To illustrate his point, Parish cites the latest Center statistics for the Charleston area s economic performance. Conservative population projections by Clemson University s Strom Thurmond Institute of Government and Public Affairs forecast a Charleston metro population exceeding 800,000 people by 2030. Increasingly, commercial real estate investors are heeding these trends, driving a construction boon for the market-driven national retail industry in the Lowcountry. In January, Minneapolis-based Target Stores announced it would build an upscale superstore in the former JC Penney space at Citadel Mall. The recent Lowcountry trend towards larger retail stores has even created controversy in West Ashley as citizen groups fought the construction of a Wal-Mart Super Center on the corner of Bees Ferry Road and the Glenn McConnell Parkway.
Environmental concerns play a role in opposition to further expansion of retail chains.
Although the recent Department of Health and Environmental Control mandate designed to curb wastewater emissions in the Cooper River is targeted to industrial polluters, the South Carolina Coastal Conservation League points to potential culprits like strip mall parking lots as an equally dangerous source of contaminated storm water runoff into local rivers. Ballot box initiatives to encourage voluntary public efforts to curb sprawl like the election year 2000 half-cent tax proposal for purchasing rural land for green space have been narrowly defeated at the polls. As a result, free market pressures are driving the trend towards larger retail shopping centers throughout the Lowcountry. Over the next five years, the Charleston region will see a continued growth in the so called Big Box retailers, like the Wal-Mart Super Center and Costco, which cater to discount, volume shopping markets, adds Parish. The recent downturn in the economy is the product of higher energy prices and uncertainty over the election of President George W. Bush, he says.