Cooper Super Duper
Charleston's newest 5-Star hotel checks in
It’s rare for a hotel to murder its competition with such elegant style, but Charleston’s newest, The Cooper, has done it like Holly Golightly armed with an AK-47.
Named after the tidal river it overlooks, the Cooper is a game-changer. Built by billionaire Ben Navarro’s Beemok Hospitality Collection (BHC), the company, which also owns the renovating Charleston Place, opened the wallet and held nothing back.
Debuting just three weeks ago, it’s a “Holy S**t” moment for the Holy City and a pivot point in Charleston’s long flirtation with money, water, and identity.
Here’s why. First up, the location’s terrific. Built at the point the Cooper River widens into Charleston Harbor, the hotel is the city’s only one of note to dangle its feet in water. Older Charleston properties were loathe to hug the shore, what with king tides and the pungent pluff mud. Instead the more prominent bunkhouses clustered on or near King Street, Charleston’s retail spinal cord. BHC dreamed and dared, with the Cooper the start of a 70-acre redevelopment of the city’s east side industrial waterfront that will include housing, shops and flood control. Hurricanes may blow, Antarctica may melt, but the Cooper looks to keep its head above water.
Secondly, its assured poise. Pull up to the lobby. Greeting you will be a cadre of youthful white-suited concierges right out of Gattaca. One becomes your personal attendant during your stay. With a light smile and a few deft swipes on a screen, they check you in to any one of 191 rooms, including 20 suites. To outfit them New York-based Champalimaud Design dreamed up a world of creamy Low Country good taste—pale oak floors, bathrooms patterned in French blue herringbone tiles, Matouk linens, woven textures, and a calming, coastal palette. Any drama is saved for the rooms’ Juliette balconies that sport views of the harbor or the plashing fountains of Joe Riley Waterfront Park. It all feels like a Southampton beach house scaled to a full-service hotel with a layout that keeps the water in guests’ sight lines as much as possible. The only thing missing is the sand in your On Clouds.
Thirdly, the amenities. They, too, center around the riverine. There’s a private marina with boats available for guest use, including a Hinckley yacht. Set forth to circumnavigate Fort Sumter with a pitcher of G&Ts and one for sunscreen. Friends can watch the action commence from the shimmer of the fifth-floor infinity pool arranged to be a watery social hub with cabanas and daybeds rather than a quiet lap lane. A 7,000-square-foot spa adds the current assortment of recovery features—cryotherapy, red light therapy, sauna—alongside standard treatments, and a fully equipped fitness center open around the clock with a living wall of terrarium vegetation in jeweled tones of jade, emerald and peridot.
And while it’s too new to render a final verdict on the restaurants, the ambition is clear. The Crossing, with its curvilinear wood finishes resembles a yacht’s interior with a lounge and chef’s table setup, and its Mediterranean-leaning menu is filled with local ingredients. Forte dei Marmi meet frogmore stew. Facing the public park at ground level the not-yet-opened CurrentBurger goes the opposite direction—retro soda shop, smash burgers, milkshakes, and a walk-up window to tempt Battery wanderers. Cooper Coffee & Wine handles the daytime-to-evening shift, moving from café to wine bar with a tidewater languor. Up top, Bar Marti nuzzles the pool, serving drinks and small plates. It’s a four-part ecosystem designed to keep guests circulating—and spending—without feeling trapped.
The effort doesn’t feel aspirational in that anxious, Southern-Charm reality TV way other Charleston hotels do. The bloodlines are better. The cheekbones are higher. The Cooper’s the closest to perfect money can by, and it took a lot of that—reportedly north of $115 million. And the hotel is also a symbol. It’s the culmination of Charleston’s two-decade journey to becoming a luxury travel destination. And while the city still debates, sometimes passionately, the wisdom of pinning its future on high-end tourism, there’s no arguing the Cooper is going to be the blue chip in that bet.
You’ll leave town wanting to wish the Cooper luck. It’s stunning. And its competition: the Bennett, the Dewberry, the empty lot on Meeting Street that will become the Four Seasons, and even the Cooper’s sister property, The Charleston Place, are going to have to reinvent themselves to compete with this weaponized Miss Golightly. No Breakfast at Tiffany’s for them. The Cooper has just eaten their lunch.
The Cooper is located at 176 Concord St, Charleston, SC 29401. For reservations and information, contact the property at (843) 722-4900 or visit thecooper.com. Nightly rates start at $850.
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