Mattress storein Moncks Corner, SC

MONCKS CORNER, S.C. – (Friday, January 27, 2023) – There will be a community-wide job fair happening Wednesday, February 1 in the Assembly Room of the Berkeley County Administration Building, located at 1003 N. Highway 52 in Moncks Corner.

The event will be open to Berkeley County high school students from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. and the general public from 12 p.m. to 2 p.m.

The event will provide opportunities for Berkeley County industries that are hiring to connect with job-seeking residents and high school seniors. Employment opportunities in healthcare, manufacturing, law enforcement, hospitality, construction, information technology and other career fields will be represented. Berkeley County Government will also be on-hand to discuss its open positions.

Attendees are urged to bring an updated resume and come prepared to interview on the spot, if necessary.

For questions, please contact Berkeley County Human Resources at 843-719-4163.

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-Prepared by the Berkeley County Public Information Office-

MONCKS CORNER, S.C. – (Friday, February 3, 2023) – Berkeley County received a ‘Clean Report’ or ‘Unmodified Opinion’ following a 2022 independent audit. The audit was presented to County Council on Monday, January 23, 2023 from the County’s outside auditors, Mauldin & Jenkins. Watch the full County Council meeting HERE.

“I’m pleased to say we do not have any audit findings to report to you on this year, meaning we noted no material weaknesses or sufficient deficiencies in the County’s internal controls in our audit. …Being one of the largest counties in South Carolina, you obviously have a significant amount of financial activity for which you have to account for. In addition, with all the new County standards and changes that are being implemented each year—and really just the complexity of all involved in the financial reporting process—it makes it all that more impressive to be able to present you all an audit with a clean opinion and no audit findings.” – David Irwin, CPA Partner, Mauldin & Jenkins

The report represents the best possible opinion the County can receive. The County has received this opinion several years in a row.

“Government has a fundamental responsibility to be effective stewards of the taxpayer’s money and this audit result reflects just that. A special thanks to my colleagues on County Council for their work throughout the budget process and most importantly to each and every Berkeley County employee for your daily efforts throughout the year. This TEAM effort allows us to continue to offer high level services while keeping our county government taxes the lowest in South Carolina.” -Berkeley County Supervisor Johnny Cribb

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-Prepared by the Berkeley County Public Information Office-

It’s been reported that the Moncks Corner branch of the YMCA has a questionable future in the town. It has been rumored the site is being sold or closing.

The Berkeley Independent reached out to one official, Sedric Webber, the Vice President of Youth Development who could not comment on the matter. He said that any comment or statement to the media would be released by Paul Stoney, the President and Executive Officer of the local YMCA and he was out of town at the time.

As far as the site being up for sale. Through a search, the plot at 210 Rembert C. Dennis Blvd. has so far, not been listed on any real estate sites.

The branch’s website states, the Berkeley County Family YMCA opened in 1994 and since then, it has strived to provide low cost programs for families. The Berkeley County YMCA serves over 3,000 members and program participants in Berkeley County.

The facility provides a variety of Health and Wellness services for infants to senior citizens. With the indoor swimming pool in Berkeley County, this YMCA provides educational lifeguard courses and training, senior citizens water aerobics, swim programs for local elementary schools and a variety of other services which promote the health and wellness of the entire community.

Kids from various schools from the Berkeley County School District were honored at the Berkeley County Courthouse in Moncks Corner on March 30.

Youngsters from first grade through high school offered 49 pieces of art for the competition that displays their work on the walls throughout the entire courthouse.

“We have some talented children, very talented,” said Leah Guerry-Dupree, Berkeley County Clerk of Court. “We have big empty walls and I just decided I wanted to display some children’s artwork.”

Not only that it gives kids a chance to win a scholarship.

Close to 200 people were invited to the ceremony to award the winners. Following the presentation, those in attendance toured the halls of the courthouse to see all of the art work that was entered.

There were 11 entries from the high schools, 12 from middle schools and 26 from elementary students. Guerry-Dupree said when the schools were contacted about the effort there was a lot of excitement.

The art stays on the walls at the courthouse until new participants take part in the event next year.

First place winners are: Shiloh Ries from Cane Elementary, Emily Hodgen from Phillip Simmons Middle School and Rebecca Gehringer from Phillip Simmons High School, who also received a $500 scholarship from the Clerk of Courts Office.

MONCKS CORNER, S.C. (WCSC) - A metal processing company is planning to relocate from Kentucky to a facility in Moncks Corner, the South Carolina governor’s office says.

ZEB Metals, a newly-established joint venture with Glencore, announced plans to establish its first South Carolina operations.

“ZEB Metals is very excited about relocating our company to the Lowcountry and cannot wait to be a part of the community, company President and CEO Cole Lanham said. “South Carolina brings a unique opportunity in the recycling space with local businesses and government support. We’d like to thank everyone at Berkeley County for all their help in making this project come to life.”

The company plans to add 28 new jobs in Berkeley County. ZEB Metals’ new facility, near Highway 52 in Moncks Corner, will process dross and other types of secondary aluminum scrap that would otherwise be destined for a landfill. This is the first secondary re-melt facility of its kind in the Southeast region of the United States.

“This announcement is further proof that South Carolina has the necessary tools to support recycling companies across the state,” South Carolina Secretary of Commerce Harry Lightsey said. “We welcome ZEB Metals and look forward to seeing how their investment in Berkeley County will create opportunities for South Carolinians.”

Founded in 2021, ZEB Metals is a buyer and trader of non-ferrous scrap, as well as a recycler of metals other than iron and steel. The company processes metals through shredding, melting, screening and sorting materials while providing full-service metal recycling including industrial clean-up and off-site demolition.

Glencore, a Swiss-based commodities trader and one of the world’s largest diversified natural resource companies, will partner with ZEB Metals to expand its current aluminum portfolio. The joint venture will allow for the development of a new line of recycled products to support the companies’ regional customer base.

Operations are expected to be online by late 2023. Individuals interested in joining the ZEB Metals team should visit the company’s contact page.

The Coordinating Council for Economic Development awarded a $75,000 Set-Aside grant to Berkeley County to assist with site preparation and building construction.

Copyright 2023 WCSC. All rights reserved.

A chemical firm is shutting down a Moncks Corner plant that makes the raw material for products like water bottles and packaging, leaving 125 workers without a job.

DAK Americas LLC — a subsidiary of Monterrey, Mexico-based Alpek — will permanently close its plant along the Cooper River that producsd PET resin, a type of polyester that’s derived from petroleum.

Layoffs will begin on April 28 and will conclude by the end of the year when the plant shuts down, according to a statement from Ricky Lane, the Charlotte company’s director of public affairs, trade relations and corporate communications.

DAK Americas said it will be moving production from Bushy Park to another unidentified site. The Berkeley County plant, which was built in the early 1970s, had the capacity to make 170,000 pounds of the resin annually.

“This difficult decision was necessitated as we optimize our assets to remain competitive in the challenging global polyester markets,” Lane said in a letter to the S.C. Department of Employment and Workforce.

That letter stated that DAK Americas “will formally and permanently close production operations on March 1, 2023.”

Lane, in an email to The Post and Courier, said March 1 represents the beginning of the plant’s shutdown and that the process will take at least 60 days to complete.

“It may be helpful to understand that these production operations are not like a light switch and cannot just be turned on and off,” Lane said. “These are highly technical polymer processes that must be stopped in a very systematic manner that takes many days/weeks to accomplish. Only after the 60-day period and once the shutdown process is complete for employees in their area of work will the written notice of individual layoff dates be given.”

The company said the shutdown will save it about $20 million a year.

Parent company Alpek said in a written statement that it is “constantly exploring ways to create value through optimization of its installed capacity and strengthening its cost competitiveness.”

The company said it plans to grow “through more efficient utilization of its assets.”

The closure notice was filed with state officials a day before Jorge Young Cerecedo took over as CEO of Alpek. Cerecedo, who has been with the company for 32 years, also will remain president of Alpek’s polyester division, which accounts for two-thirds of the parent company’s revenues.

Alpek acquired the Moncks Corner plant in a 2001 deal with DuPont, which was exiting the polyester market. Alpek created its DAK Americas subsidiary to operate the South Carolina site and other factories.

The planned plant closure comes less than two years after DAK Americas cut 200 full-time jobs and 40 contract workers at the Cooper River site as it wound down its polyester staple fibers business. The company blamed the decision on a flood of cheap imports.

Alpek, which is publicly traded on the Mexican Stock Exchange, reported revenues of $10.6 billion in 2022 — an 37 percent increase from the previous year — and net income of $789 million. It has more than 7,000 employees at 35 plants in nine countries.

Note: This story was updated March 6 with additional comment from the company.

A fully leased shopping center in a small but fast-growing Lowcountry town has been sold just weeks after it made its debut.

An affiliate of Stockbridge Capital Group recently bought the Publix-anchored Moncks Corner Marketplace for $29.15 million, according to Berkeley County land records.

The deal worked out to about $400 a square foot.

The seller was Branch Properties, which began developing the 9-acre retail site along U.S. Highway 52 at Cypress Gardens Road in mid-2021. The Atlanta-based real estate investment firm is still handling the marketing and leasing of the property.

David Nix, managing director for acquisitions at Stockbridge, said Moncks Corner is “one of the fastest-growing submarkets” in the Charleston region. Several thousand homes are planned for areas in and around the county seat in developments such as Foxbank Plantation.

“Given its optimal location within a short distance to many of Charleston’s job centers and several surrounding master-planned residential communities, the area poses strong demographics,” Nix said.

He also described the fully occupied Moncks Corner Marketplace and other strategically located grocery store centers as “further proof of the demand for this type of e-commerce-resistant retail.”

The 72,300-square-foot property opened in September. About six months earlier, Stockbridge announced a deal to buy a dozen Southeast retail centers from Branch Properties that include Publix and rival supermarket chain Harris Teeter as their primary traffic draws.

The San Francisco-based private equity firm has been investing in commercial real estate in the Charleston area since at least 2013, when it paid $24.6 million for the Whole Foods-anchored Patriots Plaza in Mount Pleasant. The deal was one of the region’s first big retail acquisitions in the aftermath of the so-called Great Recession.

In 2018, Stockbridge added an industrial property to its portfolio when it bought the nearly 351,000-square-foot North Pointe Business Campus on North Rhett Avenue for $30.5 million.

The following year, the firm acquired the historic S.H. Kress & Co. on King Street, in the heart of the downtown Charleston shopping district. Stockbridge paid $19.5 million for the roughly 91-year-old mixed-use art-deco structure that includes “fast fashion” clothing retailer H&M and a law firm as its main tenants.

Nix said the Charleston region “continues to be an attractive market for Stockbridge,” citing the area’s population growth, expanding port and other favorable real estate investment attributes.

MOUNT PLEASANT — A 20-year-old home overlooking Charleston Harbor at the mouth of Shem Creek has set a new residential sales record for South Carolina’s fourth-largest municipality.

The 7,015-square-foot, Southern-style mansion at 100 Haddrell St. in Mount Pleasant was sold April 17 for $14.95 million, far above the previous record of $8.65 million set two years ago for another home in the town’s pricey Old Village area.

The new owner is 100 Beach LLC, according to Charleston County land records.

The sale appeared to be an all-cash deal, as no mortgage has been recorded with the Register of Deeds. It was an off-market transaction, meaning the home wasn’t publicly marketed or listed.

The 1.32-acre property last changed hands in 2010, when the previous owners bought the five-bedroom, 5½-bathroom house for $7.5 million, setting a new record residential sale price at the time for Mount Pleasant.

Built in 2003, the waterfront house includes a dock, elevator, three-car garage and a saltwater pool.

Nancy Hoy with Carolina One Real Estate represented the sellers. Alex Brener, who was with William Means Real Estate at the time of the sale but has since joined Carolina One, represented the buyer.

The transaction suggests that the upper stratosphere of the residential market is largely unaffected by rising interest rates and other economic challenges.

Last month, a few blocks southeast of Shem Creek, a home at 205 Ferry St, was sold for $8.4 million.

Last week, in downtown Charleston, a pre-Revolutionary War-era house at 13-15 Meeting St. changed hands for $12.6 million.

On Sullivan’s Island, three homes have fetched prices ranging from nearly $8 million to more than $10 million this year.

“As Charleston continues to grow and gets more and more exposure, we are definitely attracting more serious high-dollar buyers to our community,” said Michael Scarafile, president of Carolina One, the largest-volume residential real estate agency in the Lowcountry.

The uptick in interest by deep-pocketed buyers for luxury housing started with COVID-19 as people began to work remotely and sought a better quality of life, Scarafile said.

“That hasn’t stopped,” he added.

Lyles Geer, president of William Means Real Estate, said the recent flurry of big-ticket purchases is being driven in part by low inventory levels for top-tier homes.

“There is a lack of supply in the ultra-luxury market,” Geer said. “When those homes do become available, they fetch a much higher price.”