Mid-town Square in Beaufort

A 22-unit infill development, including six live-work townhouses, recently got underway in Beaufort, South Carolina. The 2-plus-acre MidTown Square takes up a block and a half of “long-neglected land” in the city’s Northwest Quadrant.

The development involved a public-private partnership in that the city laid the groundwork for redevelopment in that part of the city with $1.3 million in streetscape improvements on Bladen, Prince, Duke, and Adventure streets. The city and neighborhood associations also organized a cleanup of the area in 2010, removing 400 tons of debris.

“The area, once a thriving black middle-class neighborhood just blocks off the Beaufort River, fell into disrepair in the 1970s,” the city said in a press release. “It became one of Beaufort’s blighted and neglected areas until renovations started in earnest in the mid-1990s.”

But the area has significant assets nearby, including an elementary school and a core commercial district within a few blocks, and also the city and county government offices within walking distance. Developers Steven Tully and John Trask III are marketing the project by highlighting the “simple style and grace of a traditional urban lifestyle. Midtown Square is a sustainable walking neighborhood with excellent proximity to downtown schools, shopping, dining, and the

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