The North Charleston property known for years as the home of the Jenkins Orphanage is now zoned for commercial redevelopment, but it’s not about to be sold or otherwise redeveloped.
The oak-laden 47.3-acre site along the banks of Ashley River at 3923 Azalea Drive had been classified as a multifamily residential use ever since the recently renamed Jenkins Youth and Family Center was relocated from Franklin Street in downtown Charleston in 1937 after a fire.
Last week, the city approved a request to change the zoning to commercial development.
“We didn’t push for this,” said Henry Tisdale, chairman of the Jenkins board of directors. “They made us do it.”
The property includes an administration building, dormitory, warehouse, pavilion and training center. The rezoning was necessary after Jenkins began renting its outdoor spaces for private events, according to North Charleston City Council.
Tisdale said state money, donations and grants sustain operations. The minimal rental income generated from events supplement the main funding.
“We aren’t making a profit,” Tisdale said.
He said he wasn’t sure if the change was necessary. He also was worried the rezoning could jeopardize Jenkins’ nonprofit status, but city officials have assured him that it will not.
The Rev. Daniel Joseph Jenkins started the orphanage on the peninsula in 1891 as a boys-only home. Today, about 19 girls and young women between the ages of 11 and 21 reside on the Azalea Drive property, where a staff of about 10 includes care specialists and counselors. It previously had operated under the name Jenkins Institute.
Passengers use the curbside check-in station at Charleston International Airport on Aug. 23. The airport recently expanded the program, offered by Bags Inc., to the second level of the five-tier parking deck. Spencer Pryor/Provided
In the bag
Passengers booked on some of the biggest airlines serving Charleston International now have another way to avoid long lines at the check-in counters.
The airport recently expanded its curbside baggage check-in program by adding a station on the second level of its five-tier parking deck in front of the terminal. Travelers do not pay a fee for the service.
Arriving passengers can now drop off their bags near the garage elevator as well as at two stations along the curb in front of the main terminal. The airport began offering the service with three curbside stations in the spring and moved one to the parking deck.
Workers with Bags Inc. will collect luggage and place it on an outside belt or take it inside to the appropriate counter.
“This enhances the overall passenger experience,” airport spokesman Spencer Pryor said. “Instead of getting into long lines inside the terminal, travelers now have an efficient way to manage their time and get through the screening and boarding process more easily.”
Seven of the 13 carriers that serve CHS have agreements with Orlando, Fla.-based Bags: Alaska, American, Delta, JetBlue, Southwest and Spirit. United is expected to come onboard by Labor Day, according to Pryor.
The other six are not participating: Allegiant, Avelo, Breeze, Frontier, Silver and Sun Country.
Trader Joe’s is resisting the self-checkout craze. File
Check this out
The role of the cashier is safe and secure at Trader Joe’s.
While most competitors now offer shoppers a self-checkout option, the quirky, popular supermarket chain with three South Carolina stores is shooting down rumors that it plans to join them.
“Oh, that’s a false. That’s a double false,” CEO Bryan Palbaum said during an appearance on the grocer’s latest in-house podcast released this month.
“Self-checkout is work. I don’t want that,” he added.
Jon Basalone, president, said the speculation is “as false as false can be, because we believe in people and we’re not trying to get rid of our crew members for efficiency’s sake. I don’t know what the reasons are people put self-checkout in.”
The two executives also dismissed speculation about setting up drive-thru operations at stores to serve coffee samples.
“Yeah, there’s probably plenty of room … for a drive-thru,” Palbaum quipped, referring to the company’s famously cramped and usually crowded parking lots.
Based in Monrovia Calif, Trader Joe’s has grown to about 560 locations. It made its Palmetto State debut in Greenville in October 2010, and it expanded to the coast with a Mount Pleasant store the following year and a Columbia supermarket in 2013.
Former Tesla executive Colin Campbell announced on LinkedIn that he will be joining Redwood Materials as chief technology officer. Redwood is building a $3.5 billion battery recycling plant in Berkeley County.
Tesla talent
The battery recycling firm founded by a former Tesla executive has poached another senior official from Elon Musk’s electric car company.
Redwood Materials, which is building a $3.5 billion plant in Berkeley County, has hired Colin Campbell as chief technology officer to help the company build a U.S.-based supply chain for the key minerals needed to produce batteries for electric vehicles.
Campbell previously was vice president for powertrain engineering at Tesla, where has spent the last 17 years working alongside Musk. In his new role, he will join JB Straubel, who founded Redwood in 2019.
“At Redwood, I will continue to work on electrification — but this time, ensuring broad EV and clean energy adoption by solving problems further upstream!” Campbell said in announcing the move on LinkedIn. “Redwood’s mission is to create a circular battery supply chain, localizing the current fragmented system by creating critical battery components at scale in the U.S. for the first time — and from an ever-increasing amount of recycled content.”
He isn’t the first senior executive that Straubel has recruited from his former employer. Kevin Kassekert, chief operating officer, previously was vice president of people and places at the Austin, Texas-based EV maker.
Straubel is said to remain on friendly terms with Musk, and he recently joined Tesla’s board of directors.
Reno, Nev.-based Redwood has said it plans to break ground on its Lowcountry site at Camp Hall Commerce Park by the end of the year. The Ridgeville operation will be built in steps, beginning with recycling and refining of materials with eventual downstream component manufacturing for the anode copper foil and cathode material used in EV batteries. Redwood plans to eventually employ 1,500 workers at the site.
This authentic-looking, bogus email was distributed to South Carolina Bar members to entice them to click on a potential malicious link. Staff
Email alert
South Carolina lawyers are being spoofed — and not in the parody sense of the term.
The S.C. Supreme Court last week put members of the S.C. Bar on notice of bogus emails being circulated within the Palmetto State’s legal community.
The messages are designed to get the recipient’s attention by suggesting they’ve been suspended from practicing law for not meeting their continuing legal education requirements. An example showed a link purportedly to an official letter about the infraction.
“Please be advised spoof emails with a subject line of: “Compliance Notice: CLE suspension” are being sent to members of the South Carolina Bar and contain the Judicial Branch logo and seal,” the high court warned Aug. 25. “The messages claim they are from ‘SC Court Administration.’ This is a scam message. Should you receive one of these emails, please do not click any links contained therein.”
