April 03, 2013--The room boom that's echoing throughout downtown Charleston's hospitality business is showing no signs of easing.

Tara Investments, a Charlotte-based group with ties to the newly opened 120-room Holiday Inn Charleston Historic Downtown at 425 Meeting St., has submitted plans to the city showing a 165-room, five-story hotel on an adjacent property at 415 Meeting St.

That site now houses Burris Liquor Store, an old Texaco station that Clyde Burris and his late wife, Sheila, converted to a beverage shop 45 years ago. It plans to move to the east side of Meeting Street in a new, two-story, 6,000-square-foot store to be built on the corner of Reid Street, Burris said Tuesday.

Anish Patel of Tara Investments said he expects the hotel to open sometime in 2014. He said he expects the area to continue as a strong tourist market.

"The demand in general in the downtown area has been very high," Patel said.

He said the new Holiday Inn next door has done well since it opened in January. "It's ramped up real quick," Patel said.

The proposed lodging joins a parade of new rooms planned for the peninsula. More than 1,500 new hotel rooms are in the works from the Ashley and Cooper rivers north to the Ravenel Bridge.

A flag has not been chosen for Tara's next Charleston hotel. Patel said it will not be a Holiday Inn.

Once building plans for both projects clear the city approval process, Burris Liquor Store plans to move forward with construction. Burris said he could be in the new site by the end of the year, paving the way for demolition of his existing liquor store.

"This has been a dream of mine," said Burris, 71, adding that he has wanted to move into a new shop for 20 years. "It will go to my son, Kelly. He is the manager."

Burris once owned five liquor stores, but he now owns two. He leases out his second store, Rivers and Reynolds Liquors, in North Charleston.

___

(c)2013 The Post and Courier (Charleston, S.C.)

Visit The Post and Courier (Charleston, S.C.) at www.postandcourier.com

Distributed by MCT Information Services