A 15-year project began Oct. 20 to bring new business to the Charleston, S.C., suburb of Mount Pleasant and money to the Patriots Point Naval & Maritime Museum located there.

Although the construction will not officially get under way until 2023, the Patriots Point Development Authority Board and Bennett Hospitality hosted a groundbreaking ceremony to mark the start of a five-phase effort.

The Patriots Annex development will stand on 31 acres of land that Patriots Point is leasing to Bennett Hospitality to build on. The site is on the east side of Charleston Harbor on a peninsula across from the historic city.

Patriots Point also is the home to a pair of popular museum ships, the USS Yorktown, and the USS Laffey, both of which served in World War II, along with many other vessels and planes.

An aircraft carrier that served in the Pacific theater of battle during the war, the Yorktown later was decommissioned and moved to its current home in 1975. The Laffey is a destroyer, nicknamed "The Ship That Would Not Die" for her exploits during the D-Day invasion and the battle of Okinawa when she withstood a determined assault by bombers and one of the war's heaviest kamikaze air attacks.

"We're building around great ships and a great museum," said Wayne Adams, the vice chair of Patriots Point.

New Plans to Bring Needed Funds to Museum

The new development will feature a grand hotel, multiple boutique hotels, restaurants, shops and a waterfront park with an amphitheater.

"We are going to create a waterfront park so that all the people can enjoy [this] most valuable piece of land," said Michael Bennett, the developer of Patriot Annex. "The great hotel that we call The Grand Patriot will sit at the top and it's the furthest away from the water."

WCBD-TV in Charleston noted that the property's lease was something that Patriots Point needed to do for the survival of the museum's ships and aircraft. The historic artifacts require millions of dollars in upkeep every year.

But the solution to fund the renovation bill was not always so straightforward.

"I think how we were going to maintain the ships in a way that honors those who served on them and tells their story has been a struggle for years," Adams told WCBD-TV. "A number of years ago we realized we had to monetize the land. That was the only way we were going to be able to do that without [going to] the taxpayers for dollars. We expect it to pay for the maintenance on these ships for decades to come."

The current construction on the east side of the museum is where trees are being cleared for the main parking lot at Patriots Annex, work that will be finished in a year. After that, construction on the buildings is set to commence.

"Charleston County is routinely named the best place in the country to visit because we are constantly improving," noted Teddie Pryor, chair of the Charleston County Council. "Projects like Patriots Point Annex are what keeps us at the top. What's being built here today will be one of the most impressive developments we've seen in a long time and supports Patriots Point and the museum's mission.

The money made from leasing a new place for visitors and locals to enjoy the Lowcountry will mean that the Patriots Point Museum can fulfill its mission to honor American servicemembers, Adams added.

"We're going to modernize exhibits, plus we'll have new exhibits and [unique] ways of telling the story of those who served aboard these ships," he said.

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