If you live inside Seaside Farms, you already know the walk to the Shoppes feels different this July. The back half of the plaza is quieter. The parking lot near Riviera Drive tilts toward Target instead of the old Harris Teeter doors. Construction fencing is up around the anchor space where you used to buy rotisserie chicken.
This is not decline. It is the middle of the biggest tenant swap the center has seen since Piggly Wiggly Carolina built the flagship supermarket in 1996. Here is what actually changed, where your neighbors are actually shopping, and what is about to open behind that glass.
The two closures that reshaped the back of the plaza
Two anchors at the rear of The Shoppes at Seaside Farms went dark within months of each other. Harris Teeter closed its 45,660 square foot store on May 28, 2025, ending a twelve year run in the space. Yamato Japanese Steakhouse and Sushi Bar, the second largest tenant in the rear portion of the center, shut down earlier in the same year.
The Yamato parcel sits on 2.4 acres near Riviera Drive and the Isle of Palms Connector. The property owner asked the Town of Mount Pleasant to amend the development agreement to allow a second hotel there. Town Council unanimously shot the proposal down on May 14, saying it wasn't in the best interest of residents. Council member Daniel Brownstein said it's "a very precarious time for Seaside Farms," citing Harris Teeter's recent decision to close its supermarket near the shuttered Yamato property. He added that "we would be doing our citizens a disservice" to allow a hotel "when so much uncertainty exists." The parcel remains for sale as of this summer.
For the small businesses in that back stretch, the impact was immediate. Todd Weiss, who owns Top Hat Wine & Liquors just steps from the former grocery doors, told the Post and Courier that his revenue dropped by roughly a third once the anchor went dark, and he described the corridor with a single phrase: "Without them, it's been a ghost town."
Where residents are actually buying groceries in July
The Target at the front of the plaza kept its shelves stocked through the transition, but a resident quoted in the Post and Courier put the gap in plain terms. While the nearby Target in the Shoppes at Seaside has a grocery section, the selection is much smaller than what Harris Teeters offers. "Target does have a grocery section that takes up about a third of the store, but only very small refrigerated section and limited in some types of groceries." For a full weekly shop, that is not the answer.
The nearest full grocery is now the Trader Joe's at Sweetgrass Corner, which opened last year in part of a former Bi-Lo near Highway 17 and the Isle of Palms Connector. Two other retail tenants, Golf Galaxy and Homesense, are backfilling the rest of the space. From most Seaside Farms front doors it is a two to four minute drive, or a manageable bike ride if you are willing to cross the Connector.
The practical read from residents who have adjusted: Target for the household basics you would grab on a Wednesday, Trader Joe's for the actual weekend shop, and Harris Teeter's other seventeen Charleston locations for anything the first two miss. The muscle memory of walking to groceries with a canvas bag is on pause. It is not gone forever.
The businesses still holding the back stretch
If the corridor behind the old Harris Teeter felt hollow this spring, it is still the same corridor that hosts most of the neighborhood's after-work rhythm. Worth naming, since the foot traffic here needs the reminder:
- Crave Kitchen & Cocktails, still serving through the transition, with the open air patio treated as weather permitting seating this summer
- Saveurs du Monde Cafe at 1960 Long Grove Drive, weekday breakfast and lunch, 7:30 a.m. open Monday through Friday
- Basil Thai Cuisine, one of the longest running independent restaurants at the Shoppes
- Top Hat Wine & Liquors, the small business most exposed to the anchor gap
- Seaside Pet Naturals, the grooming stop within walking distance of the residential streets
These are the places that benefit most when you skip the drive to Trader Joe's and keep your weekend inside the neighborhood boundary. The Beach Company, which owns the Shoppes, has publicly framed the CR Design Center deal as one meant to stabilize exactly this stretch.
The glass box rising in the old grocery footprint
Here is the trade the center is making. In place of Harris Teeter, Decatur, Georgia based Construction Resources is building a 45,000 square foot CR Design Center. Not a specialty grocer. Not another supermarket. A luxury home products showroom, and one designed to be the company's Charleston flagship.
The design that Mount Pleasant's Commercial Design Review Board saw last fall is a full reset of the box. A 45,000-square-foot Construction Resources CR Design Center featuring sweeping glass walls and a showroom-style façade. The redesign includes a modern "showroom" look with glass walls, the removal of the supermarket signage to expose the roof trusses, and a recessed entrance that removes the grocery store's former enclosed vestibule. The town's Commercial Design Review Board gave the preliminary plans unanimous approval at its Oct. 29 meeting. "It (couldn't) look nicer," DRB member Elissa Morrison said.
What is going inside is a wider brief than most local showrooms. At more than 45,000 square feet, the Charleston CR Design Center will bring together ten product categories under one roof—from appliances, cabinets, countertops, and decorative plumbing, to fireplaces, lighting, garage doors, outdoor living, shower doors & mirrors, and tile & flooring. Layered on top of that, the CR Design Center will launch a store-in-store concept integrating the Opustone Stone & Tile Concepts brand across 12,000 SF of the 45,000 square foot space.
The project team is not local, but the ownership is. Construction Resources is partnering with The Beach Company as the local landlord, Atlanta design firms ASD | SKY and The Collab, and Winter Construction as the builder. Mount Pleasant is set to welcome the Charleston CR Design Center in summer 2026, after an original spring 2026 target slid by a season.
For a resident, that shifts the answer to the question "what is at the Shoppes" in a real way. A Sunday walk that used to end in the produce section will end, by fall, in a walk-through of tile samples and cabinetry displays. It is a different reason to be in the building. It is still a reason.
The walk that still works
The reason Seaside Farms held its walkability rating through all of this is that the neighborhood was never single anchor dependent. Mount Pleasant Towne Centre at 1218 Belk Drive stays a short bike ride away, and the Regal theater, Barnes & Noble, and the outdoor common areas keep pulling weekend traffic across the Connector. Play Dayz at The Oaks, the Towne Centre's kids under ten free morning, still runs the first Tuesday of the month from 10 a.m. to noon through December.
Beyond the immediate walk, the summer calendar around Seaside Farms fills in around the transition. Party at the Point at Charleston Harbor Resort & Marina runs its Friday tribute nights, with On The Border on July 3 and Mr. Fahrenheit on July 10, and the 4th of July Fireworks Spectacular at Patriots Point sits ten minutes down Coleman. None of that changed when Harris Teeter locked its doors. The neighborhood's summer rhythm was always broader than one grocery store.
The one line to hold onto this summer
The story most residents are hearing is that the Shoppes at Seaside Farms is losing tenants. The story the paperwork actually tells is that ownership traded a like for like grocery replacement for something the local market values more right now. The leasing team opted to reposition the space for a different use, moving away from the typical 'like‑for‑like' retail replacement strategy. The approach turned a challenging vacancy into a longer‑term strategy focused on stability, relevance and sustained traffic. The Costar Impact Awards named it Charleston's lease of the year.
You are living inside the gap between the old anchor and the new one. It ends this summer, when the glass walls light up and the back half of the plaza reads as a design destination instead of a hollow corridor. Until then, the workaround is Trader Joe's, the reward is a quieter walk to Crave, and the neighborhood's real amenity, its short Connector, is exactly where it has always been.
If you are watching this reset from your own front porch and starting to think about what the new anchor means for your street, home, or eventual move, Living Charleston Realty is happy to talk it through. Reach out for an Instant Home Valuation or a coffee at Saveurs when you are ready.
