John Knott, Noisette Company, Charleston The local chapter of the Urban Land Institute (ULI) met at Seawell’s last week to hear a talk by John Knott, president and founder of the Noisette Company, the developer of about 3,000 acres of former Navy Yard called the North Charleston Noisette Community. The project is a public–private partnership with the City of North Charleston.

Knott is a third generation builder and developer, according to the Noisette Web site, and he has extensive experience in the holistic development of planned communities, sustainable development, Green buildings, commercial offices, hotels, and renovation and restoration of historic properties and urban revitalization. Knott and his family came from the Baltimore/Washington area to live in Charleston about 15 years ago.

Recently Knott served as CEO and managing director of the 1,206–acre Dewees Island community near Charleston, an oceanfront island retreat dedicated to environmental preservation and recognized as one of the leading eco–friendly residential developments in the world. In 2001, Dewees won the ULI’s Award for Excellence. The ULI has about 34,000 members worldwide, and in S.C. there are 560 members. The importance of continuing education through the ULI for S.C.’s players in the real estate development field, all aspects of land use, was emphasized by Knott when he reminded the audience at Seawell’s to expect the popu- lation of S.C. to grow by another 1.5 million people by 2030.

Mayor Elise Parton, City of Cayce The choice for S.C.’s future is between growth by choice or growth by chance, the latter being the norm. Knott structured growth predictions with three main points: (1) Put together a blueprint for growth — plan, plan, plan. (2) Keep the entire state together, avoiding backstabbing among the Lowcountry, the Midlands, and the Upstate. (3) Culture a new leadership class to take charge.

Knott worried the Bull Street property, once occupied by the Department of Mental Health, was not going through adequate planning stages with its surrounding stakeholders. To illustrate how not to do it, he criticized the development, or lack thereof, of Ground Zero eight years after 9/11/2001. He then brought his illustration home with observations over Five Points and what was proposed compared to what is getting built.

As spiritual entrepreneurs, a different name for developers, Knott’s cohorts understand Aristotle’s definition for the term “politics”: the art of living together.

In his company’s 3,000– acre North Charleston Noisette Community, Knott said, between 2001 and today, the project lured $1 billion in public and private investment. Housing market value rose from $54/sq. ft. to $170, and land value rose from $40,000/acre to $500,000. There are now 80 additional companies in the project with 2,500 new employees.

Grant Jackson of the Greater Columbia Chamber of Commerce emceed a panel discussion following Knott’s talk. The panel consisted of Alan Kahn (M.B. Kahn Construction and Kahn Development, both firms behind the Village at Sandhills), Mayor Elise Parton of Cayce, Bessie Watson (senior auditor of the State Budget and Control Board and president of the Columbia Council of Neighborhoods), and Bobby Fuller (real estate attorney).

Kahn led off by warning the audience to always build trust in the planning and development stages. He reiterated Knott’s push for a younger leadership coming up, carrying education and ideas and recent experience to reshape the process and the product.

One of Mayor Parton’s challenges in planning the approach to downtown Columbia from the airport was to join forces with the adjacent towns to coordinate upgrades on both sides of the streets.

Watson offered her expertise from her time with neighborhood organizations, particularly along South Edisto.

Fuller, the attorney, warned of hidden traps and land mines always found at the wrong time and the wrong place if the land use and the law were not speaking in the same tongues throughout the process.

Audience member Fred Delk, head of the Columbia Development Corporation, saluted the keynote speaker, the emcee, the panel and his fellow members of the audience, concluding more regular gatherings of the local chapter of ULI were absolutely necessary.

Elliott Powell, also in the audience, is president of First- Sun, but he is also head of the Gill’s Creek Watershed group, which covers a lot of ground from northeast Columbia to the Congaree River. And through the people working with him on the Gills’ Creek Watershed conferences, he is able to direct an impressive impact for the entire distance of the water’s flow, regardless of political boundaries.

Emcee Jackson was too polite to share the observation that in the room there was not one member of Columbia City Council.