, LCFB aided approximately 200,000 people and distributed roughly 39 million pounds of food, according to Chief Development Officer Brenda Shaw. By 2025, the nonprofit’s goal is to decrease hunger and food insecurity in coastal South Carolina by 25%.

“It builds teamwork, camaraderie and the team itself,” Shaw added. “It also gives these young adults a glimpse into how they can truly make a difference in their communities.”

During the same time frame, BE’s baseball team fulfilled stocking wishes for children at Lowcountry Orphan Relief’s annual Stocking Drive. The ball players and their families donated 70 stocking wish bags and numerous gently used clothing items, shoes and books.

“It gives our kids that feeling of helping a little bit and that there are people out here in desperate need and really poor situations,” BE baseball coach Mike Darnell said. “Because it’s the holiday it made it just a little bit more extra special to help out.”

The Stocking Drive yielded more than 3,000 wish bags overall last month, but that’s not the impressive number. In 2022, LOR serviced approximately 8,000 children in cases of child abuse, abandonement and neglect, according to founder Lynn Young. More than 40,000 children have been aided since 2006.

“This is funny to say, but I wish we could go out of business and there would be no more abuse and neglect of our precious children,” Young said.

Business owners should expect a recession to hit the U.S. economy in the first half of 2024, a Daniel Island economist said during an annual economic forecast in December.

Stephen Slifer, a former chief economist for Lehman Brothers and former senior economist for the Federal Reserve, told hundreds of business owners, professionals and government officials in Charleston that the national economy continues to remain strong even with rising inflation fears and a looming recession.

“The stock market has gotten whacked pretty good this year,” he said. “Yet, the economy keeps hanging in there.”

If a recession does come in 2024, businesses could experience a recovery during the second half of that year, he said.

Slifer, who writes a column for SC Biz publications and operates a data analytics firm in Charleston, said several indicators that economists watch are predicting a recession.

“When are we expecting some sort of a recession?” Slifer said. “I don’t want to oversimplify this, but there’s a couple of things that I’m looking at. There's all sorts of leading indicators.”

Slifer said the real funds rate and the yield curve, along with specific federal policy changes, give economists a reason to think a recession will occur in 2024.

The real funds rate is essentially the real interest rate with a subtraction for inflation, which indicates the actual cost of borrowing money and what a lender might expect as a return for lending money. Along with the real funds rate, Slifer said economists also look for an inverted yield curve.

“It’s just the difference between long rates and short rates,” Slifer said. “Usually, long rates are higher than short rates, so the thing slopes upward. But then the Fed comes along and they start raising rates up, up, up, up, up, go short rates. Eventually short rates get to be higher than long rates and now the curve shows slopes downward. That’s known as an inverted yield curve.”

Slifer said that an inverted yield curve is typically a sign that Fed policy has become “too tight.” He said historically, going back about 50 years, when economists detect an inverted yield curve, a recession is about one year away.

“So both of my warning signals are telling me that something is going to happen by the middle of next year, so for that reason I’m looking for a recession in the first half of 2024,” Slifer said, adding, “No recession for now, but I think it’s inevitable.”

In a year that saw continually rising interest rates, inflation, a battered stock market and late-year massive layoffs, particularly in the tech sector, Slifer’s annual economic forecast sold out.

With several questions coming about federal policy, student loan forgiveness and the status of entitlements such as Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, federal pensions, including veterans’ benefits, he said the U.S. needs to do better with its monetary policy, including finding the political will to deal with looming insolvency issues with some of those programs. He said the Obama Administration had a possible plan in hand that could have tackled these issues but decided against going forward. He said given the division in Washington, it’s unlikely any lawmakers would have the will to take on such thorny, difficult and costly issues.

Slifer said the status of the economy, with ever rising inflation but not a residual reduction in spending, can be found in the data and monetary policy decisions. Because inflation is tied to the real funds rate as an indicator of a recession, understanding how to navigate and mitigate that could become critical to emerging from an economic downturn.

“The last couple of years, I think that fiscal and monetary policy that we’ve got in this country has gone seriously off track,” Slifer said.

He said our current monetary issues can be traced back to a government overreaction beginning in March and April 2020 with shutdowns related to the COVID-19 pandemic and gross domestic product dropping 30% for the quarter.

“In dollar terms, that’s about $2.1 trillion, right? And yet it wasn’t consumers, it wasn’t businesspeople that did any of that. This was on the government. They did it,” Slifer said, referring to the shutdowns. “I think they felt a responsibility to make people whole.”

Slifer said that the first stimulus of $2 trillion might have made sense, but the money kept coming with stimulus payments coming to businesses and individuals, in addition to the federal government buying debt.

By the time the stimulus packages had ended, the $2 trillion in economic aid had nearly quintupled. He said a lot of people likely paid down debt, giving them the ability to spend more now, which has resulted in a strong economy even with rising inflation based on consumer spending and a willingness to go into debt.

“Add it all up, we had $9.5 trillion worth of stimulus for Pete’s Sake,” Slifer said. “We were trying to solve a $2 trillion problem. That just seems like gross overkill to me, and we’re sitting here wondering … ‘I wonder why inflation is so high.’ Well, here’s a start.”

Slifer also said the Fed underestimated the depth and causes of inflation. He said when he was at the Federal Reserve, politics did not figure into Fed policy, and he’s reluctant to say that has been happening now. He said instead he wanted to think it was just a miscalculation based on circumstances that were difficult to predict.

Slifer said the Fed thought inflation initially was just temporary, and said inflation was simply a result of supply disruptions and other things that had taken place during the pandemic. He said they just expected inflation to go away.

“They stuck to that theme for a year and a half,” he said. “They didn’t give up until December of last year, and then they finally said, ‘Uh, oh, you know this inflation is just not as temporary as what we thought. We’ve got a problem here, and by the way, we’re way behind the curve and we’re going to start raising rates.’ The Fed, in my view, was about 18 months too late. That’s a long time.”

Being slow to react to inflation and an overreaction with stimulus payments going through March 2021, even though the pandemic recession ended in April 2020, has had a ripple effect that impacts inflation, fiscal policy, real estate and investments along with difficulties in the labor market, Slifer said.

“It absolutely was totally unnecessary in my view,” Slifer said. “There are consequences to that stuff. That’s why we’re sitting here looking at these really high inflation rates, interest rates have risen dramatically, (and) government debt has exploded.”

One audience member asked if the Charleston area might be somewhat “insulated” from the recession he predicts a year from now considering that the region typically does not to fall as far and bounces back faster than other areas during economic downturns.

Slifer said with the strength of the housing market at different price points and the demographics of the many people who continue to move into the market, he does not expect to see the decline in housing, GDP, and the labor markets that other areas might experience. But he said while there might be a diminished impact for the Charleston region, he said he would not use the word “insulated.”

“Are we going to be insulated and not see (home) prices drop? I don’t think so,” he said, adding, “We are not insulated. We’re going to move in the same direction, but I guess with a lesser degree.”

A $20-million-plus lodging with a restaurant, event space and guest cottages is being proposed for Daniel Island.

The city of Charleston’s Design Review Board recently signed off on plans for a 38-unit hotel at 1995 Daniel Island Drive near the planned 320-unit Nowell Creek Village Apartments.

The site is across from the former Blackbaud headquarters building, which is now a multitenant office structure called Marshside. The board suggested a few aesthetic revisions, but otherwise unanimously voted for the hotel project.

A small office structure currently occupies the site and can be moved to make way for the new project once it clears other approvals from the city.

JT Industries LLC, an affiliate of developer King and Society Real Estate of Charleston, bought the 1.5-acre parcel near Beresford Creek in 2019 for $1.25 million, according to Berkeley County land records.

“We have a unique and interesting waterfront property on Daniel Island and have been working to find the best use and need for this location,” said King and Society founder and CEO Troy Barber.

He estimated construction will take about 14 months after permits and other approvals are received and hopes the project will be completed in 2024.

Barber said a firm price had not been set on the hotel, but he believes the project will be more than $20 million.

The main 11,200-square-foot building will house guest rooms, restaurant and event space in three floors over parking. The proposal includes four guest houses of 8,500 square feet each, two 866-square-foot cottages, two 592-square-foot cabanas and 50 parking spaces.

The site plan shows the venue as a likely wedding venue, with separate suites for the bride and groom, a ballroom and an outdoor ceremony site overlooking Beresford Creek. Barber said it could also be used for corporate functions.

King and Society will be the developer and handle construction as well, Barber said.

Top sellers

At the mid-year point, South Carolina is home to three of the top-selling 50 master-planned communities in the U.S., even as sales slow from last year.

RCLCO Real Estate Consulting ranked Cane Bay Plantation in Berkeley County at No. 5 with 525 sales during the first six months of 2022. That’s down 9 percent from last year’s midpoint.

Nexton, also in Berkeley, came in at No. 22 with 308 sales, down 5 percent from the first six months of last year.

Latitude Margaritaville in Hardeeville near Hilton Head Island ranked No. 39 with 234 sales, down 29 percent from last year from January through June.

The top-selling, master-planned community continues to be The Villages, between Ocala and Orlando, Fla. It had about 1,500 sales, down 25 percent from last year at the midpoint.

Almost all of the top 50 are in the southern tier of states. Texas posted the most with 20, Florida landed 15, Nevada had four, California and Arizona saw three each, and Utah and Washington state notched one each.

Total new home sales among the 50 top-selling master-planned communities declined by 18 percent in the first half of 2022 compared to the same time period last year, according to RCLCO.

“Supply chain issues and inadequate new home inventory have continued to pose problems for developers, as price increases and interest rate hikes have begun to impact traffic from potential buyers in recent months,” RCLCO said in its mid-year report.

Nationally, the average price among all new single-family homes is up 15 percent since mid-2021.

“The results of this updated mid-year report confirm that supply chain disruptions continue to have an impact on the ability of master-planned communities to meet new home demand, though climbing interest rates and price appreciation have begun to have an impact on that demand, at least in the near-term,” said RCLCO principal Karl Pischke.

“However, it is important not to overreact to the slowing of sales seen over the last year, as these are still short-term trends,” he said.

“The long-term future of the for-sale housing industry, as evidenced by favorable demographic tailwinds, is strong,” Pischke said. “And the future of master-planned communities, particularly in their ability to capture an outsized share of buyer demand during uncertain or difficult economic times, provides another reason for optimism.”