Charleston Does Not Need More Hotels
HCF has been working for decades to strike a healthy balance between neighborhood vitality, residential livability, and responsible tourism. The latest challenge to this balancing act is the threat of new hotel proposals for properties not currently zoned for accommodation uses. For example, the proposal at the April 16th Planning Commission requests an extension of the Accommodations Overlay Zone to allow for a hotel at 529-537 Meeting Street – if allowed, this could create a problematic precedent.
Luckily, there is no shortage of resources to help guide our next steps in making decisions that benefit tourists and the community.
The Foundation, the City of Charleston, Explore Charleston, and other partners have been working together over the past five decades to create plans and strategies to effectively manage tourism. Examples include:
- 1978 Tourism Impact Study – The first of its kind for cities in the United States!
- 2023 Community Perception of Tourism in Charleston (The Riley Center for Livable Communities)
To complement these plans and strengthen the ordinance governing hotel uses, Charleston's then-Mayor Tecklenburg created an ad hoc Hotel Task Force to study the approval process for hotels and make recommendations for updates to the zoning code. HCF was proud to serve on this citizen-led task force which resulted in the passage of the Accommodations Overlay Ordinance Amendment in 2019. This update provided the Board of Zoning Appeals and the city planning staff with the tools to better regulate hotels across the peninsula.
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HCF supports this much improved Accommodations Overlay Ordinance that outlines where hotels can be developed on the peninsula. Years of analysis, advocacy, and intentionality have been invested in where hotels should be located downtown and the criteria used to determine the appropriateness of any new hotel applications.
There is no evidence to suggest a need for more hotels.
The Accommodations Overlay Ordinance provides ample opportunities for development of new hotels in the future without rezoning additional properties or expanding the Accommodations Overlay zone. Downtown Charleston has more hotels coming online than we have had in years.
With the recently approved Four Seasons Hotel (150 rooms at 155 Meeting), the Montford Hotel (150 rooms at Huger and Meeting), The Flatiron (191 rooms at Mt. Pleasant and Morrison), Hotel Arcane (50 rooms at 40 N. Market), 657 King (27 rooms), The Cooper (209 rooms at Concord by Union Pier), the Lowline Hotel (175 rooms at 131 Columbus), Kimpton Hotel (250 rooms at 860 Morrison), Hotel Richemont (25 rooms at 93 Society), 411 Meeting (300 rooms) and up to 1,080 new hotel rooms allowed at the new Magnolia Landing development on the upper peninsula, there are plenty of hotel rooms available in the near future.
In fact, the Charleston peninsula currently has 5,167 hotel rooms in operation. There are actually 3,650 rooms already entitled without expanding the Accommodations Overlay, representing a 70% increase!
Tourists have plenty of rooms from which to choose, and we are just talking about hotel rooms on the peninsula—not to mention any new hotels in Mount Pleasant, West Ashley, Daniel Island, or North Charleston.
Why is there a glut of proposed hotels?
If there are more than 5,000 rooms today with over 3,600 rooms in the works, why are developers proposing to build more hotels downtown? The answer is surely multi-faceted, but one related fact is that multifamily housing oversupply in the region has stalled growth in the rental market, according to a Colliers 2024 Q4 Charleston Multifamily Report.
The market for rental apartments in Charleston is saturated, which means the next biggest moneymaker is most likely hotels. Therefore, they are attractive to developers seeking the highest returns, not necessarily by a true need for more rooms.
Historic Charleston Foundation has been working for decades to support responsible tourism, while preserving the quality of life of our residents. Maintaining the integrity of the Accommodations Overlay Zone is a key component of striking that balance. There is no need to expand the zone to accommodate a healthy tourism economy. A developer’s bottom line should not come at the price of our community’s quality of life. We need to have a renewed community discussion around how much of the peninsula we want to cede to visitors over other land uses that contribute to a diverse and vibrant downtown.
HCF will keep you posted on new hotel proposals as we speak out at public meetings against changes to the Accommodations Zone. In the coming months, we will proactively explore policy updates that ensure that land use decisions protect the quality of life of residents.
Stay tuned for an exciting announcement about our next Advocacy Forum on May 20, 2025!