By Kathleen Dayton
Staff Writer

By Kathleen Dayton

Staff Writer

Call it sensibly priced housing or entry-level home ownership. Call it housing for the young professional or the newly retired. But don’t label it affordable housing, necessarily.

Parkside Condominiums on Daniel Island is being marketed to qualified buyers with specified incomes, but those buyers can earn up to 150% of the area’s median income and would not qualify for most federal low-income housing. Single households can qualify with an annual income of $59,250, which is more than many Charleston area professionals make.

“They’re not the ‘haves’ and they’re not the ‘have nots.’ They’re regular people who work every week and they have jobs and they don’t usually think there’s any kind of program out there to assist them,” said Cathy Kleiman, a consultant for Daniel Island Real Estate.

Kleiman said she thinks the term “affordable housing” might be a misnomer in the case of Parkside, even though the development is priced below market value for Daniel Island.

“I call it the changing face of affordable housing,” Kleiman said. “People who would never ever consider themselves eligible in that category are now eligible. I think the words ‘affordable housing,’ just because of history, makes people think low-income housing, and people making $59,000, $69,000, $89,000 a year do not relate to that thought.

“This is the most amazing and unique program, because it actually is a benefit to a lot of the population that we consider moderate or middle income who often fall between the cracks.”

Condominiums at Parkside range from $208,000 to $244,000 for two- and three-bedroom units of less than 2,000 square feet. Single-family homes on Daniel Island range from $700,000 to almost $2 million, and many condos are selling for $300,000 and more.

Matt Sloan, chief operating officer of The Daniel Island Co., said Parkside Condominiums represents the third tier of Daniel Island’s affordable housing plan, which includes low-income rental, moderate-income rental and home ownership.

The master-planned community entered into an agreement in 2001 with the city of Charleston to reserve 5% of residential units on the island for affordable housing.

Toward that goal, Daniel Island is offering rental units at Seven Farms Apartments, which was developed by the Humanities Foundation and targeted at people making no more than 50% of the area’s median income. Another affordable housing option is Blakeway Street Apartments, rentals for people of moderate income offered through the city of Charleston’s Housing Authority.

Parkside Condominiums is a private initiative between The Daniel Island Co., Daniel Island Real Estate and Trammell Crow Real Estate to make home ownership on Daniel Island more accessible. Trammell Crow purchased the property at a discount from The Daniel Island Co. and is accepting a lower-than-usual return on its investment. Trammell Crow is also paying 1% of the purchase price in closing costs to qualified buyers.

Other incentives for buyers are discounted commissions. Daniel Island Real Estate is charging a 4% commission instead of its standard 6% commission plus a 1% marketing fee.

“Everybody’s kind of taken a cut to try to make this work,” said Nichole Orvin, builder program manager for Daniel Island Real Estate.

Sloan said about half of the 84 units have already sold.

“We sold a fair amount of these to teachers in Mount Pleasant,” he said. “We also sold a sizeable amount to seniors who are no longer wage-earners.”

Part of the aim of Daniel Island’s affordable housing program is to offer housing on the island for people who work on the island and nearby. The majority of those people have jobs that are service-based.

Tammie Hoy, executive director of the nonprofit Lowcountry Housing Trust, said most people working in service-related jobs on Daniel Island could not afford to live there without the affordable housing program. Those with families can also send their children to The Daniel Island School, an elementary and middle school that opened last year adjacent to Parkside Condominiums.

“I personally think there should be a balance of housing in the community,” Hoy said. “We don’t just have jobs for CEOs of companies; we have a range of jobs.”

While there are housing programs available for low-income families, Hoy said there aren’t a lot of incentives for basic wage earners or seniors.

“There really is this growing population of young professionals or families that continue to find it difficult to find decent and affordable housing in the Charleston market within their price range because wages have stayed stagnant, but housing has continued to escalate,” she said.

Housing costs in the Charleston area have increased 150% since 1995, Hoy said, but wages have increased only about 16%. Builders also tend to focus on price points of $300,000 and up.

“You really are shutting out a lot of people to purchase, making the American dream out of reach for the average citizen,” Hoy said.

Kleiman said she thinks Parkside Condominiums will be a benefit to a new slice of the population that can use a break.

“This is for young couples, empty nesters, teachers, anybody who just really wants to buy but is renting,” Kleiman said. “It’s just an unbelievable opportunity.”

Kathleen Dayton is a staff writer for the Business Journal. E-mail her at kdayton@charlestonbusiness.com.

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