By Eric Curl
April 24, 2022 – The latest owner is moving forward with plans to build a multi-family housing project on the eastern end of downtown Savannah, about three years after the city traded the vacant lot to a another developer in a land swap deal. The plan includes the demolition of the President Street building that housed David’s Dry Cleaners, which stopped operating at that location in March following the recent sale of the property.
The building site is bounded by East Broughton Street to the north, Barr Street to the west, East President Street to the south and Arnold Street to the east. The Charles H. Morris Center is just north of the property and the Inner City Night Shelter is to the east of the site.
Permitting and sales records show that the property is being developed by Minnesota-based development company, Opus Group. Raben General Contractors describes the project as a 5-story multi-family residential development with 104 units and 282 beds, a ground floor lobby and amenity space, parking, and multi-family residential units, with a single-story basement parking level, a second-floor exterior pool deck.
The city traded the Broughton property to Row Pine Development in May 2019, along with 12 acres of vacant industrial property off Feeley Avenue, for property the city intended to use for a municipal center annex, according to the meeting minutes. Row Pine’s President Gary Wiggin developed the Emerald Cove apartments within the Highlands and the Park and Broad boutique apartment complex at Park Avenue and East Broad. Wiggin said at the time of the trade that the plan for the Broughton property was for a similar multifamily housing development.
In June 2020, Row Pine Development sold the property to 541 E Broughton St LLC for $2.5 million. Then in February this year, 541 E Broughton St. LLC sold the property to Opus for $4 million, according to sales documents. Opus also purchased in February the property where David’s operated for $1.45 million.
From the 2019 land swap, the city acquired almost 33 acres of real property owned by Row Pine Development, LLC (Row Pine), consisting of thirteen commercial parcels within the Highlands area of Savannah. At the time of the trade, the city planned to develop the Highlands parcels as a future municipal center annex with recreation facilities, ballfields, playgrounds, and a police substation.
Until recently, there was a safety sign posted at the construction site that indicated the Savannah College of Art and Design was involved in the project. In addition to including the name of the university, the sign’s QR code previously sent you to a website with on-job safety information for what was then labeled the “Savannah College of Art and Design Residences” project.
After being contacted about the project, SCAD spokesperson Michelle Gavin said in email on April 18 the university has no connection to the private development the contractor had no right to use SCAD’s name on the signage.
“We are sending the contractor a cease and desist order to have them remove “SCAD“ from the signs and we are contacting the city,” Gavin said.
Opus Development’s Vice President Ben Angelo said in an email on April 18 that the sign was a mistake by one of the company’s contractors and that that it is not in any way a SCAD affiliated or sponsored project.
“Opus is privately developing a multi-family project that is not restricted to students,” Angelo said. “Although the project will be design with a student focus, the project is expected to appeal to the broader demographic of Savannah.”
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