My wife grew up in Charleston and she always reminds me how much things have changed since she was a kid. We will be walking or driving around town and she will tell me stories about what used to be here or there.
Today, it’s totally different with a lot of growth and development. It’s great information for me and I love learning about the community as it relates to the real estate market and the local economy. My wife moved back to Charleston with me about six years ago and we are grateful to call this beautiful place home.
Charleston’s economy has experienced major changes and rapid growth over the last decade. The local economy has recently had two major developments that will continue to support and strengthen the market and the East Coast.
Charleston Harbor
The Charleston Harbor is now the deepest harbor on the U.S. East Coast! “It is a truly historical moment to be celebrating this monumental achievement. Charleston Harbor has been deepened to 52 feet,” SC Ports President and CEO Barbara Melvin said to cheers. “With the deepest harbor on the East Coast, we can efficiently work mega container ships at any tide. This investment will bring economic success to South Carolina for generations to come.”
South Carolina Ports and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Charleston District, partnered on the Charleston Harbor Deepening Project. The roughly $580 million infrastructure project was fully funded by state and federal dollars.
Redwood Materials
Redwood Materials is going to build a multibillion-dollar factory in the tri-county Charleston area. Redwood Materials is a battery materials and recycling startup founded by the former chief technical officer of Tesla, JB Straubel. Redwood has agreed to spend at least $3.5 billion in the area within the decade. The company plans for its South Carolina operations to be 100% electric and not utilize fossil fuels in its day-to-day operations.
Straubel mentioned in a TechCrunch article they don’t plan to even get a city gas line to the site. The factory campus will be in Berkeley County and produce 100 gigawatts of cathode and anode components per year, which is enough to power more than one million all-electric vehicles. The TechCrunch article also explains the working of lithium-ion batteries. The batteries “contain three critical building blocks. There are two electrodes, an anode (negative) on one side and a cathode (positive) on the other. Typically, an electrolyte sits in the middle and acts as the courier to move ions between the electrodes when charging and discharging. Cathode foils, which account for more than half the cost of a battery cell, contain lithium, nickel, and cobalt. Redwood is able to capture all of those materials through its battery recycling and processing.”
