"So, with Ashley Landing, it may look like nothing's happening, but arguably things are happening almost at lightning speed." Robert Summerfield, Charleston's director of planning and preservation, said that back in January, standing near a stretch of graded dirt and silt fencing that has looked, to most people driving past on Sam Rittenberg Boulevard, more or less the same for over a year.
If you live in West Ashley, you already know the spot. It's the old Ashley Landing shopping center, wedged between Sam Rittenberg Boulevard and Old Towne Road, home to the Publix you probably still shop at and the vacant lot where a Piggly Wiggly once stood before the city folded that parcel into the redevelopment deal. Every few months a new headline says the project is "moving forward." Every few months the site still reads like a stretch of demolished buildings and open pavement, which is exactly how one nearby resident described it to a local TV reporter last fall.
Here's what's actually true as of late August 2026. The site is not stalled. It has cleared its two hardest hurdles, closing on land for the first new housing and locking in a construction sequence for the new grocery store, inside the same few weeks this summer. But one number a lot of West Ashley residents have been repeating to each other for a year is now wrong. The new Publix does not open this fall. That date has slipped by a full year.
The date everyone remembers is a year off
In July of 2025, developer Edens told Charleston's Technical Review Committee it had to deliver the new Publix by October 31, 2026. That deadline is the one that stuck in people's heads, and it's the one that got repeated in local coverage at the time.
That's no longer the timeline. As of an early August update, West Ashley Project Coordinator Eric Pohlman confirmed the new Publix is now slated for fall 2027, not fall 2026. If you've been waiting for the store to shift across the parking lot before your lease renews, before school starts back next year, before you finally redo the kitchen, add twelve months to whatever mental timeline you'd built.
The reason for the wait isn't mysterious. It's sequencing. Summerfield has called the Publix relocation the "linchpin" of the whole project, the domino that has to fall before the green plaza, the restaurant space, and the rest of the retail can follow. Until the store is built and open, most of what makes the site feel finished has nowhere to go.
The apartments got there first
While the grocery store waits, the residential side of Ashley Landing just moved fast. On July 1, Woodfield Development, one of the nation's top 20 multifamily developers, closed on a $9.75 million purchase of a portion of the property to build Westbourne Ashley Landing, a 285-unit apartment community with studio through three-bedroom units. Financing came through TD Bank, with equity from PGIM, and construction is already underway.
Mary Katherine Phillips, EDENS' senior director of investments and Charleston market lead, put the reasoning plainly in a July report: West Ashley is "an integral part of the Charleston community" but "underserved" when it comes to a real gathering place. Woodfield partner Mike Schwarz framed it as reconnecting a corridor that's been visible but disconnected for years.
What that means on the ground is that new neighbors will likely be moving into Westbourne before the storefronts around them are finished. It's not the order most people would guess, but it tracks with how Edens has built other projects. Rooftops go in early to support the retail that follows, not the other way around.
What the silt fencing is actually doing
The visible work on site right now isn't cosmetic. It's stormwater and drainage infrastructure, and it's a bigger piece of the project than most passersby realize. The full 35.5-acre plan sets aside nine acres for stormwater retention, a number the city has held onto since the redevelopment was first approved. That work is currently on track for completion by 2027, ahead of the new Publix.
None of this shows up as a new sign or a ribbon cutting, which is part of why the lot has read as frozen for so long. Underground utility work and grading don't photograph the way a storefront does. But it's the piece that has to be finished before the buildings people actually want to see, the grocery store, the shops, the green plaza, can go up without flooding problems undoing the investment later.
A rough timeline, if you're trying to plan around it
| Milestone | Timing |
|---|---|
| City approves the merged redevelopment plan | September 2024 |
| Construction breaks ground | May 2025 |
| Woodfield closes on apartment parcel | July 1, 2026 |
| Stormwater and drainage work complete | 2027 |
| New Publix slated to open | Fall 2027 |
| Full project buildout target | 2028 |
Pohlman, the city's project coordinator, has described the approach as a departure from how these aging shopping centers usually get handled. Instead of a new tenant and a fresh coat of paint, the plan is to rebuild the site as what he's called a "place-based generator of economy," something closer to a small town center than a strip mall with a facelift.
What this actually changes if you already live here
A few things worth knowing if this stretch of Sam Rittenberg is part of your regular route:
- The existing Publix stays open through all of this. Nothing about your weekly grocery run changes in the next year.
- If you heard "new Publix opening this fall," that was the original target, for this year. It's since been pushed to fall 2027, and the store won't move until construction on its new building wraps.
- New residents will likely start showing up at Westbourne before there's much new to walk to. The retail and green space follow the grocery store, not the other way around.
- Summerfield has said the project is already acting as a catalyst for other investment along the broader Sam Rittenberg corridor, so this site is unlikely to be the only visible change in the area over the next two years.
None of this makes the empty-lot feeling wrong. The site genuinely does look the same as it did a year ago from the road. What's changed is underground, on paper, and in a bank account, not in the view through your windshield. That's an uncomfortable kind of progress to track, but it's real, and knowing where the project actually stands beats repeating a Publix opening date that's no longer accurate.
West Ashley has absorbed a lot of "someday" projects over the years, and it's fair to be skeptical of them. This one has actual capital behind it now, a construction crew on-site, and a sequence that's been publicly explained by the people running it. That's a different category than a rendering and a press release.
If you're keeping an eye on how this corner of West Ashley is changing, whether you're weighing a move within the neighborhood or just trying to understand what's coming next door, I'm always happy to talk through what I'm seeing on the ground. You can reach Michele Moriarty anytime. Let's Connect.
