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Apartment clusters springing up to meet rental demand
By Dennis Quick
Senior Staff Writer
Ladson Road and Glenn McConnell Parkway are becoming the hotspots for apartment developments in the tri-county area, developers say.
The apartment demand is driven by the nearly 15,000 new jobs created in the tri-county area during the past two years, according to Robert DeMoura, a broker with CC&T Real Estate Services in North Charleston.
Increased demand for rental units also rose after many apartments in the region were converted to for-sale condominiums.
By the end of the third quarter of 2006, building permits totaling more than $197.8 million had been pulled for 1,489 multi-family housing units, according to the latest figures from the Berkeley-Charleston-Dorchester County Council of Governments.
These new apartment communities are rising close to existing ones. This clustering of apartment complexes tends to attract more tenants just as clusters of restaurants draw more diners, said McLain Manning, a development associate with Trammell Crow Real Estate, which is developing a community on Ladson Road.
Apartment communities are being built farther out from Charleston because more land is available in the outskirts and the land prices are cheaper, said Robert Morgan, managing director of Trammell Crow Real Estate.
“(Ladson Road) is a major epicenter of rental housing,” Morgan said.
In an October 2006 interview with the Charleston Regional Business Journal, DeMoura put the number of new apartment units under construction at 1,690, with another 1,902 units proposed for construction. Most of the apartments are being built and proposed in the Summerville area, he said.
One of those projects is Trammell Crow’s Alexan at Wellborn Village, a 312-unit apartment community under construction on Ladson Road near Palmetto Commerce Park, Morgan said.
Farther down Ladson Road heading toward Summerville, Biltmark Construction Inc., part of Wilmington, N.C.-based Biltmark Corp., is building Cooper Ridge Apartments. Both this apartment community and Alexan at Wellborn Village are near two existing Ladson Road apartment communities, Oakbridge Village and Planters Retreat Apartments.
Ladson Road, which stretches between Dorchester Road in the Summerville area and U.S. Highway 78, is an ideal location for an apartment community with the ever-developing Palmetto Commerce Park being a vital employment center due to the proximity of the manufacturing facilities of DaimlerChyrsler, Cummins Turbo Technologies, Shimano American Corp., MTU Drive Shafts and other companies, Morgan said.
As for shopping, Ladson Road is close to downtown Summerville and perhaps 10 minutes from Northwoods Mall in North Charleston. Trident Medical Center and Charleston Southern University also are nearby, Morgan added.
The Bees Ferry Road-Glenn McConnell Parkway area in West Ashley is also a ripe location for a possible cluster of apartments, Morgan noted. It is an area featuring a new Wal-Mart Supercenter, a number of new single-family-home subdivisions, a forthcoming Publix supermarket on Bees Ferry Road plus an existing Bi-Lo supermarket.
Restaurants, retail outlets, West Ashley High School and Bon Secours St. Francis Hospital highlight Glenn McConnell Parkway while Heron Reserve Apartments and the Sabal Palms and Cypress Cove apartment communities are just off the parkway.
Shadow Moss Pointe, a 220-unit rental community consisting of apartments and town houses on Bees Ferry Road, is nearly completed and already leasing, said Nicole Klemm, assistant manager.
Dennis Quick is senior staff writer at the Business Journal. E-mail him at dquick@charlestonbusiness.com.
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