MOUNT PLEASANT, S.C. (WCSC) – Mount Pleasant leaders approved the first of two readings to establish the Patriots Point planned development and impose a local tourism development fee on retail to fund major projects in the development.
The tourism development fee is a local tax on retail items, but excludes the major categories of groceries, gas and prescriptions, among a few others. After two years in place, the fee will return some of the collected money to residents in the form of homeowner rebates. The other item the council approved at first reading would establish the Patriots Point Planned Development district.
Mayor Will Haynie says the $100 million for infrastructure they expect to collect over 10 years is crucial to the area reaching its full potential.
“Our Comprehensive Plan and our Economic Development Strategic Plan both direct council, and have for years, to develop it, to make it an economic generator that takes the tax burden off the citizens of the town of Mount Pleasant. By funding this tourism development fee, we get money from tourists. We give our residents a rebate. And in effect, the things that get built there for the people of Mount Pleasant are funded in large part by tourism dollars,” Haynie says.
The projected revenue from the fee will go in part toward building the National Medal of Honor Center for Leadership, something the town has already committed $3 million to. On the second floor of the facility will be the Mount Pleasant Fine Arts Gallery.
“Yes, it will have a patriotic theme but can have other traveling exhibits. This will be our first major arts facility in the town of Mount Pleasant, and it’s a great place to have it because it’s so accessible. A waterfront promenade that goes all the way around to Shem Creek will be there, completing the trail that’s there now at Ferry Wharf,” Haynie says.
Money will also provide an expected $100 million in infrastructure like a 1,000-space parking garage, a waterfront promenade, turf on the town soccer fields and improvements to the College of Charleston soccer stadium.
“If you’ve been there on a Friday or Saturday, it’s bad, or when there’s a party at the Point, it’s not sustainable, and we will own that. And the people of Mount Pleasant will not have to pay when they are there for a Mount Pleasant recreation event. And then the other thing that we get out of all of this is that the whole development there is going to generate about $25 million a year in new tax revenue for the town of Mount Pleasant. That is $25 million a year that does not have to come from our residents’ property taxes in the future,” Haynie says.
Haynie boasts that Mount Pleasant is already the lowest property tax-wise of all the major municipalities and says this is how they will stay that way. Mount Pleasant also finished a nearly $10 million road improvement project at the intersection that enters Patriots Point in the fall of 2024, setting the stage for a big future.
“The whole idea behind what’s being developed there now Patriot annex, which has always been the plan for Patriots Point since the Yorktown got there, is to support the ships that are there, and its mission to give people a patriotic experience and the uniqueness of America. You add on top of that, the Medal of Honor Museum and the Center for Leadership, which will have nationwide reach, we’re going to build that tourism around that patriotic theme, and it’s going to be an economic generator for the town of Mount Pleasant that lessens tax burdens on our citizens,” Haynie says.
The 1% fee will go before the council again in January. At its first reading, the council unanimously supported it. Patriots Point Development Authority, the National Medal of Honor Center for Leadership, Explore Charleston, the College of Charleston and Charleston Battery all showed public support at first reading.
“Even if it passes a second reading in January, it will not go into effect until certain conditions are met. And then there’s a 60-day waiting period after we notify the State Department of Revenue, so you’re looking at the middle to the third quarter of next year before it goes into effect,” Haynie says.
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Mount Pleasant moves forward on funding Patriots Point project with tourism fee
