Beaufort developer Dick Stewart of 303 Associates retires
Dick Stewart, the head of a Beaufort-based property development company whose deals have left their mark on the historic town and kept it in the public eye for more than 20 years, is stepping down and handing over the reins of the business with two younger partners.
The announcement of Stewart’s retirement comes as 303 Associates prepare for three major downtown projects: a boutique hotel at the corner of Scott and Port Republic streets; a three-story parking garage on the block bordered by Charles, Craven and West streets; and, a three-story apartment complex on Charles Street.
Effective March 1, Courtney Worrell and Jonathan Sullivan, partners and co-owners of 303 Associates, took over as co-CEOs, the company said.
You may not know Stewart, but you’ve probably been inside a business on Property 303 that has been redeveloped and is now managed by her. Since 1998, when 303 Associates was founded, it has invested in the restoration of dilapidated historic buildings and new construction with a focus on infill redevelopment and the development and management of commercial, retail, office properties , multifamily and hotels.
In Beaufort, 303 projects include Beaufort Town Center, Newcastle Square (Talbots store) and USCB Student Housing, all on Boundary Street. 303’s portfolio also includes the Beaufort Inn and Tabby Place, an indoor event venue, on Port Republic Street. Old Bay Marketplace on Bay Street and Port Royal Center, a professional services building on Ribaut Road in Port Royal, are also 303s.
303’s management change, Stewart said, has been planned for more than a year.
Stewart’s latest plans, the large-scale car park, hotel and apartments in the town’s historic district, and the town’s approval of these, have drawn legal challenges from Historic Beaufort Foundation and landlord and developer Graham Trask, but Stewart and the city have prevailed so far.
Stewart, 72, says his retirement will have no impact on the progress of the projects, which are on “solid ground”. He has confidence, he adds, in Worrell and Sullivan.
What worries Stewart is the global economy, inflation and the war in Ukraine. “These kinds of things overseas, beyond our control, make us all nervous, or they should,” Stewart said.
Going forward, Sullivan said, there won’t be any major changes. Sullivan said he and Worrell have slowly taken over running day-to-day operations over the past year and are “investment related.”
“We’re not developers,” Sullivan said. “We are investors. We live here. We work here.
Stewart, a Georgia native who moved to Bluffton as a child and graduated from high school in Beaufort, started 303 Associates after returning to the Lowcountry after retiring from a business career that included stints at Motorola in Atlanta and an upstart telecommunications company called MCI. He also started his own mobile radio company called Transit Communications, which later became Nextel.
He was living at 303 Federal St. in Beaufort at the time.
Stewart made the decision to retire five or six years ago, he said, and has been at it ever since.
Supporting the expansion of the University of South Carolina to Beaufort and the creation of an arts district in Beaufort are two areas he wants to spend more time in, Stewart said. Stewart has also recently been appointed to the Port Royal Redevelopment Commission and its Ribaut Road redevelopment assignment, which will also attract more of his attention.
One of the most rewarding projects of his time at 303 Associates, he said, was the renovation of the Francis Saltus House on Bay Street, an 18th-century merchant’s house and a major tabby structure that had been closed for decades. years and fell into disrepair. The renovation spurred other improvements, Stewart said, that made Beaufort more attractive.
Today, Saltus House is home to the Saltus River Grill, Hearth Wood-Fired Pizza, and the Beaufort Spice and Tea Exchange.
“It was a lot of fun and we felt like we made a great contribution to the city,” Stewart told 303 Associates.
