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Best Boutique Hotels in Charleston

Whether you are visiting Charleston for a weekend getaway or want to explore the Holy City for a staycation, staying in one of Charleston’s boutique hotels is a must!

The Dewberry Hotel

The Dewberry Hotel is a local landmark situated on the border of Marion Square within walking distance to numerous attractions in downtown Charleston. Not only is the Dewberry a beautiful hotel, it also has a long list of amenities including a spa, fitness center, library, rooftop cocktail bar and decadent restaurant.

Hotel Bennett

In 2021, U.S. News and World Report named Hotel Bennett the #2 Hotel in Charleston. Hotel Bennett is most known for their colorful Champagne Lounge – Camellias. However, the hotel is full of activities for guests to enjoy. From lounging at the rooftop pool to relaxing at the spa to exploring Marion Square across the street, Hotel Bennett has got it all.

Hotel Bella Grace

Located in the Ansonborough neighborhood of downtown Charleston, Hotel Bella Grace is a modern boutique hotel. According to their website, “the circa 1830 Delaney House offers a personal connection to Charleston’s layered history, and is in beautiful combination with our 50 new built modern guest rooms, arrival lobby, and a fitness center.” Many of the rooms are suites with built in kitchens – perfect for longer stays in the Holy City.

Hotel Emeline

Hotel Emeline is located on Church Street in Charleston’s historic district and is “for the soulful sojourner, for the inquisitive local.” The hotel is also an ideal place for foodies to stay, providing a variety of delicious dining options including Frannie & the Fox, Clerks Coffee Company and Hank’s Seafood Restaurant.

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Celebrate Black History Month at These Historical Sites

February is Black History Month – a remarkable celebration of African American achievements and their history as a whole. Check out these historical sites around Charleston to celebrate and learn more about the contributions African Americans have made to society.

Drayton Hall

Learn about life in the 18th century at Drayton Hall plantation. Located off of Ashley River Road, Drayton Hall is rich with history. Tours of the plantation focus on the vast impact of the plantation – from architectural and landscaping advancements to the inhabitants that fueled its success.

Fort Moultrie and the Bench by the Road

Fort Moultrie played a significant role in the international slave trade during the 18th century. Take a day trip to visit their African Passages exhibit to get a thorough history of the slave trade. While you’re there you can also sit on the Bench by the Road, which is a commemorative bench that looks out onto the waterway where enslaved Africans were brought through.

Mother Emanuel AME Church

The oldest African Methodist Episcopal church in the Southern United States, Mother Emanuel AME is beaming with history and hope. While some may remember the vicious hate crime that took place at the church in 2015, the church was also the location of an important speech given by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Despite the challenges the church and it’s congregation have faced, the church is a beacon of light in the city of Charleston and a great place to visit.

Middleton Place

Middleton Place is a National Historic Landmark that was an influential plantation in the history of Charleston and African Americans. It is also home to the nation’s oldest landscaped gardens. They offer a variety of tours and events where you can learn more about the settlement and history of the plantation.

Old Slave Mart Museum

As the first African American slave museum, the Old Slave Mart Museum is a staple of downtown Charleston. While it was once used as an antebellum slave auction gallery, it now houses centuries worth of history. The museum is extending their hours during Black History Month and will also be open on Sundays.

News

Workshop Food Court Closing in the Spring

Workshop food court in downtown Charleston is set to close in the spring of 2021.

The exploratory food court, located on King Street near Edmund’s Oast Brewery, first opened in 2019 and provided thirty different concept restaurants the opportunity to showcase their cuisine, many of which are set to open their own standalone restaurants in the near future.

Workshop issued a statement on their decision to close their doors on social media saying, “To our friends, Charleston family and the community– it is with a range of emotions that we announce that Workshop will be closing its doors this spring….Thanks to your support the Charleston culinary landscape has changed for the better….This has been a great opportunity for us, for our food entrepreneurs, and for the community. We are excited to celebrate one more spring with you and to bring Workshop to a successful conclusion.”

While there is currently not an official date that Workshop is expected to close, it will be sometime this spring.

Be sure to check out Workshop’s upcoming events and current restaurant concepts including Ma’am Saab, South Philly Steaks, Blazing Star Cafe, Saha Jordanian and Sushi-Wa Izakaya.

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Second VC Summer Executive Pleads Guilty to Federal Fraud Charges

Featured Image Source: Grace Beahm Alford – Post & Courier

Kevin Marsh, the former CEO of SCANA, has entered into a federal plea deal on charges of fraud and conspiracy in relation to the VC Summer nuclear expansion in Fairfield County. Marsh is accused of defrauding nearly one million South Carolinians who paid inflated utility bills to fund the now-defunct project.

SCE&G and partner Santee Cooper pitched the ambitious project as a one-fix-wonder to growing concerns surrounding accessible energy versus environmental concerns. The duo claimed that the $8 billion dollar investment would provide South Carolinians with a reliable source of clean energy at an affordable cost… once the plant was in operation. Until then, customers would be footing the bill. Customers were led to believe the increased utility prices were only a short term sacrifice for a long term solution, but executives like Marsh made sure customers were left completely in the dark.

According to the South Carolina U.S Attorneys Office, Marsh and co-conspirators, including Santee Cooper executives who have yet to be held responsible, covered-up the structural, logistical, and financial issues that doomed the project from the start. Marsh was found culpable of falsifying critical evaluations and misleading both investors and stakeholders in an attempt to salvage the project as they quietly raised utility prices nine times over the course of the venture.

With the fate of Santee Cooper (a state-owned entity) undecided, customers may be looking at even higher energy costs if lawmakers refuse to sell Santee Cooper. As a state-owned utility, Santee Cooper does not have to adhere to the same regulatory scrutiny as investor-owned utilities and executives can raise rates with just the approval of their own board. Critics point out this lack of accountability is what led to the VC Summer debacle and debt in the first place.

After accepting the prosecutors plea, Marsh is now the second executive to plead guilty rather than face a criminal court. While the specifics of the plea deal are not yet confirmed, it is almost certain Marsh will spend time behind bars along with hefty fines.

Meanwhile, Santee Cooper’s former CEO, Lonnie Carter, retired right after the VC Summer scandal made headlines with a very comfortable retirement package that is also being paid for by Santee Cooper customers, in addition to any legal fees he and other executives managed to rack up.

More cases of criminal misconduct related to the failed VC Summer project are expected to surface as the investigation continues.

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After Three Years There’s Still No Solution For Santee Cooper Customers

The largest financial disaster in South Carolina history didn’t happen overnight. In fact, it’s been going on for 16 years, since Santee Cooper and SCE&G announced they’d be partnering on a nuclear expansion project at the VC Summer plant in 2008.

After numerous delays and the project incurring billions of dollars of debt, the project was never finished and abandoned by both SCE&G and Santee Cooper.

It later came to light that executives fought to disclose a report highlighting serious problems with the project while continuing to pour money into it.

Three years later and with billions of dollars of debt that customers will have to pay, lawmakers are looking at selling the state-owned agency to alleviate customers of Santee Cooper’s debt. And while it looked like the financial disaster might come to an end earlier this year, a few lawmakers stalled. No decision was made, leaving Santee Cooper to continue to make poor decisions, such as extending a million-dollar contract for its CEO and sponsoring a golf tournament. Santee Cooper’s behavior was so bad it drew a harshly worded rebuke from the Speaker of the South Carolina legislature, who labeled Santee Cooper a “rogue entity” for providing “false and misleading” information.

So how did we get here? Here’s a timeline of how customers were left with billions of dollars of debt and increasing utility rates.

There are several key dates before the most recent decision to explore the sale, but we’re focusing on the monumental dates that reveal SCE&G and Santee Cooper’s poor leadership, lack of transparency, and what led customers to be responsible for Santee Cooper’s $8 billion debt.

May 2008 – The start of this fiasco. SCE&G and Santee Cooper announced a nuclear expansion project at the VC Summer plant. Since the announcement of the VC Summer Project eleven years ago, several delays and massive problems were hidden by the project’s leadership.

February 2009 – The nuclear expansion plan is approved and construction is set to begin in 2012 with the first reactor to begin operating in 2016 and the second in 2019.

November 2009 – Santee Cooper approves and implements a 3.4% rate increase to help pay for the project.

December 2011 – The project gets off to a rocky start with the first delay being reported by SCE&G for production issues, manpower issues, and the need to redesign nuclear modules.

December 2012 – Santee Cooper approves and implements another 1.8% increase to rates.

June 2013 – Another delay follows pushing the first reactor operation date to late 2017-early 2018.

December 2013 – Santee Cooper approves and implements yet another rate increase. This time a whopping 5.2% to help pay for the struggling project.

May 2014 – Obvious signs of trouble appear and Santee Cooper asks to hire an outside company to oversee the project.

October 2014 – Money trouble becomes more apparent when contractors say it will cost an additional one billion dollars to complete the reactors.

October 2015 – Westinghouse is brought on board and completion dates are rescheduled yet again. The project is now pushed back to late 2019-early 2020.

December 2015 – During this time, SCE&G asked the Public Service Commission of the Office of Regulatory Staff to increase rates to help fund the project. Santee Cooper has its own board of directors and doesn’t have to get rate hikes approved by anyone except its own board, so Santee Cooper increases rates to help fund the project.

April 2016 – Another rate increase is approved and implemented by Santee Cooper. Customers see their rates go up by 5.3% this time.

June 2016 – SCE&G asks for its ninth rate increase.

March 2017 – Westinghouse files for bankruptcy. The company cites $9 billion in losses from its two nuclear construction projects, one of which is the VC Summer project.

April 2017 – Santee Cooper increases rates another 2.1%.

July 2017 – Shortly after this, Santee Cooper and SCE&G announced they were abandoning the project even though customers have already paid up to $2 billion for the reactors.

At this point, much of the general public was still unaware of the financial effects it was having on them.

August 2017 – A special South Carolina Senate committee holds their first of MANY hearings and former Santee Cooper CEO Lonnie Carter announces his retirement.

September 2017 – A month later Santee Cooper turns over the Betchel report detailing their insufficient oversight of the project.

January 2018 – SCE&G customers hear good news when Dominion Energy announces it will purchase SCANA Corp.

June 2018 – A state audit reports that the final amount for the failed project could increase by over $400 million.

August 2018 – A 15 percent rate cut and refund for April-July charges begin appearing on SCE&G bills. Meanwhile, Santee Cooper customers are still continuing to pay for the failed nuclear disaster.

March 2019 – Santee Cooper executives are unable to answer important questions about the future of Santee Cooper and rates during a Senate hearing. Following this, South Carolina Senate President Harvey Peeler introduces legislation that calls for exploring options for a possible Santee Cooper sale.

April 2019 – Santee Cooper announces rate increases totaling about 7% between 2021-2024 with no PSC oversight.

May 2019 – Lawmakers adopt this resolution and will begin exploring options to sell Santee Cooper. Read more about what this resolution means, here.

July 2019 – The two-year anniversary of the abandonment of the failed V.C. Summer project that started back in 2008, over a decade ago, yet Santee Cooper direct serve and electric co-op customers are still paying for this massive financial disaster.

Santee Cooper brings on new CEO, Mark Bonsall, guaranteeing him an annual salary of $1.1 million for 18 months.

August 2019 – The South Carolina Department of Administration announces parties are now able to submit bids for Santee Cooper hoping to alleviate customers from the increasing debt.

September 2019 – Santee Cooper’s largest customer, the electrical cooperatives which buy its power from the state-owned utility, sue Santee Cooper for keeping them in the dark about the failing VC Summer project, trying to protect their customers from being held responsible for its debt.

Santee Cooper also releases their “new plan” which fails to recognize its debt or explain what will happen to utility rates.

November 2019 – Increasing its debt even more, Santee Cooper’s legal fees for current and former executives surpasses $1 million.

February 2020 – Santee Cooper files a motion to stop any reference to future rate hikes during the cooperative lawsuit trial, hoping to keep jury members in the dark after claiming a “rate freeze” would be put in place.

The Department of Administration hands over a report to lawmakers detailing its recommendations from the bids it received from Santee Cooper including a management proposal from Dominion, a purchase proposal from NextEra, and a reform proposal from Santee Cooper itself.

March 2020 – House members vote to further negotiate with NextEra and discuss extensive reforms to Santee Cooper, rejecting Dominion’s management proposal altogether. While Senate members voted to give more time to Santee Cooper to reform disregarding the years it had to reform up until this point.

April 2020 – Pro-Santee Cooper Senators hold up emergency COVID funding until they win concessions to put off a decision on the sale of Santee Cooper.

Speaker Jay Lucas issues a letter to the Santee Cooper Board of Directors stating that “representations made by Santee Cooper Board members, leadership and staff are not reliable” and states that, had he the authority, he would “seek the immediate and unqualified removal of each member of the Santee Cooper Board and the dismissal for cause, of the entire senior management.”

July 2020 – Santee Cooper extends contracts for its million-dollar a year CEO and sponsors the Heritage Golf Tournament despite it having no fans in attendance.

July 31, 2020 – Three years since the VC Summer Project was abandoned with no relief in sight for customers or South Carolina taxpayers.

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Local Artist Feature

Charleston is known for its delicious southern meals, vast scenery, and blissful beaches, but there’s one thing often overlooked. As a city filled with creatives who are inspired by their surroundings, Charleston facilitates a spot for up and coming artists. The pastel buildings and sunkissed waterways are inspiration a-plenty when it comes to artistry. Today, we’ve gathered a roundup of local artists we love that we think you’ll love too.

Gaston Locklear

Locklear draws his inspiration from graphics found on billboards, urban walls, and other public spaces. His art acts as what he explains to be “a parallel to the human experience.” The Garden City Beach, SC natives’ intricate designs are purposely open for interpretation.

Kellie Jacobs

Think pastels and waterways when you think Jacobs. The College of Charleston grad designs landscape paintings through her own form of expression. Her use of dreamy pastels paired with detailed textures is a match made in heaven. You can find her work hanging at Roper St. Francis Healthcare and Southeastern Publishing Company, Inc.

Emily Allyson a.k.a. Southern Blonde Salt

The Bluffton native behind Southern Blonde Salt is inspired by the animals and sights around her hometown. Featuring oysters, redfish, and ocean landscapes, her style is imminent of life in the Carolinas.

Lynne Hardwick

Hardwick’s art hangs in the Lowcountry Artists Gallery located on East Bay St. Her love for meeting people and connecting with spirituality act as a spark for such abstract pieces. With many layers and strategic color blocking choices, her paintings are a reflection of life in Charleston through an entirely new lens.

Sam Malpass a.k.a. Badway Creative

If you’ve been to places like Saltwater Cowboys, The Vendue Hotel, or Ro Sham Beaux, you’ve seen artwork by Sam Malpass. Malpass is a travel-inspired artist who enjoys richly saturated hues and liquid impressionist brush strokes. Her murals and paintings are a staple to the Charleston area because of her knack for capturing the soul of each subject.

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Charleston Digital CEO Says This Will Play A Major Role In Small Business Recovery

Small businesses all around Charleston are feeling the effects of the COVID-19 outbreak. Some are having to shut their doors forever while others are trying to adjust to the “new normal”. According to the National Federation of Independent Business, 92% of small business owners are being negatively affected by the pandemic.

While many are in recovery mode, we spoke to Charleston Digital Agency CEO, Wesley Donehue, on the major role digital marketing can play in this phase.

More than ever, small businesses are flocking to social media to post updates on reopenings, adjusted hours, sales and specials, new menus, and all other updates. The problem with this, according to Donehue, is the average consumer is being overwhelmed by the amount of content being thrown on their social feeds that small businesses aren’t capturing the attention they could be.

So how can a small business breakthrough all the noise when every small business is trying to get a word in and big businesses are shouting?

Donehue says they can start by cutting unpaid organic content. He says “if your company is still posting organic social content in the 21st century, you are wasting your time and money.” Every piece of content should have money behind it to promote it to a specific audience according to Donehue.

When small businesses post organically, they’re only reaching a small percentage of the people who already like or follow them and are leaving out potential customers who don’t like or follow them yet.

Donehue says he’s been in contact with many small business owners who are paying marketing firms heavy retainers to maintain their content production to create and post MORE content when in actuality they should be paying less for content creation and more on getting the content they have in front of their target audience.

He says, “Instead of spending resources on producing content every day, you should be producing less content and putting resources behind paid content promotion to your target audience.” To unpack that quote, you have to understand the business model of many marketing firms. What Donehue is arguing is that money well spent in digital marketing is toward finding your audience.

Another factor to consider is other ways to talk to potential customers outside of social media. Many small businesses and marketing firms are only thinking of social media rather than standing out and trying to reach people online in other ways, says Donehue.

Donehue, who is already the CEO of the successful digital marketing agency, Push Digital, decided to create Charleston Digital Agency after hearing the concerns of many local small business owners. He said many of them were concerned with the money they were spending on content and weren’t seeing any benefits from it. That’s when he decided to create an agency that models Push Digital’s success with global brands, campaigns, and causes, on a local level.

Officially open for business, this data-driven, audience-focused agency is the solution to all things digital marketing in Charleston, SC.

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Featured Image Source: Grace Beahm Alford – Post & Courier

Featured Image: ABC4 News

Emily Allyson a.k.a. Southern Blonde Salt

Sam Malpass a.k.a. Badway Creative