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Private island to get $31 million facelift
By Kathleen Dayton
Staff Writer
Three decades after the first residents and golfers moved to this 2,200-acre oceanfront paradise, Seabrook Island is poised for a makeover.
The circa-1974 amenities of the private island, including its stucco-and-steel Beach Club, Island House restaurant and golf clubhouse, will soon fade into history as a $31 million redo transforms the dated structures into a resort complex.
“It will change the whole face of Seabrook, and it will probably make it a much more upscale type of place,” said Jim Leib, president of the Seabrook Island Club. “The clubhouse and Beach Club were really pretty grand facilities in their day. It’s just that their days are long
past.”
Work has already begun on the project, which is a joint venture of the Seabrook Island Club and the Seabrook Island Property Owners Association.
About $10 million of the project will be funded by the property owners’ association and will pay for a community center and lakeside pavilion to be built near the entrance of the island on Palmetto Lake. The Seabrook Island Golf Club is shelling out $21 million for a new golf clubhouse and dining facilities, a new beach club, a remodeled 22-acre equestrian center with a new office and barns, and a reconstructed tennis complex.
Property owners had been talking for six or seven years about building a recreation center, said John Thompson, executive director of the Seabrook Island Property Owners
Association, but the first time the project went to a vote about four years ago, it didn’t pass. Joe Salvo, executive director of the Seabrook Island Club, said the organization decided about four years ago to change its strategy.
“The club’s original business model was the resort rental business and conference business,” Salvo said. “The buildings that are there now were essentially built for that business and are somewhat dysfunctional for our current business model. Truthfully, we were trying to do two things: be both a private club, a private island and be in the resort rental business. You can’t do both.”
The Seabrook Island Club is now focused on attracting more full-time residents to the island, Salvo said. There were 1,250 residents on the island at the time of the 2000 census.
In 2005, property owners passed a bylaw that requires new property owners to be members of the Seabrook Island Club and pay an initiation fee. The club has since grown from 1,250 members to about 1,750 members. The club receives capital contributions from new property owners equal to a half of 1% of their property value. A $3 million assessment also will be charged to club members through monthly fees over a two-year period to pay for the improved Seabrook Island Club.
A big part of what residents and club members will get for their money is a 6,000-square-foot fitness center that is twice the size of the current facility.
The Horizon Plan, what Salvo calls the island’s adaptation to and understanding of what a new generation of Seabrook Island families wants, will also voluntarily reduce the footprint of the island’s amenities along its 3.5-mile stretch of beach. The current 30,000-square-foot Beach Club facility, which contained a number of oceanfront conference rooms that no longer are needed, will be demolished except for its pools and outdoor café.
“Trading old buildings right on the ocean for one smaller building and open spaces is going to be a real positive, visually and environmentally, for the island,” Salvo said. “This is all about pride…building pride in your community.”
Kathleen Dayton is a staff writer for the Business Journal. E-mail her at kdayton@setcommedia.com.
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