The Deal Maker

The Deal Maker

By Sean Roth

Real Estate Editor

When Joseph Riley became mayor of CWhen Joseph Riley became mayor of Charleston, S.C. in 1975, his city was roughly the same size as the city of Sarasota - 57,000 population and 16.7 square miles. Today, Charleston's population is 112,000, its geography is now 90 square miles, and, perhaps most significant, Charleston is regarded in national circles of urban governance as a model of success.

During Riley's eight terms as the city's elected, strong mayor, Riley has led the revitalization of Charleston's historic downtown; converted an empty lot into a Waterfront; helped reduce the crime rate; and increased the city's affordable housing stock.

For all of his efforts, Riley in 2000 received the first annual J.C. Nichols Prize for Visionary Urban Development from the Urban Land Institute. A former president of the U.S Conference of Mayors, Riley was a founder of the Mayor's Institute for City Design and has advised mayors on urban design issues nationwide. Riley was given the Outstanding Mayors Award by the National Urban Coalition, the Distinguished Citizen Award by the National Association of Realtors and named the 1991 Municipal Leader of the Year by American City & County.

Riley brought his urban revival gospel to Sarasota two weeks ago when he was the keynote speaker at Sarasota's Downtown Partnership annual dinner. Before his speech, Riley met with Review Real Estate Editor Sean Roth to discuss Charleston's experiences. Here is an edited transcript of their conversation:

How do you balance annexation without over-extending the city?

Central cities need to grow. Running a city itself you have to be capable of doing a lot of things at one time. A center city serves a metropolitan area, and the metropolitan area is growing. So if the center city isn't growing, and it continues to service the growing metropolitan area, then the demands on the center city begin to outstrip its resources.

And also, the more people who live in a metropolitan area who are connected to a central city is just better. You want people voting in the center city. You want them electing the mayor or the council members. You want them having a voice. Then the resources, the art galleries and the symphony, the parks and the parades, hospital, libraries and museums, colleges and universities that a center city supports one way or another are considered more important. It's very important to more people in a metropolitan city that people engage in that.

So we annexed, looking at the long haul.

You may sometimes have digestive challenges with the annexation - which there really haven't been for us - but you have to focus on the long haul. The cost-benefit analysis of annexation I have never been that interested in, because I'm looking at the big picture. But it's worked very well.

How did you handle housing affordability?

It is a big challenge in our city, and I think it will increasingly be so in cities across America, because people are coming back to the center city. Thank goodness. So land values are going up.

We have a number of programs, and we helped create a number of nonprofits, which provide affordable housing. We have a homeownership initiative for first-time homebuyers. We helped create affordable housing for the elderly and working families using federal funds and city resources. Kind of everyway we can.

One thing we did, which I think we are on the cutting edge with, is this: Our homeownership initiative for first-time homebuyers. We developed a restrictive covenant. There's a little bit of controversy. It basically says that you buy this - you the first-time homebuyer, there are income guidelines you have to fit. Then, when you sell it, you have to sell it to a first-time homebuyer that meets the income requirements. You can only realize the appreciation through the cost-of-living increase or the average-median-income increase, whichever is higher during the time you owned your house.

The thought there was about diversity. So we've got a good first-time homebuyer in there and some good affordable housing. Five years from now they sell and get a higher price. That piece of property is lost forever for affordable housing. We are just trying to be as creative as possible to keep diversity of housing available.

Some people say, 'Well, you do that, and you're not going to let these people make a bundle.' Well, they won't make a big bundle, but if the cost of living is 3% a year for say over seven years that would be 21%. You get 21% increase; you pay down on your mortgage a little bit, and you have some equity to put toward your next house.

Public access to the waterfront is an important thrust of your tenure with the city. With development and land-value demands, how do you accomplish that?

There was one instances were we had an aquarium, park and maritime center, but intervening all that was a tall condo development. But there was no way to connect them.

So we did a deal. The condo's bulkhead was weak and needed to be restored, so I said, 'What if we rebuild your bulkhead for you and agreed to maintain it in perpetuity. This is on the harbor, which is a pretty good deal. In return, we would get to create a public walkway, and they worked with us on the design. They have security and their own gates. We helped them with part of a pier, and there's a gate to that. So the public gets to walk there for free.

You either get their first or you work, but the increasing accepted belief in our community it that it is best when there is public access first. Great cities do this all around the world. So you work on it one piece at a time. When developments were going up, sometimes they need something from the city so you negotiate for that easement.

Does the city have a height restriction?

Yes. It varies. We have a height ordinance that zones areas differently. In our Central Business District, the height limit is for the most part 80 or 90 feet, but that is set back. In the hospital district, it's higher out of necessity. It just depends on the area.

How do you explain being able to remain mayor of Charleston for 30 years and eight terms?

Patient constituents. The people of Charleston have been very kind to let me serve them. I have wanted to continue to serve because it's such a worthwhile and important job. I get to work early usually a few moments after eight and usually lock the door at city hall as the last one to leave.

What you do in the city is this whole range of things. You're the citizens' protector, and it's very personal. You have their garbage picked up, and you make their streets clean. You help give people parks and provide the arts. There are also the intellectual challenges of creating a great city. I love public service.