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New developments offer better planning, affordability
By Rachel Pleasant
Staff Writer
Perhaps it was only a matter of time before developers swooped into the tri-county area, snatching up land to make way for large—if not huge—residential communities.
After all, said Bill Moore, a professor of political science at the College of Charleston, look at cities such as Atlanta and Charlotte.
“The South was basically an agrarian society until World War II,” Moore said. “After World War II, the South began to urbanize, and you’re seeing a number of the major cities in the South undergo tremendous growth. It’s the Sunbelt phenomenon.
“Look at what’s happened in Atlanta and Charlotte. That’s what’s happening here except South Carolina as a state is less urbanized, and it’s more concentrated here because we have an ocean on one side.”
That ocean, along with a number of characteristics, including undeveloped land, proximity to the coast and relative affordability, get the attention of prospective developers.
Because of the presence of paper and timber companies here, the tri-county region possesses vast expanses of undeveloped land, enabling a developer to, in one fell swoop, secure thousands and thousands of acres from one seller, rather than attempting to buy parcels on a piecemeal basis.
In Berkeley County, for instance, MeadWestvaco Corp. sold 6,700 acres of its land to developers, making way for Cane Bay and The Parks of Berkeley.
The decision to sell the land, said MeadWestvaco’s Jennifer Howard, was the result of several circumstances.
“Land is an investment, and shareholders expect a return on those investments,” Howard said. “This (selling land) is not a MeadWestvaco phenomenon, and there are several reasons for it. Over time, we’ve learned more about trees, and we’re more productive with fewer trees, and a lot of the land is in the path of development.”
MeadWestvaco currently owns 400,000 acres in South Carolina—including 143,000 acres in the tri-county area—and the company is looking to reduce its statewide land holdings to 375,000 acres. Howard declined to speculate at what point in the future it would become financially viable to sell more of its land holdings.
Among other companies that have land stakes in South Carolina is International Paper, which owns 11,000 acres in Charleston and Berkeley counties. In July, the company announced plans to sell segments or potentially all of its U.S. forestland, but spokeswoman Amy Sawyer said there’s “really no answer” as to when it becomes more financially feasible to sell land rather than keep it within the company.
Plum Creek, a Seattle-based timber company, owns 16,324 acres in Charleston, Dorchester and Berkeley counties, and spokeswoman Kathy Budinick, said the company constantly looks at its land for other uses, including development.
When companies, or in some cases family holdings, do decide to sell off land in one large chunk, it gets the attention of developers.
“The advantage to having a large tract like this is that you can plan traffic patterns and a sewer infrastructure that will flow through the entire property. We’re planning today so that future fire stations, schools, businesses and homes are in the best locations for tomorrow,” said John Roach, vice president of The Parks of Berkeley LLC, a 13,000-unit development slated for Berkeley County.
With land secured, developers are practically guaranteed a pool of buyers as growth from the Charleston, Mount Pleasant and Summerville areas spills into neighboring areas.
“There’s land here and Charleston, Mount Pleasant and Summerville are full,” said Jim Rozier, Berkeley County supervisor. “We’re the next frontier.”
What buyers find in the “frontier” of outlying areas is convenience and value.
Buyers in Berkeley and Dorchester counties are still within an hour or so of the beach, and, despite recent hurricanes, coastal areas are still expected to grow at a consistent rate. By the year 2020, 717,000 people will live within 50 miles of Charleston Harbor, up 14.7% from 2005, according to the state’s Office of Research and Statistics.
Plus, as anyone in the housing market has found, it is often easier to get more for your money the farther you venture from the cities of Charleston, Mount Pleasant and North Charleston.
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