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Wild Dunes makeover strives for ‘village’ appeal
By Dennis Quick
Senior Staff Writer
Wild Dunes Resort has embarked on a construction campaign aimed at giving the Isle of Palms getaway a village-like ambiance.
The Village at Wild Dunes is the resort’s first condominium development in more than a decade. The project will feature 254 luxury condos, ranging from studios starting in the high $400,000s to $2-million penthouses. The first floor of the six-story units will be reserved for retail and restaurant space.
The project’s cost is estimated to be less than $200 million.
An April single-day sales event for the first phase of condominiums netted about $35 million in sales. So far, first-phase condominium sales have exceeded $80 million. Second-phase condo sales are expected to start in mid-June. First-phase condo construction is expected to be completed in summer 2007, with the second and final phases set for fall 2008.
The Village also will include a swimming pool and surrounding gardens in a park-like setting, plus a 7,000-square-foot spa and fitness center.
To help make room for the Village, the resort demolished its old conference center and last June began building a new one, the Sweetgrass Pavilion, across from the forthcoming Village. The Sweetgrass Pavilion offers about 10,000 square feet of meeting space. The South Carolina Health Care Association is the Pavilion’s first booking, slated for Aug. 7–9.
Located in the heart of the resort, near the Boardwalk Inn, the Village will add unity to what was a “disjointed community,” said Terri Haack, the resort’s vice president and managing director.
The 7-acre project also relieves the resort of excess blacktop, Haack said. Parking will be underground at the condos and conference center. Trees, grass and sand dunes will replace much of the existing surface parking.
For future development, the details of which have yet to be decided, parking will occur underneath a platform supporting the development.
“We don’t want to see any cars,” Haack said.
Creating a “visually more pleasing” environment geared more toward pedestrians than vehicles and where vacationers and homebuyers feel closer to nature is a growing trend among resorts, Haack said.
Dennis Quick is senior staff writer for the Business Journal. E-mail him at dquick@charlestonbusiness.com.
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