Old building in Moncks Corner to see new life

MONCKS CORNER, S.C. (WCBD) – There will soon be new life at the former Williams Farm Supply building in Moncks Corner. The building, which has been there for more than 90 years, will not be demolished – instead, it will be revitalized with new shops.

Elvin Guillermo, who co-owns the property, said he was visiting the Charleston area on a birthday trip when he stumbled upon Moncks Corner. “I loved everything about it. The charming stuff and it still had an old-like feel with a rich history. When I saw that building for sale, I thought it was the perfect building that I was looking for to kind of bring back to life,” he said.

He currently lives in New Jersey but plans on moving to the Lowcountry in the next few years. He wants to keep and renovate the building rather than tear it down and build new.

“It used to be an old feed store for a long time, which you know a lot of people were excited we’re keeping it because they remember seeing it with their grandfather, used to bring them there and get the feed from Rusty’s Place and it’s a very important full of rich history,” he said.

Guillermo has great plans for the old feed store building.

“Right now, we have a pizzeria restaurant. He signed a lease so he should hopefully be there by April, or May. He’s doing a bar there as well, so we’ll have a liquor license. I’d like to bring maybe a brewery, ax throwing, steakhouse, and ice cream shop- just kind of something more like you can go have dinner and you can have some drinks and hang out with the kids. You can have entertainment and then you can have dessert. And that’s my sense because I love community right so it’s very important to me and I love history, and I feel like that that’s what I’m trying to do there.”

“Mr. Rusty and his family were a staple to the community,” said Moncks Corner Mayor Thomas Hamilton. “Elvis, who is the developer on this, he really cares about not raising a property, keeping the heritage of it. And yeah, it’d be easier probably cheaper just to take it down to nothing and start from scratch, but they want to keep it in a way that honors the Williams Feed Store.”

“We’re gonna come up with a few names and I’m gonna put it up for a vote for the community to vote on it. But as I said, I want everything to be community-based. I don’t wanna just come in there and make everything cold and tear things down,” said Guillermo.

A timeline for the project was not given.