Commercial real estate brokers in Summers Corner, SC

SUMMERVILLE, S.C. (WCSC) - People living in the Summers Corner development are reaching out to representatives and federal post office officials for help with persistent mail delivery issues.

Packages delivered a few days late or a letter arriving a few houses down aren’t the only problems plaguing those who live in the Summers Corner development.

Christy Hurley has lived in Summers Corner since 2022. She says she understands a few weeks of understaffing and a misplaced item occasionally, but her service has been inconsistent for a year.

“We started noticing certain things missing such as debit cards, credit cards, we would have to call those companies and say can you just send a new one? That’s when I started to get nervous because that’s personal information,” Hurley says.

Talking with neighbors, a few people thought it seemed like a community-wide issue. Damone Walsh is one of the residents who helped create a tracking system to get a sense of what is going on.

Over a 90-day period, people living in Summers Corner contributed to a neighborhood-wide spreadsheet tracking mail mishaps. They range from missing tax documents and cards with money, to empty packages left in mailboxes. Their recordings found about 100 issues.

“Frankly, we were surprised. I mean over just during that 90 days, 78 days of actual mail service, at least one to two people were having mail problems every day, every single day and just in our community,” Walsh says.

The spreadsheet creators believe their numbers may be underreported as well. The neighbors sent letters to South Carolina representatives Graham, Scott, Mace and Clyburn, as well as the U.S. Postal Inspection Service and Inspector General.

“It just makes us think that there’s something systemic as opposed to individual problems. I mean, it may be both, but ultimately, I mean, let’s, let’s get it fixed,” Walsh says.

Walsh and Hurley say the postal service will often respond to an individual complaint, citing they are understaffed, or contractors are doing the deliveries.

“Everybody expected and was willing to accept if it’s a couple days off, well, that just makes sense. There’s a lag between whenever they scan it and whenever they deliver it, but then it went on for days, weeks and then just never just never delivered,” Walsh says.

Hurley says she’s gotten to the point that she doesn’t trust the service when it comes to important deliveries.

“We just sent out notices for my college daughter’s graduation and I had to inform all of our family. I said, Look, we’re having so many issues, I would prefer you not send money, gift cards, anything like that in the mail,” she says. “We got a graduation announcement for my sister and the back was torn open. And I said this is getting a little crazy.”

Walsh says the group decided to reach out to their representatives because USPS is a federal service, they need help getting answers from.

“We have a right to expect mail service. It’s embodied in our in our laws. And several people have reached out to the Postal Inspector and the postmaster and complained repeatedly and got nothing, just no result,” Walsh says.

Representative Nancy Mace’s office provided the following response to the community letter:

We’ve gotten a few inquires about this post office and have talked with our postal contact in Columbia. Their response has been that a lot of post offices, including this one, are experiencing staffing shortages and significant slowdowns. They are looking into it though so I’ll add in your inquiry to the others we’ve sent – will help us build the investigative case against them so the PS will have evidence to help find solutions to the issues.

Senator Lindsay Graham’s office also responded asking for more information from Walsh, who submitted the letter.

“We all recognize and believe that most of the Postal Service employees, they just want to do a good job, but it just makes us think that there’s something systemic as opposed to individual problems. I mean, it may be both, but ultimately, let’s get it fixed,” Walsh says. “I think consistent delivery, and I think a component would also be responsiveness from the leadership from within the Postal Service is what we’re looking for.”

The United States Postal Service provided the following statement:

The Postal Service strives is working hard to provide the best possible service to our valued customers. We apologize for any mail services issues that may have been experienced by customers living in the Summer’s Corner community. Some of the proactive steps we’ve taken in Summerville, SC include hiring additional personnel, as well as making staffing adjustments. Local management at the Oakbrook Post Office will continue to work with customers in Summer’s Corner to ensure every effort is being made to meet or exceed their expectations. We urge any customers with concerns or questions about their mail delivery service to contact the Postal Service immediately so that we can look into and resolve those concerns promptly. Customers have a variety of options for contacting the Postal Service, including contacting their local Post Office, calling 1-800-ASK-USPS (1-800-275-8777), or visiting our website.

Copyright 2023 WCSC. All rights reserved.

SUMMERVILLE — Some of the youngest birders here have joined forces to monitor and populate bluebirds, a species that faced concerns of extinction nearly five decades ago.

They all live in the Summers Corner neighborhood off S.C. Highway 61, a fairly new community where bluebirds were the first inhabitants.

Nine years ago, when the community was under construction, a bluebird box was installed on the front street. The wooden boxes function much like the cavities the species creates in dead trees. Entrance holes allow them to move inside for shelter and nesting.

When the first box was put up in Summers Corner, only a building and four home structures were on the property. Three days after the box was installed, the birds moved in, said Tracy Erwin, the community’s marketing specialist.

More than 41 neighborhood children who make up the Bluebird Brigade will monitor that box and more than 20 others starting next week.

They’ll venture out into the area to take inventory of the species and clean out the wooden boxes the bluebirds call home.

Rhonda Plummer leads the Bluebird Brigade, which was started by the Summers Corner Garden Club in March 2021. The group started with 15 children and nearly tripled in three years. Birders range from 3 to 13 years old.

Plummer said the group was started to help populate the birds and provide an opportunity for children to experience the hands-on process.

The children convened at the front of the neighborhood on Feb. 25 to learn basic facts about bluebirds, how to clean and prepare the boxes and make feeders for the birds using coffee filters and cereal.

Jim Sproull, a board member for the S.C. Bluebird Society, spoke to the birders about the importance of recording data about the species and answered a multitude of questions, including those about egg colors, how to get the birds to leave the boxes and what to do when the eggs don’t hatch.

This task will be a new one for several members of the 2023 Bluebird Brigade cohort. Six-year-old Greyson Rose-Meadows is one of the newbies.

He said he has bluebirds already in his yard. But his favorite species is the blue heron.

“I love all animals except for the guys in the midnight zone,” Rose-Meadows said, alluding to vampire squid, tripod fish, anglerfish and other species found in a part of the ocean that receives no sunlight. “They’re terrifying.”

But he is excited to track bluebirds this spring.

Bluebird Brigade members will split up into groups to take weekly inventory and monitor the boxes from March to July. All data will be reported to the S.C. Bluebird Society and then to Cornell University.

Data on the species is important because it can help scientists understand its status.

Sproull of the Bluebird Society said he is unsure just how many bluebirds there are in the state, but there is a good population. Three species are found in North America. The Eastern bluebird lives here and in other states East of the Mississippi River.

“We are making progress,” Sproull said. “There are good people like this group that want to do something (about the species).”

He said the Bluebird Brigade is a good example of positive steps to help the birds.

About 10 percent of North America’s population was lost last year due to extreme cold and heat-related weather events.

But even with such a large loss, the species is more stable now than it was between 1920 and 1970, when Sproull said the North American population declined by 90 percent.

SUMMERVILLE — Some Dorchester County residents spent the first two weeks of September without receiving any mail, and they’re still uncertain if the problem has been resolved.

On the outskirts of Summerville, homeowners in the new Azalea Ridge portion of the Summers Corner neighborhood have been experiencing ongoing issues with mail delivery, emergency assistance and school registration.

Residents were told the problem comes from a mistake made when the ZIP codes were being realigned. The mistake has resulted in mail delays and packages being sent to wrong addresses across town.

One of those residents, Livia Perez, said her family recently had issues with registering their kids for school and getting help from the Dorchester County Fire Rescue after their carbon monoxide detector went off.

“It took 25 minutes for the fire department to get to our house,” she said.

The Perez family had to contact the department to let them know about the Ridgeville and Summerville address mix-up.

They bought the home with the original understanding that it would have a Summerville address. When they went to close on the home the day after Memorial Day, that’s when they were informed the ZIP code was now a Ridgeville one.

The deed to their home lists the address as Ridgeville. The change also led to a $500 annual increase in their home insurance costs.

Jason Byham, the local division president for Lennar, the developers over Summers Corner, said in 2015 the U.S. Postal Service approved all of the development to be in the 29485 Summerville ZIP code.

The Ridgeville ZIP code change was done without Lennar being notified in advance. Lennar changed the deeds to Ridgeville to allow residents to close on their homes and move in.

Byham said they were informed that the change was a mistake around USPS overlooking the 2015 agreement.

“It unfortunately caused major disruption in homeowners’ lives,” he said.

Lennar was able to reaffirm with USPS the Summerville address. Lennar is also taking on the costs of changing residents’ deeds back to Summerville.

Rick Badie, a USPS spokesman in South Carolina, said some of the address data provided to USPS representatives was incorrect and that’s what ultimately led to the mishap.

Badie didn’t confirm who sent the incorrect data.

“The issue is being resolved and we regret any inconvenience to our customers,” he said.

Some residents are still apprehensive as to whether the situation has been handled. Perez said it’s because they’ve been hearing that since May.

Their biggest concern is with the election coming up.

Some of the postal workers are aware of the situation so they have been able to successfully complete some deliveries.

Other times, some of the mail is sent to the Oakbrook Post Office and some is sent to the Ridgeville one. Residents have also received delivery notifications from Amazon with photos of packages delivered across town.

“We’re definitely not getting all of our mail,” Perez said.

They might not have the bright lights of the big city, the hustle and bustle of crowds on Fifth Avenue or the Miracle Mile, but South Carolina’s metropolitan areas have an appeal all their own.

Not surprisingly, people from large cities across the country have been discovering the benefits of the Palmetto State’s smaller metro areas and have been moving in droves since the pandemic to improve their work-life balance.

As of July 2021, the U.S. Census Bureau reported South Carolina’s population of 5.19 million was 1.4 percent higher than the previous year, and the metropolitan centers accounted for much of the growth.

“These areas have a lot of the same amenities as the bigger cities, like New York and Chicago, good retail, entertainment; they still have that city vibe, that’s what makes them so attractive,” said Laura Ullrich, an economist at the Charlotte branch of the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond.

As the population grows in Charleston, Greenville and Charlotte-Gastonia at the North and South Carolina border, like the Pied Piper, companies are following the crowd of young workers and taking advantage of other amenities the state has to offer.

“Companies want a place where younger people are moving,” said Ullrich.

Add the state’s location on the East Coast, Charleston’s port and tax incentives related to driving additional population growth, and it’s an ideal enticement for businesses to invest in the state, said Ullrich.

Walmart Inc., encouraged by Charleston’s vibrancy, growing population, the state’s pro-business environment and its proximity to the deep-water Port of Charleston, opened a 3 million-square-foot import distribution

“One of the advantages of being a member of this vibrant community is the region’s existing infrastructure, including the Port of Charleston and Interstates 26 and 95,” said Charles Crowson, director of corporate communications.

Other large corporations and smaller businesses are, like Walmart, establishing themselves or expanding in and around the state’s bigger metropolitan areas.

It’s showing up in employment numbers. Statewide, seasonally adjusted figures from the S.C. Department of Employment and Workforce shows 79,900 new jobs were created since July 2021. Charleston drove 23 percent of the growth, with 18,400 jobs added. Greenville was second with 12,300 new positions, or 15 percent of the total.

Over the last 12 months, $3.8 billion in new investments have been made through 115 projects developed across the state, said Kelly Coakley, director of marketing and communications at the S.C. Department of Commerce.

“We’ve tracked about a billion dollars’ worth of capital infusion announced in the Charleston region over the past year,” said Megan Fink, director of marketing and communications at the Charleston Regional Development Alliance. “That includes capital raises by local firms as well as capital investments by local firms.”

In the 10-county Upstate region that includes Greenville, “We have been remarkably successful coming out of and during COVID,” said John Lummus, president and CEO of the Upstate SC Alliance.

He attributed much of the state’s good economic fortune to the statewide policy that allowed manufacturers to be considered a necessary business and stay open during the pandemic.

From 2020 to last month, 22 new projects brought a total investment of about $495 million to Greenville, according to the alliance.

At its new Dorchester County distribution center, Walmart employs more than 1,300 workers. It anticipates hiring and investing in the training and development of more than 200 more local full-timers.

And for manufacturers — one of the leading job growth sectors in the state — South Carolina has a “real advantage over competitor regions,” said Lummus.

“The state has an incredible manufacturing economy and high-tech companies in the manufacturing sphere,” he said. “In the Upstate, we have 110,000 people working in manufacturing and 2,100 manufacturers.”

Looking at the unemployment rate — 3.2 percent in July — one might think that the industry is having trouble going to find the workforce they need, Lummus said.

“But they are finding workers from employed and underemployed people who can make more by moving up into higher tech jobs,” he said.

Combine that with ReadySC — a workforce training program that is part of the state’s technical college system — and manufacturers have a healthy pool of workers to draw from.

The same holds in Charleston and its suburbs, where Volvo Car USA announced it would build its first US plant in 2015 to manufacture its S60 mid-size sedan and XC90 sport utility vehicle.

“The Lowcountry offers easy access to international ports and infrastructure, a well-trained labor force, an attractive investment environment and experience in the high-tech manufacturing sector,” said Katherine Bergmann, head of communications and community relations. “All of that, combined with the quality of life, makes Charleston a great place to live and build a career.”

Volvo expects to grow its workforce over the next year and is looking for talent from all areas and demographics. As it competes for workers, recruitment challenges exist, Bergmann said.

But workforce challenges are particularly prevalent for smaller businesses in growth sectors, including leisure and hospitality, where 6,000 jobs have been added in the Charleston region over the last 12 months as the industry continued to recover from the pandemic.

One of the Charleston area’s longtime restaurant chains knows the labor challenges all too well. The Kickin’ Chicken is now closed on Tuesdays at all five locations throughout the Lowcountry because it can’t get enough help.

“It’s a struggle at all locations,” said Chip Roberts, president and co-founder of the 25-year-old dining chain. “The problem is from top to bottom, from management all the way down. It’s thin all over.”

The restaurant group should have about 250 employees, but Roberts said it’s operating on about 150.

The Kickin’ Chicken has done better during the summer on hourly staff, but Roberts said, “If they don’t feel like coming to work, they don’t. You are already thin, so what are you going to do, fire them?”

Roberts said the chain considered closing part of the dining rooms to limit demands on the waitstaff, but he noted the restaurants still need someone with management skills to open and close.

“It’s hard to find some skilled labor and cooks,” he said.

Roberts pointed out it’s easier to find help in the Charleston area’s suburbs of Ladson, Goose Creek and Summerville.

Marilyn Knox with Culver’s restaurant experienced that firsthand.

When the franchisee opened her second Charleston-area Culver’s frozen custard and ButterBurger restaurant on Ladson Road on Aug. 29, she already had all 60 new employees lined up.

Knox said it took about a month to hire all the workers she needed at the new restaurant site.

She believes the secret is the way the company takes care of its employees through incentives, bonuses and holiday parties.

“People want to feel like they are part of a team,” she said.

At the newly opened Pasture & Grain restaurant in Mount Pleasant, owner Ira Hill remembered being fully staffed almost immediately after announcing the new eatery planned to open in a former pizza restaurant in June.

“As time went on, we lost 40 percent of those we hired,” he said in mid-August.

“It’s been a labor of love for interviews,” Hill said. “We are short-staffed, but we’re not poorly staffed. It’s universally challenging. You want quality workers as well.”

He also is well aware of the challenges throughout the food-service industry in hiring and retaining workers.

“We are entering the business at one of the worst times in the industry, so we have to get it right and provide quality.”

Construction is another sector grappling since COVID-19 with a nationwide labor shortage driven by a lack of qualified help, and that could impede progress in areas that need improvement to ensure the continued growth of South Carolina’s metropolitan centers.

In South Carolina, more than 90 percent of companies responding to an Associated General Contractors of America survey said they have positions open. Nearly 80 percent are having difficulty finding workers to fill them. Employers that belong to the trade group attribute the crunch to a lack of candidates with the specific jobsite skills they need.

“There is plenty of work to perform and not enough people to do the projects,” said Ken Simonson, AGC’s chief economist