Balfour Beatty Breaks Ground on Charleston Project

Morrison Yard. Image courtesy of ASD | SKY

General contractor Balfour Beatty has broken ground on one of Charleston, S.C.’s first major projects to pursue a region-specific sustainability designation. Developers KeithCorp and Origin Development Partners awarded Balfour Beatty a $42 million contract to build Morrison Yard in the city’s Upper Peninsula district.

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Located at 850 Morrison Drive, the 10-story Class A office tower will offer 140,000 square feet of office space spread throughout seven leasable floors. Morrison Yard will also include 8,000 square feet of ground-floor retail and a four-story parking deck that can accommodate 377 cars.

Randy Bowden, Balfour Beatty’s senior project manager in Charleston, told Commercial Property Executive that the company will be employing drone technology to assist with certain construction methods and to produce uniform-scale photographs that provide a more accurate property view.

Balfour Beatty is expecting to complete Morrison Yard in the summer of 2022. With the new project underway, Balfour Beatty also completed construction for a 2.5 million-square-foot mixed-use development in Miami last month.

Unique and sustainable design

Designed by ASD | SKY, Morrison Yard’s unique architecture will feature an elevated-floor look where several large supports prop up the structure, while also opening up space on the ground floor.

“Delivering unique design elements requires strong collaboration throughout the entire construction process,” Bowden told CPE. “As experts in constructing unique design structures, Balfour Beatty leverages the latest technologies and lean construction strategies to achieve our client’s and design partners’ goals.”

Bowden also told CPE that Morrison Yard will be emphasizing sustainable design by incorporating a rain garden and electric charging stations, while also installing elevators and restrooms on the western side of the building to shade from the sun and lower cooling costs.

Morrison Yard will also be one of the city’s first major projects to pursue the Charleston RISES designation, a certification that focuses on resiliency, innovation, sustainability, efficiency and safety. The region-specific certification is designated for new construction projects that are at least 30 percent more energy and water efficient than projects that just meet standard code compliance and use materials and products that won’t affect the health of tenants.