|Updated: Feb. 11, 2025 at 7:47 PM EST

GOOSE CREEK, S.C. (WCSC) - The City of Goose Creek is talking about building a new multi-purpose facility, not only for city council meetings but also for residents and businesses to rent for events.

At a city council meeting Tuesday night, council members unanimously approved the multi-million-dollar project that will now serve as an event center and as the council’s new chambers.

Mayor Greg Habib said Goose Creek has had significant population growth over the past two decades and with no signs of slowing down.

“We built this in 1999, and it’s served us very well for 25 years, and still serves us well today. But in 1999, the city of Goose Creek was 29,000 people. Today, it’s 50,000. So, we’ve grown, obviously significantly. To serve that number of people, we need more staff. We have adjusted this building just about as much as we can to fit as many people in it as we can,” he said.

Habib said they’ve run out of office space in the current town hall building they work out of, and they desperately need a new one in order to meet the demands of an expanding staff and growing population.

“It’s a really important investment. When you have more code enforcement officers and more building inspectors and more folks trying to serve the people who live in the City of Goose Creek, and the businesses doing business in the City of Goose Creek, you have to have somewhere to put them and this will be their nice new office here,” he said.

In response to office overcrowding, city leaders plan to build a brand-new, $13-million, 13,500 square-foot-multi-use facility, The Assembly.

“So, the new facility will be multi-purpose. It will be a place where we can hold our council meetings. But more than that, it’s a place where folks can hold events and the city can have events. We see people renting it out for family reunions, for weddings, for banquets, for all of those things in the years to come,” Habib said.

Habib said The Assembly will fill gaps the rapid population boom has created.

He noted that the council’s current chambers inside city hall will be converted into additional office space for their growing staff.

Construction for The Assembly is expected to begin later this spring.

The incoming addition will be built right next to the town’s existing city hall.

The building is set to be finished by the end of 2026.

Copyright 2025 WCSC. All rights reserved.

GOOSE CREEK, S.C. (WCIV) — A global defense provider and naval manufacturing is preparing to establish an operation in Berkeley County, with company officials estimating a creation of over 250 new jobs.

HII, headquartered in Virginia, said they will achieve this through the acquisition of substantially all assets of W International SC, LLC and Vivid Empire SC, LLC, collectively known as W International, a South Carolina-based complex metal fabricator.

HII specializes in manufacturing naval ships and defense technology solutions for clients including the U.S. Navy. The company said they have over 135 years of experience and 44,000 employees nationwide.

Governor Henry McMaster stated, "HII establishing operations in Berkeley County further solidifies South Carolina’s reputation as the ideal location for advanced manufacturing. The more than 250 anticipated new jobs this investment will bring is proof that manufacturing companies of all types recognize the benefits of doing business in our state."

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The transaction, completed on Jan. 22, 2025, involves HII investing in new equipment and retrofitting the acquired facility at 2040 Bushy Park Rd. in Goose Creek to meet its manufacturing requirements. The renovated facility will operate within HII’s Newport News Shipbuilding division, supporting Virginia-class, Columbia-class, and aircraft carrier programs, according to the SC Department of Commerce.

HII President and CEO Chris Kastner stated, "HII is committed to going where the labor is to increase capacity and increase throughput for our national security customers. This transaction is a win-win with our new partners in South Carolina – we’re excited to bring work and grow jobs. This lets us efficiently add trained talent and state-of-the-art manufacturing capabilities to the urgent job of building ships, making it a unique opportunity to immediately accelerate throughput at Newport News Shipbuilding in support of the Navy and AUKUS."

The Coordinating Council for Economic Development has approved job development credits related to the project and awarded a $750,000 Set-Aside grant to Berkeley County to assist with building improvements, according to a release. Operations will remain ongoing, and individuals interested in joining the HII team are encouraged to visit the company’s careers page.

Published: Feb. 21, 2025 at 1:55 AM PST|

GOOSE CREEK, S.C. (WCSC) - Local artists in Goose Creek will soon have a home base as city leaders continue work on a new community art gallery.

Plans for the gallery, called the “Creek Collective,” started back in 2020. The idea came after the city council and the cultural arts commission pushed for efforts to beautify the city.

The gallery takes the place of a decades-old wedding and prayer chapel built in the 80s. City leaders purchased the property two years ago.

Special Projects Manager Alexis Kiser says original plans to preserve the chapel were not possible because of structural issues, including some caused by termite damage. The project aims to preserve the lot as a community space while keeping a similar building style to the old chapel.

A total of $865,000 in city hospitality funds from the area’s 1% food and beverage taxes are financing the creation of this space. Plans include a public viewing gallery as well as artistic hands-on community events such as “take and create” art programs and wheatgrass basket weaving.

Crews are in the final stages of construction for the public viewing gallery. Kiser says the community and local artists have been involved by leaving their mark in the constructed walls.

“We had those artists come out along with our cultural arts commission and members from our city council to literally leave their mark on the studs of this building,” Kiser says. “So even when everything is closed up with drywall and we’re hanging art on the outside of it, the studs will be beautiful too.”

Kiser says the city makes intentional plans for projects like the gallery. Comments from community residents to the cultural arts commission noted a need for artistic pursuits in the area.

“We hear the positive things that are coming from our murals from our geese statues so the fact that we’re going to have a space where people can come create themselves, you know, from our different programming opportunities... we’ll have something we know is needed.”

The gallery is expected to open in May and become a rentable space in 2026.

Copyright 2025 WCSC. All rights reserved.

GOOSE CREEK, S.C. (WCSC) - A project in Goose Creek that has been in the works for almost three years is now finally nearing completion.

Berkeley County’s Red Bank Road Gravity Sewer Project was started in the spring of 2022 in an effort to increase sewer capacity and prevent the sewer overflows the area was experiencing.

The plan to install a large gravity sewer main along Red Bank Road between Sunrise Boulevard and Henry E. Brown Jr. Boulevard should have been completed some time ago, but contractor issues caused a major delay.

Because of the complications within the region, including the different homes and businesses, they had to use a “pipe-bursting” method to fix the pipes and there were only a few companies across the state that would do this work. When the original contractors were not making any progress, project leaders had a very difficult time finding new contractors to do this work.

The county was finally able to hire Palmetto Site Works and Sanders Brothers Construction to complete the project. Now, the pipe bursting work is finally complete, so they are working on repairing the sidewalk and curbing which they anticipate will be completed by the end of February.

Berkeley County leaders believe this project will greatly benefit community members in the area once it is completed. Berkeley County Supervisor Johnny Cribb said he believes the completion of this project will have a big impact.

“We have folks that have been dealing with this frustration of how long the project takes for a while. The good news is, when the project’s over, that the back flow risk that you worry about maybe coming into your house or your business or inadequate sewer capacity if you come along the Red Bank Corridor in that region and you want to put in a new business, something that improves the area, the capacity will be there without the risk,” Cribb said.

This project is funded by the Berkeley County Water and Sewer impact fee program.

The cost originally started at $8.5 million but after conflicts and changes, the project now sits at about $13 million. This project is one of many improvements coming to the area.

“For that region, I know Goose Creek’s done some annexation along Red Bank Road. The county’s building a brand-new magistrate court, a brand-new sheriff substation and a brand-new EMS station. So, there’s a lot of improvements [happening] on Red Bank Road,” Cribb said. “We feel like when this project is done, not only will the sewer be short up, the sidewalk and road conditions will be much better than they’ve been in many, many years, and hopefully, the progress we’ve made on Red Bank Road will continue.”

Once project leaders finish the work on the curbs and sidewalk, the next step for the project is to resurface the road. Cribb anticipates they should be substantially completed with this project in April.

More project updates can be found through this link here.

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GOOSE CREEK, S.C. (WCSC) - At a City Council Planning Commission workshop, Goose Creek leaders will review a proposal to annex about 14 acres to build a 142-townhome neighborhood off of Nello Drive.

Nestled behind existing homes along Nello Drive are about 14 undeveloped acres that one company wants to turn into a neighborhood. The applicant is RCC Properties LLC, proposing that Goose Creek annex the land and assign it a flexible building zone.

The proposal for the Nello Drive Townhome development would have the builder construct 142 townhomes on streets with 5-foot-wide paved sidewalks. The proposed property would have eight-foot-wide trails connecting to amenities including a dog park and outdoor fitness equipment.

In terms of stormwater, the plan right now calls for at least two retention ponds, that will have fountains and serve as a visual amenity.

Taisha Pete lives in the Nello Farms neighborhood off of Nello Drive. She says growth has its perks, but she has concerns about the logistics of keeping up next door to her.

“My concern is that the roads are not being built to accommodate the influx of people and new homes. The schools aren’t getting any bigger, they are overcrowded, I’m sure. The bus lines – kids are sometimes standing on the school bus because there aren’t enough seats. And this is going years back, because my daughter is older now, and they used to stand on that line and I didn’t like that, it’s not good,” Pete says.

Pete’s philosophy is the city needs to take care of what they have before approving too much more development, even as more neighbors can be good for business.

“I feel like growth is good, people moving into the area is good, it helps with the economy but the town the city needs to accommodate everyone moving in with the roads and the schools,” Pete says.

The Nello Drive proposal will go before Goose Creek City Council’s planning commission workshop on Tuesday at 5:30 p.m. during a meeting at Fire Station One.

Details of the meeting agenda can be found here.

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