MOUNT PLEASANT, S.C. (WCBD) – With temperatures warming up as the Lowcountry approaches summer, the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources (SCDNR) is reminding people who live near bodies of water along the coast, like marshes, ponds, or rivers, to be cautious of your surroundings.

Kristan Leader, who is a stay-at-home mom, learned about an uninvited visitor in the driveway of her home in the Brickyard Plantation of Mount Pleasant when her neighbor called to alert her.

An alligator was underneath her SUV.

“My first thought was what could have happened if they had run out there because their tiny little legs would have been right there,” said Leader, who was concerned about her children’s safety.

The family, who was watching from an upstairs window, waited as Mt. Pleasant’s Animal Control attempted to catch and release the gator.

Leader said Officer Heather Cumbee “came on her day off and came with another girl and they wrangled it within 15 minutes.” One of several calls Officer Cumbee has taken regarding alligators so far this season.

“It’s a great feeling to go out and be able to educate and help the animals get to a safe place as well as keep the public safe, and hopefully the animal doesn’t end up back in that situation,” said Officer Cumbee.

Experts say relocating gators from places like driveways or garages can come with difficulties.

“Adult alligators have a strong homing instinct. They want to establish a home range and they will return to that home range even if relocated and they’ll walk over land to do that,” said Morgan Hart, who is the Alligator Project Leader for the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources.

Hart explains more alligators are moving around as people move into spaces where those alligators are already living.

“Alligators are often moving from pond to pond or from river to pond. They tend to try to move over land in a straight line and sometimes that means they end up in places they shouldn’t be like garages or under cars,” said Hart.

A place where Leader said she will now check underneath from now on.

MOUNT PLEASANT — Discount grocer Aldi is beefing up its presence across the Charleston area.

The no-frills grocer recently leased several acres at U.S. Highway 17 and KOA Campgrounds Road for a second East Cooper location.

Aldi plans to build a 23,000-square-foot store on the land next to South Morgans Point Road. The acreage sits across from Joe Bryant Court, on the opposite side of Highway 17, where a new mixed-used commercial and recreational development is in the works.

The company signed a land lease with property owner Oakland Associates LP for 20 years with the option to renew up to 25 years.

Aldi did not provide timeframes for construction and opening.

“We do not have any information to share,” said Shaun O’Keefe, divisional vice president.

The penny-pinching Aldi doesn’t provide free shopping bags and requires a refundable quarter deposit for a shopping cart.

The chain stocks a variety of standard products, mostly under its own label, as well as fresh meats and produce.

The grocer launched its first store in the Charleston region in 2015 off Dorchester Road on the edge of Summerville and North Charleston. The company then followed with a second store on Johnnie Dodds Boulevard in Mount Pleasant in 2017. Both locations were former bowling alley sites.

Aldi opened its third Lowcountry location in 2020 on North Main Street in Summerville, just south of the Earth Fare supermarket. The company added a fourth site later that year in the former Barnes & Noble Booksellers space on Rivers Avenue in North Charleston. A fifth store opened in 2022 on St. James Avenue in Goose Creek.

The low-budget grocer, with its U.S. headquarters in Batavia, Ill., is one of America’s fastest-growing retailers. It will add 120 stores this year. By the end of 2023, it will have 2,400 locations across the nation. It has 48 stores in South Carolina.

Lidl, its competitor that is also based in Germany, opened its first Charleston-area location on St. James Avenue in Goose Creek in 2017. A second location opened in 2022 in Cedar Grove Shopping Center on Dorchester Road in North Charleston, east of the Aldi location.

Lidl signed a lease in 2021 to outfit a former kitchenware shop in Bowman Place Shopping Center on Bowman Road in Mount Pleasant for the region’s third location, but it has not opened. A company representative did not immediately respond for comment on an update for the store.

MOUNT PLEASANT — A 20-year-old home overlooking Charleston Harbor at the mouth of Shem Creek has set a new residential sales record for South Carolina’s fourth-largest municipality.

The 7,015-square-foot, Southern-style mansion at 100 Haddrell St. in Mount Pleasant was sold April 17 for $14.95 million, far above the previous record of $8.65 million set two years ago for another home in the town’s pricey Old Village area.

The new owner is 100 Beach LLC, according to Charleston County land records.

The sale appeared to be an all-cash deal, as no mortgage has been recorded with the Register of Deeds. It was an off-market transaction, meaning the home wasn’t publicly marketed or listed.

The 1.32-acre property last changed hands in 2010, when the previous owners bought the five-bedroom, 5½-bathroom house for $7.5 million, setting a new record residential sale price at the time for Mount Pleasant.

Built in 2003, the waterfront house includes a dock, elevator, three-car garage and a saltwater pool.

Nancy Hoy with Carolina One Real Estate represented the sellers. Alex Brener, who was with William Means Real Estate at the time of the sale but has since joined Carolina One, represented the buyer.

The transaction suggests that the upper stratosphere of the residential market is largely unaffected by rising interest rates and other economic challenges.

Last month, a few blocks southeast of Shem Creek, a home at 205 Ferry St, was sold for $8.4 million.

Last week, in downtown Charleston, a pre-Revolutionary War-era house at 13-15 Meeting St. changed hands for $12.6 million.

On Sullivan’s Island, three homes have fetched prices ranging from nearly $8 million to more than $10 million this year.

“As Charleston continues to grow and gets more and more exposure, we are definitely attracting more serious high-dollar buyers to our community,” said Michael Scarafile, president of Carolina One, the largest-volume residential real estate agency in the Lowcountry.

The uptick in interest by deep-pocketed buyers for luxury housing started with COVID-19 as people began to work remotely and sought a better quality of life, Scarafile said.

“That hasn’t stopped,” he added.

Lyles Geer, president of William Means Real Estate, said the recent flurry of big-ticket purchases is being driven in part by low inventory levels for top-tier homes.

“There is a lack of supply in the ultra-luxury market,” Geer said. “When those homes do become available, they fetch a much higher price.”

MOUNT PLEASANT, S.C. (WCBD) – A new taco shop is set to open in Mount Pleasant this spring boasting unique flavors set in a tropical theme.

The owners of White Duck Taco Shop, which originated in Asheville, North Carolina, have been renovating the former Sticky Fingers restaurant on Johnnie Dodds Boulevard for the past year.

A complete overhaul of the building included opening the ceiling and removing some walls to create a larger feel inside the establishment. Bamboo is being used to section off seating areas and fresh paint will brighten up the once-dark barbecue joint.

Muralist Lacey Hennessey was brought in from Greenville, South Carolina to help merge the planned color scheme to give the restaurant its tropical feel and showcase floral themes, a large VW bus, and even a surfing duck.

“We’re very proud of what she accomplished here,” said Laura Reuss, who owns the restaurant.

The bar area will feature big-screen televisions and windows will open up to an outdoor lanai with bar service in addition to its deck area. “It gives an open-air feeling even though we’re in the middle of Mount Pleasant,” said Reuss.

Reuss has been working in the restaurant industry since she was a teenager. She left Park City, Utah in 2010 – working in restaurants at ski resorts – to later open the first White Duck Taco Shop in North Carolina.

The idea was to create a fun atmosphere where patrons would feel comfortable enjoying great, from-scratch food at affordable prices.

“We had been working at four- and five-star restaurants. We really wanted to be more approachable to everyone. So, we came up with the idea of White Duck Taco Shop,” she said.

The new restaurant ushered in new life for a part of Asheville that was still in its growth phase – the River Arts District.

“We were in Asheville, we actually moved there to start the brand. It was really a mom-and-pop organization, we just couldn’t keep up—it was crazy,” she said of opening the new shop.

The new location in Mount Pleasant will be White Duck Taco’s 14^th venture.

Reuss and her late husband had roots in the Charleston area. And after reopening its other locations post-COVID-19 pandemic, she decided that it was the right time to bring the restaurant to the Lowcountry.

“I spent about seven, eight months looking for the perfect location with a lot of help from other people, and we came across Sticky Fingers,” she recalled.

A crew came in to determine how best to transform the former barbecue restaurant into a brightly-colored taco shop. After a few bumps in the road, thanks to logistics and delivery woes – White Duck Taco will soon serve customers just in time for the summer season.

Reuss described the menu as unique fusion tacos. “We do everything from fried oyster tacos, pork belly tacos with pickled watermelon rind, we have Thai peanut chicken tacos … the whole idea was to take really cool flavors and just put it in the form of a taco so that you could eat almost internationally.”

If you order a sandwich or burger off a menu, you only get to try one style or flavor at a time. Here, you’ll be able to select three variations in one sitting.

“The taco is the new American way,” she said. “Everyone loves a taco and a beer.”

Reuss is eyeing an opening in mid-to-late April depending upon final approvals from the Town of Mount Pleasant.

MOUNT PLEASANT — David Breen knows the games people like to play.

The Boston native has been around the arcade and entertainment industry since he was 7 years old when his parents started a roller-skating business in 1978.

With several other ventures since then, including the continued operation of five bowling and game businesses in the Northeast, the 51-year-old East Cooper transplant is bringing a new concept to the Lowcountry.

Breen, CEO of PINZ Entertainment Group, and business partner Jim Smith plan to launch MIX on June 1 in the 11,122-square-foot space that once housed Butcher & The Boar restaurant at 730 Coleman Blvd.

Patrons who visited the most recent dining venue before it closed in 2021 will notice a couple of features that Breen decided to incorporate into the entertainment site.

“We kept a lot of the penny floor around the bar on the inside and the wall of heads behind the bar, ” Breen said. “We just painted the heads and turned one upside down for fun.”

The duckpin bowling area includes eight lanes. Next to the wall of heads, which includes well-known figures such as Einstein, customers will find a curling platform, ax-throwing cages and numerous other games. The curling game is not on ice. Discs are on rollers that are tossed from one end.

In addition to the repurposed indoor bar, the site offers an outdoor alcoholic beverage area and patio, including a swing table and small stage built around a tree. Ping-pong and cornhole also will be available.

“We redid the outside bar by taking walls down because it was so dark in here,” Breen said as he walked through the site and talked about the changes. “We wanted to open it up and make it more appealing.”

A separate speak-easy site has been created out of part of the former expansive kitchen area. It will be available for private gatherings and accessible by pass code only. Just beyond the door, guests can get a peek of the behind-the-scenes workings of the duckpin machines before wandering down a black-lit hallway with duckpins mounted on the ceiling as light fixtures.

In addition to a mix of a dozen local and national beer offerings, MIX will have what Breen calls “elevated bar food,” including appetizers, burgers, flatbreads and salads.

The venue offers two sets of restrooms, including one accessible from the patio and another inside. The inside facilities have been totally redone, and visitors will find Abraham Lincoln with a mug of beer on the wallpaper leading to the indoor restrooms.

Breen’s other ventures, as well as the 33,000-square-foot skating venue his parents owned for many years, include rock climbing, bowling, laser tag, bars and restaurants.

Breen’s five other entertainment venues in the Northeast operate under the PINZ brand. Similar to Stars & Strikes bowling and arcade sites like the one on Ladson Road in Summerville, they are in Massachusetts, New Hampshire and upstate New York.

MIX, in a site leased from Charleston developer The Beach Co., is a new venture altogether.

“We wanted to try a new concept to see how it would work,” Breen said. “I took one look at this when it was a restaurant and decided this is the right place. I think it has turned out to be a great site for us.”

Breen is not alone in the PINZ Entertainment Group business. His wife, Susan, handles payroll.

Breen plans for MIX to be open 4 p.m. until 10 p.m. or 11 p.m. weekdays and 11 a.m.-midnight or 1 a.m. on weekends. The center will be family-friendly until 7 p.m. After that, it will be for those 21 and older. Reservations are recommended for certain games.

He plans to open another MIX in Florida, possibly as soon as 2024, but he’s not divulging the location since it’s not totally lined up yet.