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Three area hospitals have been sold in a $2.4 billion deal to North Carolina-based Novant Health by the previous owner, Tenet Healthcare of Dallas, Texas.

The sale of East Cooper Medical Center in Mount Pleasant, Hilton Head Hospital in Hilton Head and Coastal Carolina Hospital in Hardeeville includes the associated physician clinics and other operations, according to a news release from Novant Health.

“We are beyond thrilled to welcome our new team members and grow our presence in South Carolina,” said Carl S. Armato, president and CEO, Novant Health, which is headquartered in Winston-Salem. “Novant Health’s long-term vision is to transform the health and wellness of these communities through expanded specialty services and clinical expertise. We are energized and united behind our cause to create a healthier future together by building connections with patients and clinicians in coastal South Carolina.”

The East Cooper Medical Center includes 15 physician clinics. Hilton Head Hospital includes the Bluffton Okatie Outpatient Center and 12 physician clinics. Coastal Carolina Hospital in Jasper County includes the Tidewatch Free-Standing Emergency Department in Bluffton, according to the news release.

Novant Health said continuity of care is a priority and appointments and procedures will continue as scheduled during the transition period. “We are working closely with our new Novant Health team members to ensure a seamless transition for patients and team members,” Joel Taylor, market CEO of Hilton Head Regional Healthcare, said in the release. “We are eager to move forward together in support of our teams and know decisions will be made with our community’s needs at the forefront.”

“There’s a lot to be excited about when planning for our future,” Tyler Sherrill, CEO of East Cooper Medical Center, said in the release. “Novant Health is known for elevating clinician leadership to provide patients with a trusted health care experience through world-class technology, personal connections and convenient access to care.”

Tenet Health also owns a cluster of imaging centers and urgent care clinics in York, Rock Hill and Fort Mill, but those South Carolina properties were not part of the deal for the coastal hospitals.

“We understand that taking care of our patients starts with taking care of our people, so I’m delighted to join a leadership team that strives to not only be a healthc are provider of choice but also an employer of choice,” Ryan Lee, CEO of Coastal Carolina Hospital, said in the release. “I look forward to expanding the resources available to our team.”

Novant Health supports health and wellness programs in the community, including health education/screenings, community health workers and mobile cruisers. Each year, Novant Health provides hundreds of programs that serve patients, neighbors and some of their communities’ most vulnerable citizens, the company said in the release.

The Novant Health network consists of more than 1,900 physicians and more than 38,000 team members who provide care at more than 800 locations, the release said.

Tell me about your professional background and how you feel it makes you a good fit to be a council member.

I've been teaching in Charleston County since 2016. This is my 24th year teaching. The local aspect of teaching, most of my career has been in teaching elementary school, but still the local aspect of working in the community where I live has always been something that I really like. Now I'm in North Charleston, so it's the greater community where I live. I think this is a theme of why I've chosen to run for Town Council because I would like to see Mount Pleasant make its own decisions on a local level and be responsible for them and with citizens participating in the process. I lived in France for seven years and I have a Bachelor of Science in French and psychology and a master's degree in educational technology. I've just always been part of the local community and have worked well with others.

What do you feel is the biggest issue facing the town today, and what plans do you have to address this?

I have a daughter, a six-year-old, and we went to James Island yesterday to go rock climbing in James Island County Park. I would like to see the green spaces improved in Mount Pleasant to make it something where travelers don't have to go across town to go to the (County) Park. I know that there’s a bike path in … Laurel Hill County Park and just a dirt road going in a half-mile circle and there are things that we can put back there that would be places you can take your kids and take your family.

The other thing is I think that health all across the United States is a problem. We pay more for healthcare. We have more healthcare issues related to obesity and diet. I would like to be somebody who spreads the message of healthy eating and healthy lifestyles lead to better lives. We have a great little local market there at Boone Hall...we have the Farmers Market on Tuesday and Boone Hall is open the rest of the week.

The results of the Public Input Matters survey found that throughout all seven districts in town, respondents feel that traffic in Mount Pleasant needs to be improved. What are some concrete solutions that you feel can address this?

The traffic in Mount Pleasant and housing in Mount Pleasant — I don’t know if ‘victims of our own success’ is the right word for it. We have a very unique geography here. We are a virtual island in that there's no shortcuts. There's one way in and one way out. You may come across I-526 or I-26 or you go north towards McClellanville and Georgetown up (Highway) 41. There just isn't room.

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I know that the Town Council has a plan and they've already hired a company to look into certain traffic solutions. As a new council member, I'm not sure if I would be able to offer anything different to what they have already decided on.

Another area Public Input Matters survey takers responded to was housing availability. Forty-one percent of respondents felt that affordable housing options should be increased. How do you feel this can be accomplished?

I think it speaks well to the people in Mount Pleasant that we want things for people like affordable housing, but whether or not there is a feasible solution to providing that affordable housing — where are we going to put affordable housing? It makes sense that people want affordable housing but do they want the affordable housing in their backyard?

I want to live locally, I want to buy locally, want to shop locally, but we can't escape the fact that a lot of our local decisions are made on a state and national and global level. How does Mount Pleasant make affordable housing when the interest rates are 7.75 percent? There are things happening on a national level that we just can't control that can make our job of creating affordable housing next to impossible.

Is there anyone who has served as a role model to you, either from politics, past experiences or family members, that you look to and consider while you run for office?

MOUNT PLEASANT, S.C. (WCBD) – Twelve acres of land along Park Avenue Boulevard in Mount Pleasant could soon be the site of a proposed attainable housing complex.

“It is in the perfect place in Mount Pleasant ‘cause there’s six schools around there, two fire stations, we’re getting ready to build a public services facility at Lieben Road, the hospital is there, and major retailers like Costco,” explained Mount Pleasant Mayor Will Haynie.

Next week town council will vote on the first reading of amending the Carolina Park Planned Development document to allow for attainable housing at that location.

The mayor said the proposed homes will be in the $300-400,000 price range and will be available for purchase, not rent. To qualify, he said future homeowners will need to fall within a certain percentage of the area median income.

“This is our first responders, our teachers, our healthcare workers. And to be a healthy and complete community, we need to welcome people like that instead of excluding them by the $1 million average home sale price we had last month,” Mayor Haynie said.

The parcel was purchased by Seacoast Church years ago for a second Mount Pleasant campus, but Glenn Wood, the administrator for the church, said they realized it wasn’t the right fit.

After receiving multiple offers, he said they decided to sell it to an attainable housing developer.

“We just feel like it’s a great opportunity for the town to be able to have housing that teachers, fire departments, nurses, you know and honestly even our staff ‘cause some of our staff has to live outside of Mount Pleasant and commute in just because of the cost of real estate,” Wood said. “And so, its an opportunity, we felt like for the town to be able to have some attainable housing and you know I think it’s a great use of the land and a great opportunity.

Prosperity Builders, the developer of the project, already has another attainable housing project in Mount Pleasant called Gregorie Ferry Towns.

Mayor Haynie said if the plan passes the necessary steps, they could break ground as soon as the summer.

MOUNT PLEASANT — The saying goes that beggars can’t be choosers, and Trader Joe’s certainly doesn’t need to beg for business (if you've ever fought for a parking spot on a Sunday afternoon, you know).

The California-based grocery chain has a reputation for being highly selective about where it opens new stores — even if that means choosing a second location a few miles from an existing one.

Trader Joe’s confirmed in January that Mount Pleasant will soon have not one, but two stores in town.

The announcement sparked excitement, praise and a fair amount of grumbling from outside fans of the grocery chain who believe their communities are more deserving of a new Trader Joe's location. A post about the chain's plans for Mount Pleasant drew more than 800 comments on The Post and Courier's Facebook page.

"This is the craziest decision," one reader groused. "Right around the corner basically from the current one...why not spread out a bit and go to James Island, West Ashley, N. Charleston or Summerville?"

"Do better Trader Joes," another demanded. "Two locations in the same area is preposterous."

As one might imagine, the news received a much more favorable reception in Mount Pleasant.

Tasha Blomquist and her son perused the floral offerings in front of the store on a cloudy morning. Blomquist said she stops by the store twice a week and is eager to see a new location, hopefully, in the northern part of town, where she lives.

“I live way in north Mount Pleasant, so I’m happy there might be one there,” Blomquist said. “I think it’s needed though because every time I’m here … I feel like you have to do multiple laps around the parking lot just to find a spot.”

Another shopper, Kelly Crowley, who lives near Brickyard Plantation, said opening a second store will hopefully cut down on crowds.

“We come by here pretty regularly. If you come here on Sunday or even Saturday, it’s lines all the way back into the aisle," Crowley said.

Though Trader Joe’s has not disclosed where the new store will be, multiple sources have told The Post and Courier the grocery chain is considering the old Bi-Lo building at the foot of the Isle of Palms Connector — a few miles from the store on Johnnie Dodds Boulevard that opened in 2011, and not farther into northern Mount Pleasant as customers like Blomquist would hope.

The proximity to an existing store seems like a head-scratching move — why does Mount Pleasant get two stores 5 miles apart, bypassing places like Summerville or West Ashley?

Demand for a Trader Joe’s in these areas is high, as evidenced by petitions that attract thousands of signatures calling for the chain to open the shop in their towns and cities.

One such petition from 2020 that called for a store in Summerville earned nearly 5,000 signatures. Another in West Ashley gained over 6,000.

Similar efforts also crop up in Myrtle Beach regularly. The city is one of South Carolina’s fastest-growing, yet you won’t find a Trader Joe's in the coastal municipality. Former Horry County Director of Planning David Schwerd said he had that conversation over and over during his 30-year tenure.

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“'We need Trader Joe's. Everybody always wants a Trader Joe's. Pretty much every time a commercial rezoning or development planning comes up, it's usually the first one that gets mentioned,” Schwerd said.

Jeff Campbell, the University of South Carolina's department of retailing chair, said grocery stores, particularly Trader Joe's, are extremely strategic in opening new locations. You won't see a Trader Joe's on every corner, and they take their time scouting areas before settling on a city.

"Typically, they would use a variety of metrics in site selection, and while location is still an important consideration, they'll look at things like projected foot traffic, the demographics of the area, where the current transportation routes are, where competitors are located," Campbell said.

Myrtle Beach being a hot spot for tourists might not be attractive to the chain either. People who visit the coastal city are looking to stock up for the week, heading to Walmart or Costco for items in bulk, rather than prepackaged, single-serve foods, Campbell said.

People can request that Trader Joe’s consider their city for a new store. Nakia Rohde, a spokesperson for Trader Joe’s, said the company receives “tons” of requests for stores nationwide.

The company doesn’t share much about how it chooses the perfect site for a new Trader Joe's. But Schwerd has a hunch. He pointed to the region’s median income, age and education level — factors the grocer is thought to consider when choosing sites for a new store.

“They have their undisclosed lists of what they're looking for in demographics,” Schwerd said. “Even though Trader Joe's does not list any specific criteria in their evaluation, that's what they're looking for. They have an upscale, educated clientele.”

An interview with Joe Coulombe, the store’s founder and namesake, published in the LA Times in 2011 demonstrates this ideology that seems to have stuck with the company: “Unless you have enough well-educated people, Trader Joe’s will not work.”

Because of these factors, Schwerd said Horry County or Myrtle Beach are unlikely to get a Trader Joe’s any time soon.

According to U.S. census data, Myrtle Beach has a median income of $57,713, a median age of 51.5 years and 28.8 percent of residents who hold bachelor’s degrees or higher.

Mount Pleasant’s median age of 41.3 years is slightly higher than the state’s 40.5 years, but in Greenville and Columbia, where the other two Trader Joe’s are located, the median ages are much younger at 35.9 and 28.4, respectively.

“They want younger consumers, they want a little bit better-income consumers," Campbell said.

Mount Pleasant, where the median income is $114,237 and 66 percent of residents hold a bachelor’s degree, is far above the state’s median income level of roughly $64,000 and where 32.6 percent of the state hold bachelor's degrees.

So, Trader Joe’s wants to open stores in higher-earning areas with higher volumes of college-educated folks, and Mount Pleasant happens to fit the bill. It fits so well that shoppers will soon find half of South Carolina's Trader Joe's in town.

Campbell, who lives in Lexington, said he’d like to welcome a store in his city, but it’s not likely — it's just not what Trader Joe’s is looking for.

“They're not trying to sell to everybody. They're trying to sell to a particular demographic, and that demographic tends to do very well,” Campbell said.

Reach Anna Sharpe at 843-806-6790.

MOUNT PLEASANT, S.C. (WCSC) - Residents of Mount Pleasant can still provide input on a road improvement project on the Rifle Range Trail and Long Point Trail.

The Charleston Moves organization wants Mount Pleasant residents to weigh in on these designs before it’s too late.

The Town of Mount Pleasant hosted an in-person meeting to collect community input on the proposed Rifle Range Trail and Long Point Trail segments as part of the Mount Pleasant Way project.

For those who could not attend the meeting, online surveys are set for residents to vote on.

The goal of the project is to provide safe and efficient infrastructure for everyone to get around the town.

Questions that are featured on the survey ask if the concept is supported and what amenities residents would like to see included in the projects like benches, swings, water fountains and workout stations.

The Long Point Trail would provide continued access between the river crossing and neighborhoods.

The Rifle Range Trail is a proposed multi-use path project that is proposed to run along the west side of Rifle Range Road from the roundabout at Venning Road to Bragg Drive.

Friday is the last day to share your input and click to complete the survey for the Rifle Range Trail and Long Point Trail segments.

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