Copyright Charleston Post and Courier
CHARLESTON — The Holy City’s newest luxury waterfront hotel will now welcome guests next year, with The Cooper accepting reservations for as early as March 1. The opening was originally slated for the end of 2025, but the project faced numerous delays. The 191-room Concord Street property is just steps away from Waterfront Park and Charleston’s pineapple fountain. It will offer four new dining concepts, new retailers, and other amenities. Lukas Grace, managing director of The Cooper, said owner BHC has taken its time to ensure that when the hotel does open, no expense has been spared in terms of quality and elegance. “As the first waterfront luxury hotel on the peninsula, this is something inherently unique,” Grace said. “It’s going to feel like a resort in the middle of a beautiful historic city. What’s special about that is you have a resort-like experience and within a few-minute walk you can experience the restaurants, retail and all Charleston has to offer.” He said BHC sees it as an investment to make sure this remains a world-class hotel for the next 50 years, not to be sold off after completion for profit. “We wanted to develop a beautiful five-star hotel that Charleston is extremely proud of — and that’s what The Cooper will be,” Grace said. “We also wanted everyone to be able to enjoy it, so we've got a bunch of different food and beverage concepts at different price points.” Grace said that The Cooper opens the Charleston waterfront to visitors to stay along and enjoy the harbor. He said visitors won’t have to choose to stay downtown or travel farther to resorts along the waterfront in places like Mount Pleasant, Folly Beach or Kiawah Island. The highly anticipated hotel has been years in the making. The high-end project has been in the works since 2017, when Lowe, a California real estate investor that also owns part of Wild Dunes Resorts on the Isle of Palms, bought the former State Ports Authority headquarters site near the end of Market Street for $38 million. The company broke ground on the hotel in early 2020, and its plans for a 2022 opening were set back by foundation problems that shut down work for several months. BHC, which is owned by Charleston business mogul Ben Navarro and his family, announced it had acquired its majority stake in the deal in late 2021 for an undisclosed sum. The company then spent two years refining the plans to elevate the look and feel of the hotel. Design changes have happened along the way, including the 6th-floor rooftop dining space. Grace said it will now be a private space as part of a new exclusive club concept that is still under development. Yes, Chef! A key component of the property is the four restaurants on site led by executive chef Nick Dugan, who holds the same title at BHC’s Sorelle on Broad Street. The Cooper’s signature dining establishment will be called The Crossing, serving up Mediterranean flavors with local ingredients. It will have 196 seats, waterfront views, a private dining room, a chef’s table and a large circular bar and raw bar. Sitting at the edge of Waterfront Park, CurrentBurger will be a fast-casual twist on the classic soda shop, offering an all-day menu of smash burgers, fries, fountain sodas, hand-spun milkshakes and soft serve ice cream. Cooper Coffee & Wine will overlook The Cooper’s marina. By day, the café is an elevated coffee and breakfast joint, and become a wine bar by night, similar to a European boulangerie. The fourth-floor Bar Marti will be guests-only open-air poolside bar and dining option. Dugan said his experience at Sorelle and the adjoining Mercato has prepared him for the challenges of managing multiple menus and concepts under the same roof. He said that they have to be independent yet very much in sync with each other, so the same level of quality is maintained, whether it is at the coffee shop or the upscale dining spot. The upscale Italian Sorelle operated by BHC shares a space in a historic building with Mercato — a house of lattes, colossal sandwiches and Sicilian pizzas — that was renovated by BHC ahead of the February 2023 opening. “It was a learning curve at Sorelle when we opened the Mercato and dining room, because we had to understand what we had to do differently during the day, compared to at night,” Dugan said. “It’s one place, but two different client styles, so over time we had to find ways to get our Mercato guests to become dinner guests and get our dinner guests excited about visiting during the day.” Amenities Once open, The Cooper will operate an on-site marina with a fleet of luxury vessels available for guest excursions, dinner cruises and private events. Casey Lavin, BHC’s president, said the waterfront is one of the Holy City’s greatest, but underutilized assets. The Cooper will also have a 7,000-square-foot spa that is open to the public by appointment, in addition to a rooftop infinity pool with cabanas and harbor views. With more than 20,000 square feet of indoor and outdoor event space the hotel will cater to gatherings rangin from corporate board meetings to grand weddings. It has a 4,000-square-foot Grand Lawn for open-air events of up to 400 guests, a 5,655-square-foot ballroom with harbor views and flexible layouts and a versatile salon for groups of 10 to 100. While the property won’t officially open until next year, a wedding and a few smaller functions are on the books for the end of the year. Events have already been scheduled well into 2026, according to BHC. It was designed by Champalimaud Design in collaboration with Atelier Kim. As a BHC property, hotel guests will also receive access to other entities within the brand’s portfolio, including The Charleston Place, Sorelle and BHC’s new community park, American Gardens, on Meeting Street.
