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Some Sea Pines Resort employees’ commutes may get much, much shorter in 2022.
Last week, plans for a 2.78-acre, 16-unit development to house Sea Pines Resort employees on the south end of Hilton Head Island received unanimous approval from the town’s design review board, moving it to the final steps in the process — a building permit and development plan approval. Once the town approves the permit, construction would take one year, a Sea Pines press release said, with move-in tentatively scheduled for early 2022.
The development, designed by Bluffton landscape architecture firm Witmer Jones Keefer, would house employees with the greatest need, to be evaluated yearly, according to the resort’s press release. Rent would be charged at or below fair market prices.
Currently, many Sea Pines employees, as well as other employees of Hilton Head’s robust restaurant and hospitality industries, commute long distances due to the high costs of living on the island. The proposal comes as community leaders place greater pressure on town officials and developers to create better housing options for those who power Hilton Head’s economy.
That the development would house Sea Pines Resort employees was kept under wraps for several months as design plans moved through the review process. On Monday, nearly a week after the plans had been approved, resort officials clarified their involvement.
Sitting at Target and Palmetto Bay roads just minutes from the Sea Pines Resort, the project would be in one of the three areas town leaders have identified as a prime location for workforce housing. It would include a two-story residential building, clubhouse and activity yard, and each three-bedroom, three-bath apartment would have laundry facilities, a kitchen and a living room.
“This project has been designed with flexibility in mind,” said Cliff McMackin, Sea Pines’ director of resort development. “The units are suitable for families or for international workers.”
At their Tuesday meeting, design review board members outlined conditions the development would have to meet to begin building, should it receive a building permit. Among the conditions: increase the trunk sizes of live oak trees to be planted, ensure the building meets residential lighting requirements and move accessible parking spaces closer to a wheelchair lift at the clubhouse.
“Conditions are checked by the town staff as the building is being constructed,” said Michael Gentemann, chair of the design review board. “They do not have to come to the review board.”
The decision on Palmetto Bay Lodges comes as the town inches closer to creating a formal workforce housing program and to changing its rules to allow workforce housing to be built in certain zoning districts. Official workforce housing, which would be regulated by the town, is not currently permitted anywhere on the island.
Under the proposed program, zones eligible for workforce housing would be: those with low to moderate, moderate, and moderate to high densities; community commercial districts; light commercial districts; medical districts; mixed-use planned development districts; mixed-use waterfront districts; and the districts surrounding Main Street, Mitchelville, Sea Pines Circle and Stoney. Certain property types, including single-family subdivisions and individual units in multifamily buildings, would not be eligible.
In early August, town manager Steve Riley announced that the town had sent letters to 4,300 property owners notifying them that the town planned to change its rules, and that they could be affected. Later that month, the town planning commission unanimously recommended that town council approve the proposed changes and create a workforce housing program.
Town council is scheduled for a briefing on the amendments at 4 p.m. Tuesday.
This article has been updated to reflect the role of Witmer Jones Keefer.
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A development group with a broad hospitality foothold in downtown Beaufort is moving forward with plans for another hotel building.
The boutique-style hotel on Port Republic Street would include 12-15 rooms with leased space on the ground floor for a fitness or wellness center, said Dick Stewart, with 303 Associates. The real estate company owns the Beaufort Inn, which would neighbor the new building.
Work could begin in the first half of next year, Stewart said.
The three-story building on Port Republic would include 3,668 square feet on each floor, according to plans submitted to the city’s Historic District Review Board. The board previously approved plans for the building in 2008, and drawings with some changes had to come back for new approval.
As the economy has thrived and Beaufort has received regional and national recognition as a travel destination, dozens of new hotel rooms have been proposed downtown. Two more hotels are under construction on Boundary Street, even as local hotel operators face apparent increasing competition from the rise of short-term rentals.
The Beaufort Inn and 303 Associates have been actively expanding its overnight properties in a downtown area in the blocks just off Bay Street.
A full-service hotel planned as part of Beaufort Inn at the corner of Scott and Port Republic streets could break ground with demolition work as soon as next month, Stewart said. That will include 68 rooms, a restaurant, courtyard and pool.
A 12-room cottage with a courtyard on Craven Street was built in 2017 to complement the Beaufort Inn’s main historic building on Port Republic Street.
The inn’s affiliated properties also include Tabby Place, an event venue on Port Republic, along with nearby garden courtyards and a rooftop event space with views of downtown.
A proposed parking garage is still a possibility at the block bordered by Charles, Craven and West streets, and more parking is an expected need as more overnight rooms are built on vacant lots, Stewart said. The developer has also proposed tearing down a former BB&T Bank building on Port Republic to build meeting and event space for large groups and conferences.
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Chambers Architect","dateline":"","caption":"An architectural rendering shows a conceptual design of a hotel building (left) planned alongside the Beaufort Inn on Port Republic Street in downtown Beaufort.","photographer":"Submitted","is_mugshot":false,"text_alignment":"Default","summary":"","byline":"","kicker":""},"owner":"HiltonHead","allow_comments":true,"image":"https://www.islandpacket.com/latest-news/p1319i/picture245719400/alternates/LANDSCAPE_768/BeaufortDowntownHotel.PNG"},{"id":"243799267","url":"https://www.islandpacket.com/news/business/real-estate-news/article243799267.html","asset_type":"videoIngest","brightcove_id":"6167271570001","state":"published","title":"For $16M hunt deer, turkey and quail on this 3,7000-acre property in rural SC","publication":"islandpacket","layout_option":"","home":"/web/v1/sections/34711","home_section":{"name":"Real Estate News","url":"https://www.islandpacket.com/news/business/real-estate-news/"},"modified_date":1599245953,"published_date":1593445524,"leadtext":[{"text":"About an hour from Beaufort, Jon Kohler & Associates offers this property boasting of pine forests, hunting lodge and pole barn."}],"thumbnail":"https://cf-images.us-east-1.prod.boltdns.net/v1/static/5615998034001/f9e8c20e-3f00-49ff-b452-62c96264a587/52650108-0434-4a58-9774-a92e70de92ef/480x270/match/image.jpg","href":"/web/v1/content/243799267","access_tags":["matbasic"],"additional_sections":["34711"],"credit":"Drew Martin","lead_media":{"id":"243799267","url":"https://www.islandpacket.com/news/business/real-estate-news/article243799267.html","asset_type":"videoIngest","brightcove_id":"6167271570001","state":"published","title":"For $16M hunt deer, turkey and quail on this 3,7000-acre property in rural SC","publication":"islandpacket","layout_option":"","home":"/web/v1/sections/34711","modified_date":1599245953,"published_date":1593445524,"leadtext":[{"text":"About an hour from Beaufort, Jon Kohler & Associates offers this property boasting of pine forests, hunting lodge and pole barn."}],"thumbnail":"https://cf-images.us-east-1.prod.boltdns.net/v1/static/5615998034001/f9e8c20e-3f00-49ff-b452-62c96264a587/59f903b4-f49f-4280-a173-784ca1e053c9/1280x720/match/image.jpg","href":"/web/v1/content/243799267","access_tags":["matbasic"],"additional_sections":["34711"],"credit":"Drew Martin","summary":"","content":"","brightcove_thumbnail":"https://cf-images.us-east-1.prod.boltdns.net/v1/static/5615998034001/f9e8c20e-3f00-49ff-b452-62c96264a587/52650108-0434-4a58-9774-a92e70de92ef/480x270/match/image.jpg","photographer":"Jon Kohler & Associates","allow_ads":true,"ads":[{"publication":"islandpacket","tag":"https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/ads?ciu_szs=300x250&correlator=%5Btimestamp%5D&cust_params=sect%3Dreal_estate_news%26id%3D243799267%26eid%3D243799267%26vidlength%3Dshort%26pl%3D&description_url=%5Breferrer_url%5D&env=vp&gdfp_req=1&hl=en&impl=s&iu=%2F7675%2FHHI.site_islandpacket%2FBusiness%2FRealEstate&output=vast&sz=400x300&unviewed_position_start=1&url=%5Breferrer_url%5D&vidlength=short&vpos=preroll","lang":"en","sz":"400x300","vpos":"preroll","cust_params":"sect=real_estate_news&id=243799267&eid=243799267&vidlength=short&pl="}],"kicker":"","allow_comments":false},"summary":"","content":"","brightcove_thumbnail":"https://cf-images.us-east-1.prod.boltdns.net/v1/static/5615998034001/f9e8c20e-3f00-49ff-b452-62c96264a587/52650108-0434-4a58-9774-a92e70de92ef/480x270/match/image.jpg","photographer":"Jon Kohler & Associates","allow_ads":true,"ads":[{"publication":"islandpacket","tag":"https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/ads?ciu_szs=300x250&correlator=%5Btimestamp%5D&cust_params=sect%3Dreal_estate_news%26id%3D243799267%26eid%3D243799267%26vidlength%3Dshort%26pl%3D&description_url=%5Breferrer_url%5D&env=vp&gdfp_req=1&hl=en&impl=s&iu=%2F7675%2FHHI.site_islandpacket%2FBusiness%2FRealEstate&output=vast&sz=400x300&unviewed_position_start=1&url=%5Breferrer_url%5D&vidlength=short&vpos=preroll","lang":"en","sz":"400x300","vpos":"preroll","cust_params":"sect=real_estate_news&id=243799267&eid=243799267&vidlength=short&pl="}],"kicker":"","allow_comments":false,"image":"https://cf-images.us-east-1.prod.boltdns.net/v1/static/5615998034001/f9e8c20e-3f00-49ff-b452-62c96264a587/52650108-0434-4a58-9774-a92e70de92ef/480x270/match/image.jpg"},{"id":"245114990","url":"https://www.islandpacket.com/news/business/real-estate-news/article245114990.html","asset_type":"story","state":"published","title":"Multifamily complex proposed for Mitchelville oceanfront. 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A 45-unit, oceanfront development has been proposed for Mitchelville Road on Hilton Head Island, promising luxury amenities and 270-degree views of the water.
Beaufort firm Architecture 101 is leading the effort to bring multifamily housing to the previously undeveloped tract of land in Mitchelville, the first self-governed town of formerly enslaved people in America. The property was sold by Charles Bertrand to Hilton Head Island Beachfront LLC for $1.36 million in 2019.
Architect Steve Stowers said he intends for the complex to be “a very high-end establishment that should really upscale the housing offerings on Hilton Head.”
He said he does not intend for them to be used for workforce housing — affordable housing for people who work on the island, including teachers, firefighters and hospitality workers. Many advocates have called on the town to prioritize the development of workforce housing on the island, given that many workers commute hours to and from work because they can’t find affordable housing on the island.
Stowers said he believes in workforce housing, but the oceanfront is not the right location for it.
“You are not going to find oceanfront workforce housing,” Stowers said. “You’ll find that hospitality and tourism money is always going to find its way to the water.”
He noted that he had been part of workforce housing projects on the island, including the One Park Lane apartments on the island’s south end.
Chris Christon, a Hilton Head Island resident and member of the business workforce coalition sponsored by the Chamber of Commerce, noted that the town council has not passed specific solutions to the workforce housing crisis.
“It’s hard to oppose a luxury housing complex when the town has not put in place mechanisms to support workforce housing development,” Christon said. “It would be to everybody’s necessity and advantage that there is more workforce housing on the island.”
In early August, town manager Steve Riley announced that the town had mailed letters to 4,300 affected property owners notifying them that the town wanted to change its rules to allow workforce housing to be built in some zoning districts.
Last week, the Town Planning Commission unanimously voted to recommend Town Council approve the changes and create a workforce housing program. A Town Council briefing on the workforce housing amendments will be held at 4 p.m. Sept. 15.
The Mitchelville district, on the north end of the island, is one of the zones in which workforce housing would be allowed under the proposed changes. Areas around Mitchelville Road — including the lot where the multifamily complex is proposed to be built — have been highlighted as possible locations for workforce housing on a map released by town staff.
According to town zoning documents, the purpose of the Mitchelville district is to “recognize the historical and cultural significance of this area of the Island.” Multifamily housing complexes are allowed.
Stowers said he was aware of the Gullah history and tradition in Mitchelville and that his project would reflect it.
“We are respectful of history there,” he said.
In the initial design submitted to the Town’s Design Review Board for conceptual approval, developers envisioned the complex including three four-story buildings with parking on the ground level. The largest building would have the main amenities, and the small buildings would each hold four units facing the beach. Anchoring the complex from the center would be a pool. Whether the units would be apartments or condominiums had not been determined yet, Stowers said.
The Design Review Board provided Stowers with feedback Friday on the design, expressing concern with the large scale of the project, the tree removal plans and the height of the buildings. Chair Michael Gentemann recommended Architecture 101 withdraw its proposal and create a new one responsive to the board’s suggestions before coming back for approval. Stowers agreed to do so and said he expects to have the design revised for the Sept. 22 meeting.
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\n","template_type":"","story_teaser":"The property was sold for $1.36 million in 2019.","lead_media":{"id":"245089285","url":"https://www.islandpacket.com/latest-news/jpn1bq/picture245089285","asset_type":"picture","state":"published","title":"Mitchelville Road Condo Photo.jpg","publication":"islandpacket","layout_option":"","home":"/web/v1/sections/7055","modified_date":1597869385,"allow_comments":false,"published_date":1597869385,"thumbnail":"https://www.islandpacket.com/latest-news/jpn1bq/picture245089285/alternates/FREE_1140/Mitchelville%20Road%20Condo%20Photo.jpg","href":"/web/v1/content/245089285","access_tags":["matbasic"],"additional_sections":["7055"],"credit":"Architecture 101","dateline":"","caption":"The Town of Hilton Head Island is considering a proposal from Beaufort firm Architecture 101 to build a 45-unit oceanfront development on Mitchelville Road.","is_mugshot":false,"text_alignment":"Default","summary":"","byline":"","kicker":""},"owner":"HiltonHead","allow_comments":true,"image":"https://www.islandpacket.com/latest-news/jpn1bq/picture245089285/alternates/LANDSCAPE_768/Mitchelville%20Road%20Condo%20Photo.jpg"},{"id":"241024901","url":"https://www.islandpacket.com/news/local/article241024901.html","asset_type":"story","state":"published","title":"Gullah land sold for Hilton Head subdivision could have 6-lane highway in its backyard","publication":"islandpacket","layout_option":"none","home":"/web/v1/sections/34717","home_section":{"name":"Local","url":"https://www.islandpacket.com/news/local/"},"modified_date":1597608223,"published_date":1597481100,"thumbnail":"https://www.islandpacket.com/latest-news/w5livx/picture244962670/alternates/LANDSCAPE_768/01OldStoneyVillagedm.jpg","authors":[{"name":"Katherine Kokal","email":"kkokal@islandpacket.com"}],"keywords":"hilton head, subdivision, homes, sale, new, squire pope, US 278, bridge, project, plan","access_tags":["matbasic"],"additional_sections":["34717","7053","7055","35005","34711"],"credit":"","dateline":"","summary":"A new subdivision off Squire Pope Road will feature 42 townhomes for sale after the developer bought land from a native family. But the whole lot could be in the shadow of new US 278 highway corridor project.","content":"
Construction crews are working on a 42-home subdivision on Hilton Head Island’s north end that may be in the shadow of a six-lane highway in the next several years.
The plot of land, once owned by a family native to Hilton Head Island, is where four of nine potential plans for the U.S. 278 corridor project show a highway connecting to nearby Wild Horse Road. The subdivision in the works will carry the same name as the historic Gullah community it is essentially disrupting.
The plan for the U.S. 278 corridor, a $240 million project run by the S.C. Department of Transportation, will re-imagine the entrance to the island that runs from Moss Creek Drive to Spanish Wells Road. The final plan will be announced this fall, according to SCDOT.
Five alternatives follow the existing footprint of the bridges to the island. The other four of the alternatives include constructing a new bridge that loops northward through marshes and existing power line easements to take pressure off the existing road.
But by the end of the year, part of that space will be developed into 42 homes and be sold to people who may not appreciate the coming highway in the backyard.
The potential threat of the bridge project creates an odd alliance between the subdivision and dozens of native families. The families have fought the highway’s widening for years out of fear they would lose generations-old land, pieces of which have been sold off in the name of progress.
Native islander Shani Green is keeping a close eye on the U.S. 278 project because developer Jim Moore purchased the at-risk land from her family in 2018 — a transaction that resulted in some members having to leave land that the Stoney neighborhood considered paramount to its history.
“We wanted the same consideration and respect just like other properties,” she said. “When you’re looking at bringing roads through, you’re talking about lives and families who have been there since before the bridge.”
The new subdivision, scheduled to be complete later this year, will be named “Old Stoney Village,” and share the name with the historic Gullah community the Greens once lived in.
The history of the property shows how native-owned land on Hilton Head Island is often subjected to the same problems — no matter who it belongs to.
The 16-acre lot where the subdivision will sit one day originally belonged to Matthew and Teena Jones, who divided up the land to more than 180 heirs, Green said.
Heirs’ property is land co-owned by many people and was likely purchased by freed slaves, according to the Center for Heirs’ Property Preservation in Charleston. At some point, the land was either passed down without a written will or without being formally documented, according to the center.
Green’s ancestors have lived on the land, part of the Stoney neighborhood, for generations.
Her father, Clarence Green, was a farmer and shrimper who operated a commercial shrimp boat on Hilton Head before his death in 2019.
When she looks at photos, many taken in black and white, Green said she sees her father, in one a child, and in another a young adult standing in the doorway of a home on the very same land.
The new development was originally to be called “Squire Pope Village.” Asked about the name change to “Old Stoney Village,” Green laughed.
“We kind of find it disrespectful and disheartening,” she said. Developer Jim Moore “actually may have thought he was paying homage to the family by making it the ‘Old Stoney Village,’ but when you say ‘old,’ it’s almost like ‘out with the old, in with the new.’”
She said she picked her battles and didn’t fight the name, but “it’s a little bit of a slap in the face.”
Reached Wednesday, Moore said, “Old Stoney Village is just a neighborhood. I don’t think it takes away from their tradition or heritage. I don’t see it as a problem.”
Moore said the name was also approved by the Town of Hilton Head Island, which agreed to change the name of the road that will bring cars into the neighborhood. He said the development is named after the 1700s sea captain Jack Stoney, who built a large plantation and homes for enslaved people still visible in Sea Pines.
“That’s basically where we are developing our story line,” Moore said. “It had nothing to do with the Gullah community.”
The Green family’s legacy changed when one out-of-state relative who was an heir to the property decided to sell — forcing the rest of the family to go along.
Renee Gregory, director of legal services at the Center for Heirs’ Property Preservation, said a forced sale is common in heirs’ property cases, especially if there are relatives who live in different states.
“One heir can go to the court and say ‘I have an ownership interest in this property, and I’m not able to reap the benefit’ so the court puts the property up to auction,” she said.
A quiet title action — a judicial process to determine who has interest in the property — identified 188 heirs on 32 Squire Pope Road, Green and Maria Parker, a real estate attorney, told The Island Packet in 2018.
The piece of land in question was sold with the consent of the Beaufort County Master in Equity, according to documents submitted to the town. At that time, the judge asked that the purchaser attempt to “provide relief for the current residents.”
The developer carved out three acres on the property for the Greens to move homes to so they could stay near their original homestead. Green said her family had to relocate two homes from the property.
“He didn’t want to be in the business of making people homeless and kicking people off land,” she said of Moore. “For the most part he has met us halfway. ... I’d rather be where I was born, lived and played in the yard than to be looking for an apartment for my parents.”
The heirs of the Squire Pope Road property were awarded $700,000 for nearly 16 acres of waterfront property on Dec. 18, 2018.
Green said that was a disgrace.
“I don’t like the fact that when they come to the Gullah families, it’s always with fair market value,” she said. “We all know that market value isn’t fair to anyone when you’re dealing with heirs’ property.”
Gregory said the forced sale of heirs’ property often goes for lower than market value because the property is simply put up for auction. Buyers can name their price, and often reduce the value of heirs’ properties for unclear titles. While she wasn’t familiar with the Greens’ case, Gregory said the arrangement for the family to stay on part of the land could have affected the sale price.
Less than two months after the sale, on Feb. 8, Beaufort County property records show the property was sold again to a buyer listed only as “multiple owners.”
It sold for $1.35 million.
Native islanders, specifically those who live in the Stoney area, have long scrutinized plans for the U.S. 278 corridor project. They say the bridges disregard the historic families living near the entrance to Hilton Head, and point out how the highway and original bridge bisected native communities.
“We want people to understand our culture and our heritage is dying because of this road and the overuse of this road,” Marc Grant, Ward 1 representative on Hilton Head’s town council, told The Island Packet following the passage of the transportation tax that funds the corridor project.
Residents who live on or near U.S. 278 want the alternatives that veer incoming traffic — 65,000 cars on an average day — north of the existing road. Meanwhile, residents who live along the waterway near the future subdivision are betting that building a new bridge will be too expensive for SCDOT to complete.
“It’s all for show,” Arthur Champen, who lives north of U.S. 278 on Squire Pope Road, said in 2019 of the two plans that don’t include widening the existing highway. “They’re trying to appease the people, but it’s really too expensive.”
But the potential for a bridge in the backyard of the property never came up in the 2018 sale, according to Lauren Martel, the attorney who negotiated a deal for the Greens.
“We never discussed that,” she said in March. Martel added that the Green family has been moved around several times by buyers and the Town of Hilton Head Island.
Meanwhile, SCDOT officials said they’re aware of the subdivision.
“We’ve seen images and prints of what it would look like,” project manager Craig Winn said in March. “The subdivision was approved, and then we got a copy of it, and there is a potential for the very back edge of that to be hit by (alternatives) 5 and 6.”
But the alternatives don’t show the potential for a bridge over the homes — a waterway flyover would descend to a six-lane highway by the time it got to 18 Squire Pope, Winn said.
“We would try to tweak it to avoid some houses,” he said. “But nothing’s decided.”
Moore said SCDOT has been unresponsive to his requests for details, and he’s not sure how close the bridge will come to his new property.
“There are nine different plans, and only three of them come this way,” Moore said. “If they come closer to the houses, it will definitely affect the home values and be a much more expensive proposition” for SCDOT.
As homes rise from the dirt in Old Stoney Village, the developer and the neighbors will be watching the U.S. 278 alternatives, one of which will be chosen in the next three months, according to the SCDOT website.
Once the townhomes at Old Stoney are built, they will be priced between $300,000 and $350,000, Moore said.
","kicker":"","text_alignment":"Left","href":"/web/v1/content/241024901","allow_ads":true,"allow_stn_player":true,"byline":"\n
\n","template_type":"","story_teaser":"“It’s a little bit of a slap in the face,” one native islander said of the subdivision and its controversial name","lead_media":{"id":"244962670","url":"https://www.islandpacket.com/latest-news/w5livx/picture244962670","asset_type":"picture","state":"published","title":"01OldStoneyVillagedm.jpg","publication":"islandpacket","layout_option":"","home":"/web/v1/sections/7055","modified_date":1597423414,"allow_comments":false,"published_date":1597423414,"thumbnail":"https://www.islandpacket.com/latest-news/w5livx/picture244962670/alternates/FREE_1140/01OldStoneyVillagedm.jpg","href":"/web/v1/content/244962670","access_tags":["matbasic"],"additional_sections":["7055"],"credit":"dmartin@islandpacket.com","dateline":"","caption":"Pictured on Friday, Aug. 14, 2020, is Old Stoney Village, a new housing development located off Squire Pope Road on the north end of Hilton Head Island, which has begun selling townhomes that will cost between $300,000 and $350,000. Two plans for the U.S. 278 Corridor Project could place a six-lane highway at the back of the property.","photographer":"Drew Martin","is_mugshot":false,"text_alignment":"Default","summary":"","byline":"","kicker":""},"owner":"HiltonHead","allow_comments":true,"image":"https://www.islandpacket.com/latest-news/w5livx/picture244962670/alternates/LANDSCAPE_768/01OldStoneyVillagedm.jpg"},{"id":"244853407","url":"https://www.islandpacket.com/news/local/community/beaufort-news/article244853407.html","asset_type":"story","state":"published","title":"Waterfront community with hundreds of homes planned in Beaufort. Here’s what we know","publication":"islandpacket","layout_option":"none","home":"/web/v1/sections/34723","home_section":{"name":"Beaufort News","url":"https://www.islandpacket.com/news/local/community/beaufort-news/"},"modified_date":1597161628,"published_date":1597161627,"thumbnail":"https://www.islandpacket.com/latest-news/cpkyz3/picture244854322/alternates/LANDSCAPE_768/SalemFarms.jpg","authors":[{"name":"Stephen Fastenau","email":"sfastenau@islandpacket.com"}],"keywords":"Beaufort, sc, real estate, houses, for sale, subdivision, neighborhood","access_tags":["matbasic"],"additional_sections":["34723","7053","7055","34711"],"credit":"","dateline":"east of","summary":"A new housing subdivision is planned as part of a real estate project on Salem Road in Beaufort SC. The area includes other new neighborhoods with homes for sale and a Publix grocery store in Beaufort Plaza.","content":"
A planned housing subdivision could bring hundreds of new homes to an area of Beaufort with potential to grow.
Salem Farms would be built on 95 acres east of Salem Road on Battery Creek, according to city documents. The proposed subdivision could include 325-350 homes, project representatives said in a recent public meeting, noting the number is a working estimate and lots haven’t been determined.
The neighborhood would be built near a growing commercial area with potential for more changes.
The property is between other waterfront subdivisions, including Live Oak at Battery Creek, the private Battery Point neighborhood and more established homes in Salem Plantation.
A Publix grocery store and other new businesses are planned as part of the redevelopment of the nearby Beaufort Plaza shopping center. A vacant car dealership and nearby shopping center on Salem Road are also prospects for new development.
The Metropolitan Planning Commission approved an early site plan for Salem Farms in July.
A technical committee will have to review engineering plans and proposed buildings before the city’s design review panel, among other steps, before the project can break ground, said community and economic development director David Prichard.
National home-building giant PulteGroup is behind the project. The company’s brands include Centex, which is building new homes in Shadow Moss in Port Royal, and Del Webb, the retirement community builder behind Sun City Hilton Head.
Home designs have not yet been submitted for review. The single-family homes will be Lowcountry style with front porches facing the main streets, a project manager’s report said.
A master plan shows a waterfront park on Battery Creek with a trail, five stormwater ponds and a network of sidewalks.
A local representative for PulteGroup declined to comment on the project Monday, citing company policy. A message left for a company spokesperson Tuesday wasn’t immediately returned.
","kicker":"","text_alignment":"Left","href":"/web/v1/content/244853407","allow_ads":true,"allow_stn_player":true,"byline":"\n
\n","template_type":"","story_teaser":"The growing area includes a Publix grocery store that will be built nearby.","lead_media":{"id":"244854322","url":"https://www.islandpacket.com/latest-news/cpkyz3/picture244854322","asset_type":"picture","state":"published","title":"SalemFarms.jpg","publication":"islandpacket","layout_option":"","home":"/web/v1/sections/7055","modified_date":1597082145,"allow_comments":false,"published_date":1597082145,"thumbnail":"https://www.islandpacket.com/latest-news/cpkyz3/picture244854322/alternates/FREE_1140/SalemFarms.jpg","href":"/web/v1/content/244854322","access_tags":["matbasic"],"additional_sections":["7055"],"credit":"City of Beaufort","dateline":"","caption":"An early site plan submitted as part of a city development application shows the general layout of Salem Farms, a housing subdivision planned east of Salem Road in Beaufort. The project could include more than 300 homes.","photographer":"Submitted","is_mugshot":false,"text_alignment":"Default","summary":"","byline":"","kicker":""},"owner":"HiltonHead","allow_comments":true,"image":"https://www.islandpacket.com/latest-news/cpkyz3/picture244854322/alternates/LANDSCAPE_768/SalemFarms.jpg"},{"id":"244775422","url":"https://www.islandpacket.com/news/local/article244775422.html","asset_type":"story","state":"published","title":"Workforce housing may be coming to your area of Hilton Head soon. What to know","publication":"islandpacket","layout_option":"none","home":"/web/v1/sections/34717","home_section":{"name":"Local","url":"https://www.islandpacket.com/news/local/"},"modified_date":1597048210,"published_date":1597048200,"thumbnail":"https://www.islandpacket.com/latest-news/ia44sp/picture244776182/alternates/LANDSCAPE_768/WFH%20Properties.jpg","authors":[{"name":"Kate Hidalgo Bellows","email":"kbellows@islandpacket.com"}],"keywords":"Hilton Head, South Carolina, zoning, workforce housing, development, districts, planning, Squire Pope, Palmetto Bay, Main Street","access_tags":["matbasic"],"additional_sections":["34717","7053","7055","35005","34702","34711"],"credit":"","dateline":"","summary":"Hilton Head Island, South Carolina wants to amend local ordinances to allow workforce housing construction in certain zoning districts and to create a workforce housing program. Due to location, not all eligible zones may get developments","content":"
Hilton Head Island may soon see an official workforce housing program as planners seek to tweak regulations that prevent workforce housing from being built anywhere on the Island.
In an email to Hilton Head residents, Town Manager Steve Riley announced that the town had mailed letters to 4,300 affected homeowners letting them know that the town wanted to change the rules so workforce housing could be built in some zoning districts. The town also said it planned to create a formal workforce housing program.
Workforce housing means homes set aside — and affordable — for those who work on the island, including teachers, firefighters and hospitality workers, many of whom travel hours each day to their job.
Under the proposed program, the districts eligible for workforce housing would be: those with low to moderate, moderate, and moderate to high densities; community commercial districts; light commercial districts; medical districts; mixed-use planned development districts; mixed-use waterfront districts; and the districts surrounding Main Street, Mitchelville, Sea Pines Circle and Stoney.
Yet some locations within those zoning districts may not be immediately eligible for workforce housing. Jayme Lopko, senior planner for the Town of Hilton Head Island, said planned unit developments, such as gated communities, would have to update their master plans with the town council to allow workforce housing.
Additionally, she said, single-family subdivisions and individual units in multifamily buildings would not be eligible.
The steps come nine months after town planners identified three areas on Hilton Head they thought would be best for workforce housing due to their proximity to places of employment and major roads — the Squire Pope area in the northwest side of the island, the Palmetto Bay area at the south side of the Cross Island Parkway, and the Main Street opportunity zone in the north-central part of the island.
All three areas are within zoning districts designated by the town as potential workforce housing areas.
Jennifer Ray, the town’s deputy director of community development, said many people have misconceptions about workforce housing and Hilton Head’s proposed program.
For starters, she said, anyone can build housing and say it is for workers. The Town of Hilton Head, instead, is creating a program that will oversee the development of workforce housing on the island.
“To be part of the program, you have to have a certain income level, employment restrictions, there [must be] covenants assigned to the property,” she said. “It’s not enough to just say, ‘we’re building workforce housing.’”
The town will regulate affordability period — the length of time during which a home can be considered affordable — household eligibility, deed restrictions, sale prices and rental rates, and provide a “density bonus” — which allows developers to build more units on a property than usual — to properties based on their amount of workforce housing.
Second, Ray said, some people think negatively of workforce housing, believing it will lower their property values. That’s not true, she said. Plus, it has been shown to have positive effects for the families who call it home, she said.
“Families are more likely to achieve economic self-sufficiency,” she said. “In reality, there are a lot of positives to it.”
Alex Brown, a candidate for Hilton Head town council in Ward 1 and a native islander, said he was glad to see the actions the town was taking to promote workforce housing, but wanted to make sure that the Gullah communities on Hilton Head Island would not be excluded from benefits for offering workforce housing.
“My biggest concern is that when we first started having the workforce housing conversations, it was really geared towards developers,” he said in an interview. “Their projects were not meeting our needs.”
On Tuesday, a planning commission subcommittee will discuss the proposed changes to the town ordinances. On Aug. 19, the planning commission will host a public hearing to consider the changes, and will pass along its recommendations to the town council. The public can watch the meetings on the Town’s website or Facebook meeting page.
To submit comments before the meetings, use the Open Town Hall service on the town’s website or call or email Jayme Lopko, 843-341-4695, jaymel@hiltonheadislandsc.gov.
","kicker":"","text_alignment":"Left","href":"/web/v1/content/244775422","allow_ads":true,"allow_stn_player":true,"byline":"\n
\n","template_type":"","story_teaser":"The planning commission will host a public hearing Aug. 19.","lead_media":{"id":"244776182","url":"https://www.islandpacket.com/latest-news/ia44sp/picture244776182","asset_type":"picture","state":"published","title":"WFH Properties.jpg","publication":"islandpacket","layout_option":"","home":"/web/v1/sections/7055","modified_date":1596743677,"allow_comments":false,"published_date":1596743677,"thumbnail":"https://www.islandpacket.com/latest-news/ia44sp/picture244776182/alternates/FREE_1140/WFH%20Properties.jpg","href":"/web/v1/content/244776182","access_tags":["matbasic"],"additional_sections":["7055"],"credit":"Town of Hilton Head Island","dateline":"","caption":"The areas in purple reflect proposed areas for workforce housing on Hilton Head Island.","is_mugshot":false,"text_alignment":"Default","summary":"","byline":"","kicker":""},"owner":"HiltonHead","allow_comments":true,"image":"https://www.islandpacket.com/latest-news/ia44sp/picture244776182/alternates/LANDSCAPE_768/WFH%20Properties.jpg"},{"id":"244601552","url":"https://www.islandpacket.com/news/local/article244601552.html","asset_type":"story","state":"published","title":"Fund may bring affordable housing dollars to Beaufort, Jasper counties. Here’s the plan","publication":"islandpacket","layout_option":"none","home":"/web/v1/sections/34717","home_section":{"name":"Local","url":"https://www.islandpacket.com/news/local/"},"modified_date":1596193212,"published_date":1596193200,"thumbnail":"https://www.islandpacket.com/news/local/community/beaufort-news/mlhqpm/picture155834839/alternates/LANDSCAPE_768/20MIntFarm","authors":[{"name":"Kate Hidalgo Bellows","email":"kbellows@islandpacket.com"}],"keywords":"lowcountry, soloco, beaufort, jasper, yemassee, bluffton, hilton head, hardeeville, Harry Williams, Eric Greenway","access_tags":["matbasic"],"additional_sections":["34717","34723","34732","34720","7053","7055","34702","34711"],"credit":"","dateline":"","summary":"South Carolina Southern Lowcountry Regional Board outlines affordable, workforce housing trust fund plan for Beaufort, Jasper Counties, plan for hiring consultant to perform study of area housing needs","content":"
A regional board working to increase affordable housing in the Lowcountry said this week that local governments have provided enough money for the first step in preserving and building housing for the workforce in Beaufort and Jasper counties: a study to figure out a sustainable revenue source.
The Southern Lowcountry Regional Board plans to pay no more than $130,000 for the consultant to conduct the study, said Eric Greenway, Beaufort County’s community development director. Each jurisdiction represented on the board will pay a percentage of the cost based on a population formula, Greenway said.
The board, which comprises representatives of Beaufort and Jasper counties and their cities and towns, works to solve issues across the region such as zoning, housing, employment, quality of life and social issues.
On Tuesday, Greenway, who oversees the Regional Housing Trust Fund subcommittee, said the subcommittee will interview two firms Aug. 10 for the consulting contract.
The full board will vote on the subcommittee’s recommendation Aug. 25.
Greenway said in Tuesday’s board meeting that a steering committee — consisting of representatives from each municipality in the region — would work with the consultant to draft a plan for a housing trust fund and then submit it to the full board. He said the process should be “well under way” by October.
“Along with that would come recommendations about how the funding formulas would work for seating the regional housing trust fund initially, and then what projects the regional housing trust fund would be involved with as far as allocating funding and resources to certain projects,” he said.
Afterwards, he said, subcommittee members would ask their individual jurisdiction’s councils to buy into the housing trust fund framework. What each municipality will have to contribute to the trust fund will be determined by the consultant and steering committee.
Hardeeville Mayor Harry Williams, who chairs the board, said he is excited about the opportunity because it expands the options for affordable housing paid for by counties to include private donations and grants.
“We all have recognized for quite some time that there is a housing shortage that can’t be attained by police, fire, nurses, plumbers — all the various workforce that we have,” Williams said.
To Williams, the regional aspect of the trust fund is crucial. He said that while the board actually consists of representatives from South of the Broad and Jasper County, Yemassee, Beaufort and Port Royal were so enticed by the benefits of the planned trust fund, they wanted to join.
“People travel to work from Hardeeville to Hilton Head, Bluffton to Beaufort, Beaufort to Hardeeville,” he said. “There’s no boundaries when it comes to the need for workforce housing.”
","kicker":"","text_alignment":"Left","href":"/web/v1/content/244601552","allow_ads":true,"allow_stn_player":true,"byline":"\n
\n","template_type":"","story_teaser":"A consultant and steering committee will determine how much each county will chip in.","lead_media":{"id":"155834839","url":"https://www.islandpacket.com/news/local/community/beaufort-news/mlhqpm/picture155834839","asset_type":"picture","state":"published","title":"20MIntFarm","publication":"islandpacket","layout_option":"","home":"/web/v1/sections/34723","modified_date":1497361159,"allow_comments":false,"published_date":1497361159,"thumbnail":"https://www.islandpacket.com/news/local/community/beaufort-news/mlhqpm/picture155834839/alternates/FREE_1140/20MIntFarm","href":"/web/v1/content/155834839","access_tags":["matbasic"],"additional_sections":["34723"],"credit":"Submitted","dateline":"","caption":"A Lowcountry Habitat for Humanity home built in Mint Farm in 2015. The city of Beaufort plans to give the organization a city-owned lot to build affordable housing on Mossy Oaks Road.","photographer":"File photo","is_mugshot":false,"text_alignment":"Default","summary":"","byline":"","kicker":""},"owner":"HiltonHead","allow_comments":true,"image":"https://www.islandpacket.com/news/local/community/beaufort-news/mlhqpm/picture155834839/alternates/LANDSCAPE_768/20MIntFarm"},{"id":"244402212","url":"https://www.islandpacket.com/news/business/real-estate-news/article244402212.html","asset_type":"story","state":"published","title":"These Mississippi cities are among the worst in the US for renters, report finds. Here’s why","publication":"sunherald","layout_option":"none","home":"/web/v1/sections/38430","home_section":{"name":"Real Estate News","url":"https://www.islandpacket.com/news/business/real-estate-news/"},"modified_date":1595444048,"published_date":1595443934,"thumbnail":"https://www.elnuevoherald.com/ultimas-noticias/t57zla/picture244226522/alternates/LANDSCAPE_768/GettyImages-1161056312.jpg","authors":[{"name":"Tanasia Kenney","email":"tkenney@mcclatchy.com"}],"keywords":"Renting, housing, Mississippi, Jackson, Gulfport, COVID-19, coronavirus, pandemic, pricing, WalletHub","access_tags":["matbasic","matopend"],"additional_sections":["34711"],"credit":"","dateline":"","summary":"A WalletHub report ranking the 2020 Best & Worst Places to Rent in the U.S. puts Jackson and Gulfport, Mississippi near the bottom of the list, though the two still fare slightly better than other cities.","content":"
Two Mississippi cities are among the worst places to rent in the U.S., according to a new analysis.
A new WalletHub report ranks Gulfport and Jackson among the worst cities for renters, putting them at the near-bottom of a national list showing where boarders “can get the most bang for their buck.” Gulfport came in at 175, followed by Jackson at 176, the report shows
Both fare slightly better than other cities on the list, including Miami, Detroit, Cleveland and Memphis.
Hialeah, Florida came in last as the worst in the U.S. for renters, according to WalletHub. Meanwhile, Bismarck, North Dakota ranked as the most rent-friendly city, followed by Lewiston, Maine; Lincoln, Nebraska; Rapid City, South Dakota; and Sioux Falls, South Dakota.
The nation’s economy was hit hard by the coronavirus crisis, which forced thousands of businesses to close and left millions without work. The housing market wasn’t spared in what WallletHub calls “pandemic pricing,” rents that have decreased in an effort to attract new renters.
“For most of 2020, average rent prices have been lower than they were last year, though in July they have started to exceed 2019’s rates slightly,” according to the personal finance website. “At the same time, mortgage rates have seen record lows while home prices have risen.”
For its “Best & Worst” analysis, the site compared 182 rental markets using 24 key measures of “rental attractiveness,” including cost of living, job availability, historical rental-price changes and security deposit limits. Cities were also ranked on quality of life, according to the report.
Kellen Zale, associate professor of law at the University of Houston, said there are number of factors renters should consider when looking at housing options.
“You may be able to rent a less expensive apartment on the outskirts of the city where you work, but you should factor in the expense (time and money) of commuting compared to renting an apartment closer to your job,” Zale said, according to WalletHub. “Also, consider what is important to you: a pool or gym in an apartment complex can be worth paying extra for, but if you don’t value these amenities, why pay for them?”
The most common mistake? “Not reading the lease before signing it,” she said.
Here are other key findings from the report:
Irvine, California, has the fewest violent crimes (per 1,000 residents), 0.56, compared to Detroit, which has the most at 20.08.
\n
\n","template_type":"","story_teaser":"Here’s how researchers came up with the rankings.","lead_media":{"id":"244226522","url":"https://www.elnuevoherald.com/ultimas-noticias/t57zla/picture244226522","asset_type":"picture","state":"published","title":"GettyImages-1161056312.jpg","publication":"elnuevoherald","layout_option":"","home":"/web/v1/sections/3178","modified_date":1594767722,"allow_comments":false,"published_date":1594767722,"thumbnail":"https://www.elnuevoherald.com/ultimas-noticias/t57zla/picture244226522/alternates/FREE_1140/GettyImages-1161056312.jpg","href":"/web/v1/content/244226522","access_tags":["matbasic"],"credit":"Getty Images","dateline":"","caption":"Miami-Dade tiene un programa de ayuda para pagar la renta para aquellas personas afectadas financieramente por el COVID-19.","photographer":"Thomas Winz","is_mugshot":false,"text_alignment":"Default","summary":"","byline":"","kicker":""},"owner":"Biloxi","allow_comments":true,"image":"https://www.elnuevoherald.com/ultimas-noticias/t57zla/picture244226522/alternates/LANDSCAPE_768/GettyImages-1161056312.jpg"},{"id":"244374147","url":"https://www.islandpacket.com/news/local/community/beaufort-news/article244374147.html","asset_type":"story","state":"published","title":"Decision on proposed Bay Point resort postponed again by Beaufort County. What to know","publication":"islandpacket","layout_option":"none","home":"/web/v1/sections/34723","home_section":{"name":"Beaufort News","url":"https://www.islandpacket.com/news/local/community/beaufort-news/"},"modified_date":1595351193,"published_date":1595351191,"thumbnail":"https://www.islandpacket.com/opinion/national-opinions/vfwl5w/picture115453688/alternates/LANDSCAPE_768/IMG_Bay_Point_scene_2_12_1_P69E2OJQ_L259659427","authors":[{"name":"Stephen Fastenau","email":"sfastenau@islandpacket.com"}],"keywords":"Beaufort, sc, bay point, resort, six senses, island, south carolina","access_tags":["matbasic"],"additional_sections":["34723","34999","7053","7055","36495","34711"],"credit":"","dateline":"","summary":"An anticipated Beaufort County zoning board decision to permit a resort development on Bay Point Island has been postponed due to COVID-19. Developers plan to build a Six Senses eco-resort on the SC property.","content":"
An anticipated decision on whether a high-end resort can be built on Bay Point Island has been pushed back at least a month.
A Beaufort County Zoning Board of Appeals meeting scheduled Thursday was canceled. The planned venue, the Beaufort High School auditorium, is closed to the public because of the coronavirus.
The board was to consider whether developers plans for villas, wellness centers, restaurants, a cooking school and an environmental education building as part of a 50-acre resort are appropriate under a special ecotourism designation in the county building code.
A potential decision and the next zoning board meeting has been postponed until at least the third week of August, said Eric Greenway, the county community development director.
Greenway said he intends to hold the meeting in person to allow the public the chance to comment. During the coronavirus outbreak, local government boards and commissions have moved largely to virtual meetings broadcast live online.
“It’s too important for the public to be able to have appropriate input and to be able to interact with the board,” Greenway said.
The island’s owners and developers plan to lease the property to Six Senses, a Thailand-based resort operator with remote getaways throughout the world.
County staff initially rejected plans in December 2019 as leaving too heavy a footprint not befitting standards for ecotourism.
Greenway and other county planners have since reversed course.
In the latest recommendation from the zoning board this month, planning officials said the proposal should be considered for approval under certain conditions.
Those conditions include a development agreement with the county detailing plans for wildlife and tree protections, public safety and disaster response. County officials also recommended a foundation be established and operational before the resort is built “for carrying out the cultural preservation and enhancing the cultural heritage of the community surrounding Bay Point Island.”
The zoning board should also require the remaining property be protected from development by a conservation easement, the staff recommendation says. If any of the conditions aren’t met, the county report says, the board should reject the plans.
The proposal has been opposed by numerous environmental and conservation groups, including the Port Royal Sound Foundation, Coastal Conservation League and Beaufort County Open Land Trust. Reasons include the potential effect on wildlife and the barrier island’s susceptibility to rising seas and worsening natural disasters.
Developers say the project is low impact, environmentally friendly and will be an economic driver for the area. They have said the development will only cover a fraction of the island and that buildings will be set back from the beachfront and not visible to passers-by.
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\n","template_type":"","story_teaser":"Developers want to build a high end, environmentally focused getaway.","lead_media":{"id":"115453688","url":"https://www.islandpacket.com/opinion/national-opinions/vfwl5w/picture115453688","asset_type":"picture","state":"published","title":"IMG_Bay_Point_scene_2_12_1_P69E2OJQ_L259659427","publication":"islandpacket","layout_option":"","home":"/web/v1/sections/34813","modified_date":1479731922,"allow_comments":false,"published_date":1479417278,"thumbnail":"https://www.islandpacket.com/opinion/national-opinions/vfwl5w/picture115453688/alternates/FREE_1140/IMG_Bay_Point_scene_2_12_1_P69E2OJQ_L259659427","href":"/web/v1/content/115453688","access_tags":["matbasic"],"additional_sections":["34813"],"credit":"Submitted","dateline":"","caption":"A view looking from Bay Point Island. The island is located at the southern tip of St. Helena Island, across Port Royal Sound from Hilton Head Island.","is_mugshot":false,"text_alignment":"Default","summary":"","byline":"","kicker":""},"owner":"HiltonHead","allow_comments":true,"image":"https://www.islandpacket.com/opinion/national-opinions/vfwl5w/picture115453688/alternates/LANDSCAPE_768/IMG_Bay_Point_scene_2_12_1_P69E2OJQ_L259659427"},{"id":"244254347","url":"https://www.islandpacket.com/news/local/article244254347.html","asset_type":"story","state":"published","title":"Bluffton ordinance doubles workforce housing requirement for new planned developments","publication":"islandpacket","layout_option":"none","home":"/web/v1/sections/34717","home_section":{"name":"Local","url":"https://www.islandpacket.com/news/local/"},"modified_date":1595271497,"published_date":1594932451,"thumbnail":"https://www.islandpacket.com/latest-news/29ruq/picture236788398/alternates/LANDSCAPE_768/AlstonPark_9410kb.jpg","authors":[{"name":"Kate Hidalgo Bellows","email":"kbellows@islandpacket.com"}],"keywords":"Affordable, workforce, HUD, development, planning, housing, Lisa Sulka, town council, Bluffton, median income","access_tags":["matbasic"],"additional_sections":["34717","34732","34705","34720","7053","7055","34666","34702","34711"],"credit":"","dateline":"","summary":"Bluffton South Carolina developers must restrict 20 percent of planned units for workforce housing. Town council also said buyers cannot make more than HUD median family income to qualify for affordable homes.","content":"
Bluffton Town Council unanimously approved an ordinance Tuesday evening that aims to double the number of units required to be affordable in planned developments and further restrict the income level required to qualify for affordable housing.
The ordinance, first recommended by the Affordable Housing Committee in 2018 and previously approved by the Planning Commission and council on first reading, amends three sections of the town’s Unified Development Ordinance.
Planned unit developments — mixed-use, master-planned communities such as Buckwalter Place, New Riverside and Belfair PUD (which includes Belfair Towne Village and nearby commercial and retail space, but not the residential space and golf course) — must include at least 20% affordable or workforce housing, up from the current 10% requirement. For planned-unit developments that have been renovated, the requirement applies only to the new part.
The ordinance also changes the qualifications for those seeking to purchase affordable housing. Now, sales are limited to those who earn no more than 100% of the gross area median income for Beaufort County, as determined by the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Those who earned up to 120% of the gross area median income could qualify to buy affordable housing.
The tightening of qualifications is intended to increase the number of units available to lower-income households, the recommendation from the AHC states.
The ordinance changes the definition of low- and moderate-income families to those who earn up to 100% of the Beaufort-area median income. In 2020, the area median income for a family of four in Beaufort County was $83,000.
The ordinance is part of a broader initiative by town council to focus on affordable housing. In 2010, the Affordable Housing Committee was created, and in 2018, town council added affordable and workforce housing to its list of strategic focus areas for the past year.
“It will be interesting to see how this plays out with our mission on this,” Mayor Lisa Sulka said. ”Great work.”
Clarification: An earlier version of this story mentioned Belfair without distinguishing between the residential, golf course, commercial and retail space. Belfair PUD includes Belfair Towne Village and commercial and retail space adjacent to U.S. 278.
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\n","template_type":"","story_teaser":"The ordinance also restricts who may buy affordable housing.","lead_media":{"id":"236788398","url":"https://www.islandpacket.com/latest-news/29ruq/picture236788398","asset_type":"picture","state":"published","title":"AlstonPark_9410kb.jpg","publication":"islandpacket","layout_option":"","home":"/web/v1/sections/7055","modified_date":1572384196,"allow_comments":false,"published_date":1572384196,"thumbnail":"https://www.islandpacket.com/latest-news/29ruq/picture236788398/alternates/FREE_1140/AlstonPark_9410kb.jpg","href":"/web/v1/content/236788398","access_tags":["matbasic"],"additional_sections":["7055"],"credit":"kbayless@islandpacket.com","dateline":"","caption":"A proposal from Village Park Homes LLC, already approved for 76 housing units, suggests adding 206 more to the Alston Park development in Bluffton’s New Riverside area. A thick layer of trees stand where the development is proposed.","photographer":"Kacen Bayless","is_mugshot":false,"text_alignment":"Default","summary":"","byline":"","kicker":""},"owner":"HiltonHead","allow_comments":true,"image":"https://www.islandpacket.com/latest-news/29ruq/picture236788398/alternates/LANDSCAPE_768/AlstonPark_9410kb.jpg"},{"id":"244069837","url":"https://www.islandpacket.com/news/business/real-estate-news/article244069837.html","asset_type":"story","state":"published","title":"‘Not just another development’: Del Webb announces Sun City community in 1994","publication":"islandpacket","layout_option":"none","home":"/web/v1/sections/34711","home_section":{"name":"Real Estate News","url":"https://www.islandpacket.com/news/business/real-estate-news/"},"modified_date":1594285211,"published_date":1594285200,"thumbnail":"https://www.islandpacket.com/latest-news/trghw4/picture244092877/alternates/LANDSCAPE_768/IMG-8828.jpg","authors":[{"name":"Norma van Amberg","email":""}],"keywords":"sun city, hilton head, beaufort county, south carolina, history, jasper county","access_tags":["matbasic"],"additional_sections":["34711","83642"],"credit":"The Island Packet","dateline":"","summary":"In this story from The Island Packet archives dated 1994, Del Webb and the South Carolina governor announce a Sun City community will be built in Beaufort County SC. Jasper County officials also celebrate.","content":"
Editor’s note: This story was first published in the Island Packet on Jan. 21, 1994. In honor of The Island Packet’s 50th anniversary, we are republishing stories from our archive.
Del Webb Corp. gave the official go-ahead Thursday to a retirement community that will bring a building boom, hundreds of jobs and thousands of new residents to Beaufort and Jasper counties.
Gov. Carroll Campbell and other dignitaries gathered at the Michael C. Riley Elementary School library praised the announcement.
“Look at the magnitude of it!” Campbell said. “We’re talking about a community that will bring an investment of over $1 billion. This is a tribute to our quality of life in South Carolina.”
The Arizona-based corporation plans to build as many as 500 homes a year on the 5,180-acre tract in Beaufort and Jasper counties. Officials expect a population of 14,000 to 16,000 in the new “Sun City” when it is completed in about 17 years.
Del Webb vice president Jack Gleason, who is in charge of planning for the company, told the crowd of more than 100 that the corporation’s board of directors unanimously approved the project.
“We are looking forward to having a premier project and are looking forward to a long and cooperative relationship with residents here,” he said. “We will be a good corporate citizen and a good neighbor. And we know the future citizens we will bring here will be good citizens and neighbors, too.”
Campbell, who flew to southern Beaufort County for the formal announcement, called the project “one of the most significant ever to come to the state.”
“It’s not just another development we’re talking about here — it is a city,” the governor said.
Del Webb, founded in 1928 by a New York carpenter, completed its “Sun City” retirement village in Phoenix in 1978.
The community is now home to 46,000 people and includes 10 golf courses, a 355-bed hospital, and a 7,000-seat outdoor amphitheater.
The South Carolina community is slated to have as many as 8,000 homes and three golf courses when it is developed.
Portions of the development will be along the Okatie River in Beaufort County, but most will be in what is now forests owned by the Union Camp Corp.
Del Webb is paying $23 million for the acreage, according to Securities and Exchange Commission filings by the company.
While significant for Beaufort County, where two-thirds of the community will be built, Campbell said the new development would mean a radical transformation for rural and impoverished Jasper County.
“We compete with some other areas for this,” Campbell said. “We compete hard to get them. We had not just land, not just water. We had a community that had quality. That tipped it in our favor.”
Del Webb plans to begin construction late this summer or fall and deliver houses between summer and fall of 1995, Gleason said.
The company has developed several similar communities in Arizona, Nevada and Palm Springs, Calif. Like most of the communities elsewhere, the South Carolina community will be limited to homeowners age 55 and older.
Officials who spoke at Thursday’s announcement stressed the economic benefits that the new community will bring.
“We welcome the roughly 800 direct jobs, which will run a full range of skills,” Campbell said. “But I am particularly pleased that our technical education system will be upgrading the skills of hundreds of construction trade workers. This skill upgrading raises per capita incomes and provides the upward mobility I seek through economic development.”
Beaufort County Council chairman Thomas C. Taylor said Del Webb would provide new jobs for minorities and 20 years from now could be viewed as the “touchstone of solid planning.”
D.P. Lowther, chairman of the Jasper County Council, said Jasper will be looking for the spinoff once the project gets going in Beaufort County.
“All of our lives we’ve never seen a project like this come,” he said. “It will help our financial situation and put some money on the streets.”
Dennis Wilkins, a Del Webb official picked as general manager of the development said in a later interview that the company has been working with James Mitchell, president of the Hilton Head Island NAACP chapter as a consultant on how to increase hiring of minorities.
He said Del Webb expects 150 to 220 sales people, accountants, maintenance and other workers over the next five years.
","kicker":"","text_alignment":"Left","href":"/web/v1/content/244069837","allow_ads":true,"allow_stn_player":true,"byline":"\n
","template_type":"","story_teaser":"South Carolina’s governor attended the formal announcement ceremony. ","lead_media":{"id":"244092877","url":"https://www.islandpacket.com/latest-news/trghw4/picture244092877","asset_type":"picture","state":"published","title":"IMG-8828.jpg","publication":"islandpacket","layout_option":"","home":"/web/v1/sections/7055","modified_date":1594241252,"allow_comments":false,"published_date":1594241252,"thumbnail":"https://www.islandpacket.com/latest-news/trghw4/picture244092877/alternates/FREE_1140/IMG-8828.jpg","href":"/web/v1/content/244092877","access_tags":["matbasic"],"additional_sections":["7055"],"credit":"Island Packet files","dateline":"","caption":"This 1995 photo shows construction on homes at Sun City Hilton Head.","is_mugshot":false,"text_alignment":"Default","summary":"","byline":"","kicker":""},"owner":"HiltonHead","allow_comments":true,"image":"https://www.islandpacket.com/latest-news/trghw4/picture244092877/alternates/LANDSCAPE_768/IMG-8828.jpg"},{"id":"244078177","url":"https://www.islandpacket.com/news/local/community/beaufort-news/article244078177.html","asset_type":"story","state":"published","title":"3rd hotel planned for busy Beaufort site as developers confident despite uncertainty","publication":"islandpacket","layout_option":"none","home":"/web/v1/sections/34723","home_section":{"name":"Beaufort News","url":"https://www.islandpacket.com/news/local/community/beaufort-news/"},"modified_date":1594232878,"published_date":1594232875,"thumbnail":"https://www.islandpacket.com/latest-news/9c0h2j/picture244087157/alternates/LANDSCAPE_768/BeaufortHOTELsf_IMG_0261.jpg","authors":[{"name":"Stephen Fastenau","email":"sfastenau@islandpacket.com"}],"keywords":"Beaufort, sc, hotel, parris island, south carolina, marine corps, mcas","access_tags":["matbasic"],"additional_sections":["34723","7055","35005","34711"],"credit":"","dateline":"","summary":"A third hotel is planned at Parris Island Gateway and Trask Parkway in Beaufort. A Hilton hotel has already been built and another is under construction at the site near Marine Corps bases and Spanish Moss Trail.","content":"
More hotel rooms could be coming to Beaufort as developers remain confident despite a recent hit from the coronavirus pandemic and the rise of short-term rentals.
A third hotel is planned as part of a 10-acre development at Parris Island Gateway and Trask Parkway, a busy intersection about a mile from the Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort gate. The project is called Desai Hotel and would be a five-story building with 116 rooms, according to plans submitted to the city.
The site already includes a Home 2 Suites hotel as part of the property developed by Savannah-based HD Companies. A Tru by Hilton hotel is under construction, as well as a commercial building that will house a Sub Station sandwich shop, plans show.
Business at the first hotel has been encouraging, developers say. The second hotel is slated for completion by early fall and will appeal to a different market, said David Hornsby, a vice president over development at HD Companies.
“We’ve experienced better than anticipated results,” Hornsby said.
A 3,600 square-foot commercial building fronting Trask Parkway that could house another food establishment is also part of future plans. The project includes parking space for food trucks.
The Spanish Moss Trail runs along the site and goes underground at the entrance to the Home 2 Suites. The concrete recreational path runs from Port Royal to beyond the Marine base.
Hotel projects are moving forward even as the coronavirus pandemic has affected travel and kept the public from attending Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island graduations — a big driver of northern Beaufort County visitors.
A SpringHill Suites under construction on Boundary Street is expected to add 111 rooms on a site of a former Econo Lodge. The Tru by Hilton is slated for another 92 rooms.
A smaller project is planned on Carteret Street to convert a building into a 12-unit hotel in the city’s historic district.
Northern Beaufort County has about 1,400 hotel rooms.
SpringHill Suites is a Marriott brand and should attract travelers who otherwise stay in Bluffton or on Hilton Head to earn points through the company’s rewards program, said Vimal Desai, chief operations officer of HMV Management, when the project broke ground last year.
The hotel growth comes as hospitality industry representatives expressed concern last year over occupancy rates and workforce issues as they lobbied local governments for more regulations for short-term rentals.
Hotel operators have brainstormed ways to attract corporate travelers early in the week to diversify business amid the uncertainty.
Hornsby said the Home 2 Suites hotel’s proximity to the Marine air base has helped draw civilian travelers who visit the base to service planes.
The Desai Hotel proposal includes meeting rooms, a lobby and a fitness center on the ground floor. The upper four floors would be made up of double and king suites.
The city Design Review Board will consider conceptual approval of the plans during a virtual meeting at 2 p.m. Thursday.
Developers expect to break ground in 2021.
","kicker":"","text_alignment":"Left","href":"/web/v1/content/244078177","allow_ads":true,"allow_stn_player":true,"byline":"\n
\n","template_type":"","story_teaser":"A sandwich shop and another commercial building are also part of the project.","lead_media":{"id":"244087157","url":"https://www.islandpacket.com/latest-news/9c0h2j/picture244087157","asset_type":"picture","state":"published","title":"BeaufortHOTELsf_IMG_0261.jpg","publication":"islandpacket","layout_option":"","home":"/web/v1/sections/7055","modified_date":1594232447,"allow_comments":false,"published_date":1594232447,"thumbnail":"https://www.islandpacket.com/latest-news/9c0h2j/picture244087157/alternates/FREE_1140/BeaufortHOTELsf_IMG_0261.jpg","href":"/web/v1/content/244087157","access_tags":["matbasic"],"additional_sections":["7055"],"credit":"sfastenau@beaufortgazette.com","dateline":"","caption":"A look at the property on the southeast corner of Parris Island Gateway and Trask Parkway as seen on Wednesday, July 8, 2020 where a third hotel will be built in Beaufort.","photographer":"Stephen Fastenau","is_mugshot":false,"text_alignment":"Default","summary":"","byline":"","kicker":""},"owner":"HiltonHead","allow_comments":true,"image":"https://www.islandpacket.com/latest-news/9c0h2j/picture244087157/alternates/LANDSCAPE_768/BeaufortHOTELsf_IMG_0261.jpg"},{"id":"243923157","url":"https://www.islandpacket.com/news/business/real-estate-news/article243923157.html","asset_type":"story","state":"published","title":"Didn’t win the 2020 HGTV Dream Home near Hilton Head? It’s up for grabs again","publication":"islandpacket","layout_option":"none","home":"/web/v1/sections/34711","home_section":{"name":"Real Estate News","url":"https://www.islandpacket.com/news/business/real-estate-news/"},"modified_date":1593691448,"published_date":1593612874,"thumbnail":"https://www.islandpacket.com/latest-news/heaw5h/picture238070989/alternates/LANDSCAPE_768/HGTV%20Dream%20Home%202020%20-%20Backyard.jpg","authors":[{"name":"Katherine Kokal","email":"kkokal@islandpacket.com"}],"keywords":"hilton head, dream home, hgtv, house, windmill harbour, inside, win, giveaway, sc","access_tags":["matbasic"],"additional_sections":["34711","34999","7053","7055","34717","35005"],"credit":"","dateline":"","summary":"The HGTV 2020 Dream Home has been listed for sale on Hilton Head, SC. If you didn’t win the home sweepstakes this year, you can buy it for over $1 million. Here’s a look inside at the Windmill Harbour house.","content":"
If yours was one of the 144 million entries in the 2020 HGTV Dream Home giveaway that didn’t win, you may have another chance!
The dream home — located on the marsh in Windmill Harbour near Hilton Head Island — has been listed for sale, according to Jean Beck, the CEO of the Hilton Head Area Association of Realtors.
It is listed for $1,595,000, Beck said.
The home was given away in the HGTV Dream Home sweepstakes in April.
Susan O’Gorman, of Perry, Georgia, won the 3,500-square foot home after faithfully entering the drawing every day.
“My favorite part of the house is not a room; it is the outdoors. I just love that backyard, it looks like a place you’d go escape and relax,” she said. “But there’s not a part of that house that I don’t love.”
Winning the home is a massive financial commitment, though.
Property taxes on homes of similar value are between $25,000 and $29,000 each year, according to the Beaufort County tax calculator.
If she hadn’t chosen to collect the prize of the dream home and Honda Passport Elite, O’Gorman could have taken home a $2 million cash prize.
In South Carolina, about $640,000 in state and federal income taxes would have been taken from the award.
","kicker":"","text_alignment":"Left","href":"/web/v1/content/243923157","allow_ads":true,"allow_stn_player":true,"byline":"\n
\n","template_type":"","story_teaser":"The home in Windmill Harbour could be yours. (If you have $1.5 million, that is.)","lead_media":{"id":"238070989","url":"https://www.islandpacket.com/latest-news/heaw5h/picture238070989","asset_type":"picture","state":"published","title":"HGTV Dream Home 2020 - Backyard.jpg","publication":"islandpacket","layout_option":"","home":"/web/v1/sections/7055","modified_date":1575564408,"allow_comments":false,"published_date":1575563687,"thumbnail":"https://www.islandpacket.com/latest-news/heaw5h/picture238070989/alternates/FREE_1140/HGTV%20Dream%20Home%202020%20-%20Backyard.jpg","href":"/web/v1/content/238070989","access_tags":["matbasic"],"additional_sections":["7055"],"credit":"","dateline":"","caption":"The HGTV Dream Home 2020 in Hilton Head, SC","photographer":"Robert Peterson Rustic White Photography","is_mugshot":false,"text_alignment":"Default","summary":"","byline":"","kicker":""},"owner":"HiltonHead","allow_comments":true,"image":"https://www.islandpacket.com/latest-news/heaw5h/picture238070989/alternates/LANDSCAPE_768/HGTV%20Dream%20Home%202020%20-%20Backyard.jpg"},{"id":"243793752","url":"https://www.islandpacket.com/news/business/real-estate-news/article243793752.html","asset_type":"story","state":"published","title":"This SC plantation has 3,800 acres for hunting and can be yours for $16.1 million","publication":"islandpacket","layout_option":"none","home":"/web/v1/sections/34711","home_section":{"name":"Real Estate News","url":"https://www.islandpacket.com/news/business/real-estate-news/"},"modified_date":1593451599,"published_date":1593450757,"thumbnail":"https://www.islandpacket.com/latest-news/vlsc7f/picture243872757/alternates/LANDSCAPE_768/slater%20plantation%201.jpeg","authors":[{"name":"Lana Ferguson","email":"lferguson@islandpacket.com"}],"keywords":"plantation, ridgeland, sale, coosawhatchie, sc, south carolina, buy, land, nature reserve, hunt","access_tags":["matbasic"],"additional_sections":["34711","34999","34723","7053","7055","34717","35005","34786"],"credit":"","dateline":"","summary":"The Slater Plantation in Ridgeland SC is listed for $16 million. It is not part of a conservation easement and is home to a hunting lodge with land, woods, forests perfect for hunting deer, quail, doves.","content":"
An almost 3,800-acre plantation in Jasper County is waiting for a new owner who has $16.1 million.
Slater Plantation, a hunter’s dream, is nestled along the Coosawhatchie River in Ridgeland.
The buildings on the land include a two-story hunting lodge with three bedrooms and three baths, a large covered tractor shed, and a secondary pole barn.
The land is “jam packed with expansive upland pine forests and mature bottomland hardwood timber,” the listing says. The entrance has about 1,000 acres of upland quail woods that lead to the hunting lodge, which is surrounded by live oaks.
Deer, including 140-inch Boone and Crockett whitetails and a trophy whitetail herd, fill the property, making it ideal for hunting. Food plots and baiting sites are planted throughout the area alongside elevated box blinds.
The woods along the Coosawhatchie River are “very conducive for turkey hunting,” and include a 25-acre dove field surrounded by an 8-foot fence to protect crops.
The property also has a greentree reservoir, an area of forest that is flooded in the fall to create a sufficient wintering habitat for waterfowl.
Other than the 325 acres designated as a Gopher Tortoise Preserve with S.C. Department of Natural Resources, the plantation has no restrictions and no conservation easement.
Slater Plantation borders three other similar properties: Buckfield Plantation, Mont Repose Plantation, and Cotton Hall Plantation. According to the listing, this makes for a “massive contiguous footprint of well-managed trophy whitetail, turkey, and quail hunting plantations.”
Recently, the Tomotley Plantation, a 1,010-acre plantation founded in 1698 in Yemassee, sold for $7.9 million. A historic 1830s home known as “The Darlington House” — originally in Allendale but moved to Seabrook in an effort to save it — also has new owners.
Homes and communities with “plantation” in their name, especially those on Hilton Head Island, have come under scrutiny recently, a discussion revitalized by recent protests and rallies against racism and policy brutality. The debate over the use of the word has resulted in a petition for neighborhoods to stop using the term “plantation” in their names.
Nearly all the land on Hilton Head once had enslaved people working on plantation operations, according to recent reporting from The Island Packet.
South Carolina was established as an agricultural colony in 1670, and 50 years later, people of African descent made up two-thirds of the colony’s population, according to historical census data. The plantation system throughout Beaufort County made it one of the wealthiest areas in the United States.
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\n","template_type":"","story_teaser":"The plantation sits along the Coosawhatchie River.","lead_media":{"id":"243872757","url":"https://www.islandpacket.com/latest-news/vlsc7f/picture243872757","asset_type":"picture","state":"published","title":"slater plantation 1.jpeg","publication":"islandpacket","layout_option":"","home":"/web/v1/sections/7055","modified_date":1593451480,"allow_comments":false,"published_date":1593451480,"thumbnail":"https://www.islandpacket.com/latest-news/vlsc7f/picture243872757/alternates/FREE_1140/slater%20plantation%201.jpeg","href":"/web/v1/content/243872757","access_tags":["matbasic"],"additional_sections":["7055"],"credit":"Submitted","dateline":"","caption":"Slater Plantation","photographer":"Jon Kohler & Associates","is_mugshot":false,"text_alignment":"Default","summary":"","byline":"","kicker":""},"owner":"HiltonHead","allow_comments":true,"image":"https://www.islandpacket.com/latest-news/vlsc7f/picture243872757/alternates/LANDSCAPE_768/slater%20plantation%201.jpeg"},{"id":"243454146","url":"https://www.islandpacket.com/sports/golf/rbc-heritage-tournament/article243454146.html","asset_type":"story","state":"published","title":"No fans will watch top golfers at RBC Heritage — unless it’s a house party or boat deck","publication":"islandpacket","layout_option":"none","home":"/web/v1/sections/34849","home_section":{"name":"RBC Heritage","url":"https://www.islandpacket.com/sports/golf/rbc-heritage-tournament/"},"modified_date":1592308376,"published_date":1592042400,"thumbnail":"https://www.islandpacket.com/latest-news/6tsw95/picture229393374/alternates/LANDSCAPE_768/Mansbery_DavidGolfBallDM03.jpg","authors":[{"name":"Stephen Fastenau","email":"sfastenau@islandpacket.com"}],"keywords":"rbc heritage, hilton head, golf, tournament, pga tour, leaderboard, harbour town, rentals, tickets","access_tags":["matbasic"],"additional_sections":["34849","7053","7055","34717","35005","34711","34828"],"credit":"","dateline":"","summary":"The PGA Tour’s RBC Heritage golf tournament is closed to fans because of coronavirus, but some will still watch from rental houses on the golf course and from boats overlooking Harbour Town on Hilton Head.","content":"
The top golfers in the world will tee it up on Hilton Head Island soon, though nobody has tickets to see them play.
That doesn’t mean everyone will be kept from seeing the action.
The RBC Heritage Presented by Boeing begins Thursday after being postponed from its traditional April dates. The event is the PGA Tour’s second tournament back after the season was suspended because of the coronavirus pandemic. The tournament ends Sunday, June 21.
Spectators aren’t allowed in the gates during early events to prevent spreading the virus as case numbers remain high in South Carolina. Most will be required to see Harbour Town Golf Links via the television broadcast by the Golf Channel and CBS.
But people who own homes or have booked vacation rentals on the golf course will be among the select group able to watch the likes of Brooks Koepka and Dustin Johnson stroll the fairways.
And at least one water sports business has plans for a golf party off the 18th hole in the Calibogue Sound, where a variety of boats and personal watercraft have gathered in a flotilla on tournament days in the past.
“I think you’ll see more deck parties than you’ve ever seen on the golf course,” tournament director Steve Wilmot said after plans for a June tournament were announced. “Anybody that owns a house out there, they’re going to have a lot of friends that week.”
For those not lucky enough to be on porch on the course, there’s a boat deck.
Bluewater Adventure in Shelter Cove launched the “Miss Christie” in February. The 36-foot, cycle-powered party boat would likely have been deployed during a typical Heritage in April. But with no fans allowed on the course, the cruise has a new hook.
The water sports outfitter is offering four-hour trips during the tournament and will anchor in Calibogue Sound off the 18th hole at Harbour Town. For $99 a person, up to 20 passengers can watch golfers finish their rounds live or on one of the boat’s flat screen televisions.
Hor d’oeuvres will be served and guests bring their own beverage and can keep the drinks cold on an ice bar.
Twelve bicycle seats allow passengers to pedal and power the boat or they can relax and let the motor do the work.
On the golf course, vacation rentals were already in demand for the tournament’s June dates because of the peak summer season, property managers said.
Sunset Rentals, which manages multiple properties advertising enviable views of Harbour Town Golf Links, is booked through tournament week. But no callers have asked specifically about the golf tournament, general manager Stacy Charlton said.
Golf tournament customers might typically seek to book starting late in the week through early the following week to coincide with tournament rounds. All the bookings next week are the typical Saturday-Saturday schedule of summertime visitors, Charlton said.
“The inventory sold — but it sold anyway,” he said.
The short-term rental site Airbnb showed just one option on the golf course for dates during tournament rounds Thursday through Sunday. A private room in a large home advertising a swimming pool and golf views was listed for $165 per night as of a week before the tournament.
Property owners might still be wary of limiting gatherings because of COVID-19.
Kerry de Vallette, who manages seven rental properties in Sea Pines that aren’t not on the golf course, typically rents to visitors during the Heritage. Regular renters have included a PGA Tour player. But coronavirus disrupted the normal spring schedule and the demand now is from people wanting to get out after being cooped up for months.
De Vallette said he knows a Harbour Town homeowner who doesn’t plan to have visitors during the tournament — even with social distancing.
“They’re not opening up their home this year as they have in past years,” he said. “They want to be smart and healthy about it.”
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\n","template_type":"","story_teaser":"Summertime on Hilton Head is already peak season.","lead_media":{"id":"229393374","url":"https://www.islandpacket.com/latest-news/6tsw95/picture229393374","asset_type":"picture","state":"published","title":"Mansbery_DavidGolfBallDM03.jpg","publication":"islandpacket","layout_option":"","home":"/web/v1/sections/7055","modified_date":1555609446,"allow_comments":false,"published_date":1555541914,"thumbnail":"https://www.islandpacket.com/latest-news/6tsw95/picture229393374/alternates/FREE_1140/Mansbery_DavidGolfBallDM03.jpg","href":"/web/v1/content/229393374","access_tags":["matbasic"],"additional_sections":["7055"],"credit":"dmartin@islandpacket.com","dateline":"","caption":"Spectators attending the RBC Heritage Presented by Boeing stand outside the home of Hilton Head Island resident David Mansbery which sits between holes 10 and 16 at Harbour Town Golf Links. Mansbery has installed netting to help keep slices off the 10th tee from breaking his home’s windows.","photographer":"Drew Martin","is_mugshot":false,"text_alignment":"Default","summary":"","byline":"","kicker":""},"owner":"HiltonHead","allow_comments":true,"image":"https://www.islandpacket.com/latest-news/6tsw95/picture229393374/alternates/LANDSCAPE_768/Mansbery_DavidGolfBallDM03.jpg"},{"id":"243331086","url":"https://www.islandpacket.com/news/business/real-estate-news/article243331086.html","asset_type":"story","state":"published","title":"As home sales skyrocket in Beaufort, 2 longtime real estate firms team up","publication":"islandpacket","layout_option":"none","home":"/web/v1/sections/34711","home_section":{"name":"Real Estate News","url":"https://www.islandpacket.com/news/business/real-estate-news/"},"modified_date":1591463488,"published_date":1591463486,"thumbnail":"https://www.islandpacket.com/latest-news/n7h73e/picture243333746/alternates/LANDSCAPE_768/home%20on%20fripp%20island.jpg","authors":[{"name":"Lisa Wilson","email":"lwilson@islandpacket.com"}],"keywords":"cora bett thomas, bay street realty, beaufort, savannah, south carolina, georgia, real estate, sale, lowcountry, buyer","access_tags":["matbasic"],"additional_sections":["34711","34723","34705","7053","7055"],"credit":"","dateline":"","summary":"Real estate firms in Beaufort County SC area and Savannah, Cora Bett Thomas and Berkshire Hathaway Bay Street Realty, have merged. Northeast buyers are looking for second homes to escape coronavirus quarantine.","content":"
Two big names in Beaufort County real estate have joined forces to cover both the South Carolina Lowcountry and Coastal Georgia. And, its leaders say, business is booming at a time when fears of coronavirus are driving people out of cities.
Bay Street Realty Group, which is a Beaufort-based franchise of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices, announced this week that it has acquired Cora Bett Thomas Realty, known widely in Savannah but also in Beaufort, Bluffton, Hilton Head and elsewhere.
Ken Willis, broker in charge and one of the founders of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Bay Street Realty Group, said the combined business now has more than 100 real estate agents across coastal South Carolina and coastal Georgia. Counted together, that team was responsible for $291 million in sales in 2019.
“It really positions us to be the leading real estate company in Beaufort,” Willis said. “We are extremely excited about it.”
He said Thomas and her firm’s offices will continue to operate under the iconic Cora Bett Thomas Realty name.
“Our amazing team is not going anywhere and I plan to keep working and feeling blessed to be lucky enough to sell real estate in the most beautiful region in the world,” Thomas said in a news release.
“The month of May was the best month our company has had on record,” Willis said.
“For Beaufort, the typical month would be $7 to $8 million dollars in contracts. In May, Beaufort did $15 million,” he explained. “... And the prospects look very good for June.”
He estimated home inventory levels are the lowest he’s seen “since probably the last recession.” This means price increases that are good for sellers.
Who is buying houses right now?
Willis said he’s seeing an influx of potential buyers from the northeast looking for second homes in the Lowcountry.
He explained, “They’ll have a Southern home to come to in case there’s another quarantine.”
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\n","template_type":"","story_teaser":"Who is buying houses right now? ","lead_media":{"id":"243333746","url":"https://www.islandpacket.com/latest-news/n7h73e/picture243333746","asset_type":"picture","state":"published","title":"home on fripp island.jpg","publication":"islandpacket","layout_option":"","home":"/web/v1/sections/7055","modified_date":1591462845,"allow_comments":false,"published_date":1591462845,"thumbnail":"https://www.islandpacket.com/latest-news/n7h73e/picture243333746/alternates/FREE_1140/home%20on%20fripp%20island.jpg","href":"/web/v1/content/243333746","access_tags":["matbasic"],"additional_sections":["7055"],"credit":"Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Bay Street Realty Group","dateline":"","caption":"This home on Fripp Island is one listed by Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Bay Street Realty Group of Beaufort.","is_mugshot":false,"text_alignment":"Default","summary":"","byline":"","kicker":""},"owner":"HiltonHead","allow_comments":true,"image":"https://www.islandpacket.com/latest-news/n7h73e/picture243333746/alternates/LANDSCAPE_768/home%20on%20fripp%20island.jpg"},{"id":"245642935","url":"https://www.islandpacket.com/news/business/article245642935.html","asset_type":"wirestory","state":"published","title":"As homes become offices, gyms and more, COVID-19 has upended how we think our living spaces should work","publication":"mcclatchy-wires","layout_option":"","home":"/web/v1/sections/50877","home_section":{"name":"Business","url":"https://www.islandpacket.com/news/business/"},"modified_date":1599778441,"published_date":1599724800,"keywords":"REAL, CORONAVIRUS, LIVING, SPACES","access_tags":["matbasic"],"additional_sections":["34705","34711"],"credit":"","dateline":"CHICAGO","summary":"Your home is working overtime during the pandemic. For many, what was once just a dwelling has become classroom, office, restaurant, gym, movie theater and more. COVID-19 has not only kept most of us confined to our quarters for the past six months – it has also altered the very definition of home.","content":"
Your home is working overtime during the pandemic. For many, what was once just a dwelling has become classroom, office, restaurant, gym, movie theater and more. COVID-19 has not only kept most of us confined to our quarters for the past six months – it has also altered the very definition of home.
As homebuyers increasingly seek out pandemic-friendly features like home offices and expansive outdoor space, Chicago-area real estate developers, designers and agents are helping them find the features they need to live in this new normal.
In a survey of 1,000 respondents who have bought a home during the COVID-19 pandemic, or plan to by the end of 2020, 40% said the pandemic changed what features they look for in a new house, according to the home listing site Homes.com. One in four say they want a home with larger square footage or an enclosed backyard, while 15% no longer find an open floor plan desirable, according to the survey results published July 29.
As the remote workforce becomes a more permanent fixture in Chicago, one-third of those surveyed said they want a home office. That's a big change from pre-coronavirus priorities, said Kate Marengo, founder of design firm Interior Chicago.
\"Home offices are something that has never been a huge part of (what clients want) in the past,\" Marengo said. \"I have people contacting me saying, 'My office is going to be closed through summer next year, and I can't work at my kitchen counter. What can we do to make the space work so I'm not totally cramped in my apartment?'\"
Briana Cox bought and moved into a condo in Lakeview during the early days of the pandemic in April. Though her relocation wasn't directly due to COVID-19, it did factor into her home search. Like many pandemic home hunters, Cox's top priority in her new place was having adequate space to work from home.
\"I really wanted to find a space that had a lot of light, and then had a space for me to set up something close to a home office, a place that I could sit and do work,\" she said. \"I was definitely coming in and assessing whether or not I could put some extra tools in there – can I fit a desk and a chair?\"
If she had known before April how much time she would be spending in her condo this year, Cox said she would have picked a place with central air conditioning, bigger windows and more lighting.
\"It was a tough decision to really decide if this place was where I want to spend 24 hours a day,\" she said.
The lockdown complicated the process further, putting all home renovations – from painting to fixing the leaky faucet – on hold. That's something many homeowners are going through, Marengo said.
\"I've had some big projects put on hold while people are determining whether they want to leave the city or not,\" she said, adding that many are moving away because they would like to spend less on housing, or because of the recent unrest in the city. \"They're like, 'If I'm going to be putting this place on the market and leaving, I'm just going to do the bare minimum.'\"
The pandemic has also changed where home is for many people. Whether or not the national trend of an exodus to the suburbs is playing out in Chicago, 22% of Americans have either relocated or know someone who has due to COVID-19, according to a Pew Research Center study.
For those staying in Chicago, upgrading outdoor space is a top request, Marengo said. One of her clients, for example, needed a deck expansion to give the client and her toddler more space to play as they spend more time at home.
In apartment complexes, the trend in outdoor space is sliding away from private balconies, said Ann Thompson, senior vice president of architecture and design at Related Midwest, the company behind developments like One Bennett Park, The 78, Lathrop and the Taylor Street Apartments and Library.
Instead, people are looking for expansive, outdoor common spaces with accommodations like grilling cabanas, outdoor pools, lounge furniture and fire pits, she said.
\"I think it's that variety of experiences and the size of these spaces that have been so helpful during COVID,\" Thompson said. \"It's not just a place where you can put a chair and have a little grill. These are places that are truly extensions of your living space, but even better than your backyard at a single-family home, because they have specific activity accommodations.\"
Renters, she said, don't have to choose what activities to devote limited space to. Instead, their homes can encompass shared spaces such as swimming pools, outdoor dining, dog runs and vast green space. Thompson herself moved from a single-family home to an apartment during the pandemic and said the move simplified her life.
\"The Chicago renter is starting to be more sophisticated, and they understand how important these peripheral spaces are to their lifestyle,\" Thompson said. \"Because you're not just renting an apartment; you're choosing a lifestyle.\"
Still, even residences with ample amenities aren't typically equipped to handle all aspects of living. People still want to shop for groceries, dine out or get their nails done. But some apartment complexes are working to foster an all-inclusive lifestyle where residents would, theoretically, never have to leave the building.
In Streeterville, Optima Signature provides a host of resident amenities, from rentable business suites to a two-floor health and fitness center. Services include an on-site chef, a restaurant, a nail salon and a veterinarian.
Mark Segal, senior vice president of Optima, said the Glencoe-based real estate developer wants to make life easier for residents – particularly during as stressful a time as a global pandemic.
\"Time has become one of the more precious commodities, and things that focus on delivering convenience and the quality of life ... are the focus for so many folks,\" he said.
Optima Signature also has an indoor connection to an adjacent Whole Foods Market. \"It offers the convenience of being able to do grocery shopping and limit what your interactions with other folks will be,\" Segal said.
Renters are looking for COVID-19 safety measures in their new homes – like the electrostatic disinfecting of Optima's common areas, Segal said. Some of those pandemic safety features also add convenience, like in-home package delivery.
\"Everyone is dealing with today's circumstances differently,\" Segal said. \"Everyone is having their own experience today, so it really is a wide range of things that people are looking for in terms of how to manage their own lives at this time.\"
","kicker":"","text_alignment":"Left","href":"/web/v1/content/245642935","allow_ads":true,"allow_stn_player":true,"byline":"","template_type":"","story_teaser":"","owner":"Chicago Tribune","copyright":"(c)2020 Chicago Tribune","allow_comments":true,"image":""},{"id":"245642160","url":"https://www.islandpacket.com/news/business/article245642160.html","asset_type":"wirestory","state":"published","title":"Manhattan apartment listings soar, pushing vacancies to a record","publication":"mcclatchy-wires","layout_option":"","home":"/web/v1/sections/50877","home_section":{"name":"Business","url":"https://www.islandpacket.com/news/business/"},"modified_date":1599776941,"published_date":1599724800,"keywords":"REAL, MANHATTAN, VACANCIES","access_tags":["matbasic"],"additional_sections":["34705","34711"],"credit":"","dateline":"","summary":"Manhattan apartments are piling up on the market – and it's getting harder to fill them.","content":"Manhattan apartments are piling up on the market – and it's getting harder to fill them.
Rental listings jumped to a record 15,025 at the end of August, more then double the inventory from a year earlier, according to a report Thursday by appraiser Miller Samuel Inc. and brokerage Douglas Elliman Real Estate. The borough's vacancy rate reached a new high of 5.1%. Last August, it was under 2%.
Renters are finding few reasons to sign new leases in Manhattan, with Midtown offices still largely empty and public school reopenings an unresolved question. Not all who left the borough during the coronavirus lockdown have returned, and those committed to staying in the city are getting more space for lower rents in Brooklyn and Queens.
\"The shift in the rental market has been sudden and significant in a short period of time,\" Jonathan Miller, president of Miller Samuel, said in an interview. \"Until we see a stabilization in outbound migration or some impetus to bring people back, we're looking at more softening rents to come.\"
To attract tenants, Manhattan landlords offered concessions such as free months or payment of brokers' fees in 54% of newly signed leases – a record share in nearly 10 years of data, the firms said. With the value of those sweeteners factored in, rents fell 7.7% to a median of $3,161.
Brooklyn rents remained relatively stable, even as listings in that borough more than doubled. The median rent fell 1.4% to $2,878.
In northwest Queens – where luxury towers in Long Island City tout easy access to Midtown – new leases plummeted 32% from a year earlier to 213. Concessions were offered on 59% of those deals.
","kicker":"","text_alignment":"Left","href":"/web/v1/content/245642160","allow_ads":true,"allow_stn_player":true,"byline":"","template_type":"","story_teaser":"","owner":"Bloomberg News","copyright":"(c)2020 Bloomberg News","allow_comments":true,"image":""},{"id":"245622460","url":"https://www.islandpacket.com/news/business/article245622460.html","asset_type":"wirestory","state":"published","title":"From free rent to gift cards, landlords are trying to entice renters with bargains","publication":"mcclatchy-wires","layout_option":"","home":"/web/v1/sections/50877","home_section":{"name":"Business","url":"https://www.islandpacket.com/news/business/"},"modified_date":1599745801,"published_date":1599724800,"keywords":"REAL, RENT, CONCESSIONS","access_tags":["matbasic"],"additional_sections":["34705","34711"],"credit":"","dateline":"PHILADELPHIA","summary":"Touted as a boutique luxury apartment building in the nexus of a tony suburb just outside Philadelphia, the Delwyn in Bala Cynwyd planned to open in the spring and charge as much as $2,430 a month for its biggest units.","content":"Touted as a boutique luxury apartment building in the nexus of a tony suburb just outside Philadelphia, the Delwyn in Bala Cynwyd planned to open in the spring and charge as much as $2,430 a month for its biggest units.
After the pandemic delayed construction, the Delwyn was ready to open in September. And with a concession: no rent for the rest of the year for the 87 unoccupied units in the building, which was developed by Federal Realty Investment Trust and is managed by Greystar.
\"What they're doing in some of these communities is saying, 'Look, we're worried. It's a little hard to predict the future. We want to have some stability, so let's eat some of the costs now,'\" said Igor Popov, chief economist at Apartment List, an online rental listing service.
In return, he said, it could be expected that property managers would ask tenants to sign longer leases.
At the Delwyn, residents who accept the free rent deal would sign a lease for two years instead of one, a spokesperson for the Philadelphia-based public relations firm Neff said. Three residents – the first to occupy the building – have accepted the Delwyn's offer and are expected to move in Sept. 15.
\"I think one month is common,\" Popov said of rental concessions. \"Two months is generous.\" Three months, as at the Delwyn, he said, was one of the more dramatic offers he had heard of.
Nationally, the struggle to find tenants in some real estate markets has sharply contrasted with widespread demand from home buyers motivated to purchase amid markedly low mortgage rates. The listing price of houses in the Philadelphia metro area was up about 19% in August as inventory declined in concert with strong consumer interest, according to an assessment of national residential real estate trends.
In the rental market, property managers most often have chosen to offer free rent to potential tenants during the coronavirus pandemic, according to a study from the real estate company Zillow. Across the United States, free rent made up 90.8% of the bargains offered to tenants, followed by a waived or reduced security deposit at 9.1%, a gift card at 6.6%, free parking at 2.3%, a waived application fee at 0.6%, and waived broker fees at 0.1%. The median length of free rent was about six weeks.
As a whole, the rate of rental concessions rose to 30.4% in July from 16.2% in February, according to the study, with Washington, Charlotte, N.C., and Austin, Texas, reporting the most bargains.
In Philadelphia, 30.7% of listings offered some type of concession in July compared with 15.3% at the same time last year, according to Zillow. Of the 50 largest metro areas in the U.S., Philadelphia ranked in the middle with the number of concessions in listings.
\"Concessions can often be a leading indicator of a coming price drop, in that landlords will often offer them first before reducing rent,\" the study noted, adding that property managers offered fewer concessions if rent was decreased. \"If owners feel concessions are no longer moving the needle, they'll reduce prices.\"
In Philadelphia overall, Popov said, the rental market has remained \"pretty robust in terms of rent.\"
\"It's getting some more interest from out-of-towners than it has in previous years,\" he said. \"Philadelphia is a really interesting market because it's more affordable than other coastal Mid-Atlantic cities, and I think the New York-to-Philadelphia migration supports the rental market.\"
Meanwhile, across the U.S., interest on the part of buyers outpaced the number of homes for sale, resulting in a median 10% increase in listing price. Last August, according to a report from realtor.com, about 500,000 more homes were on the market. This summer, compared with last, the number of homes for sale dropped 36% in August, more than the 34% in July.
\"Rentals are cooling off, but home prices in premium markets, they're not falling,\" Popov said. \"The truth is, inventory is so low, especially for price points that are interesting or feasible for first-time buyers. There's still so much demand for the price points that first-time buyers need that even a little bit of a reduction in demand, or a big recession, is not wiping that out as a result.\"
Although potential renters were able to capitalize on concessions ranging from free rent to gifts such as gift cards or flat-screen TVs, some current tenants have struggled to pay rent, Popov said, particularly if they lost their jobs during the pandemic.
\"It depends on the market, but I think most of the renegotiations that are happening are not folks trying to score a deal,\" he said, \"but they say, 'I've been furloughed since April, so I can't make it this month, but this is what I can do.'\"
Such a deal could present problems in the future, according to Zillow's study, noting that \"landlords prefer to offer a concession rather than cut rent and set a precedent that could linger when the market picks back up.\"
Even so, Popov said, \"the bargaining power is shifting somewhat.\"
","kicker":"","text_alignment":"Left","href":"/web/v1/content/245622460","allow_ads":true,"allow_stn_player":true,"byline":"","template_type":"","story_teaser":"","owner":"The Philadelphia Inquirer","copyright":"(c)2020 The Philadelphia Inquirer","allow_comments":true,"image":""},{"id":"245622410","url":"https://www.islandpacket.com/entertainment/movies-news-reviews/article245622410.html","asset_type":"wirestory","state":"published","title":"What will happen to Seattle’s empty office towers when COVID-19 ends?","publication":"mcclatchy-wires","layout_option":"","home":"/web/v1/sections/50877","home_section":{"name":"Movie News & Reviews","url":"https://www.islandpacket.com/entertainment/movies-news-reviews/"},"modified_date":1599745681,"published_date":1599724800,"keywords":"REAL, POSTCOVID, OFFICE","access_tags":["matbasic"],"additional_sections":["34705","34663","34711"],"credit":"","dateline":"SEATTLE","summary":"As many white-collar employers extend into next year the work-from-home policies they instituted in response to the coronavirus pandemic, a vast amount of vertical space in downtown Seattle is leased but empty.","content":"As many white-collar employers extend into next year the work-from-home policies they instituted in response to the coronavirus pandemic, a vast amount of vertical space in downtown Seattle is leased but empty.
The vacant space amounts to more than 700 football fields, by one estimate – acres of desks, with knickknacks and mementos that few but cleaning staff, maintenance crews and interior landscapers have seen for nigh on six months.
It's not clear when workers might begin trickling back into that space or what could become of it in the meantime. \"If anyone tells you they know what's going to happen, they're fibbing,\" said Rod Kauffman, president of the local Building Owners and Managers Association.
But amid overarching uncertainty about how long work-from-home regimes could last, tenants are scrambling to find flexibility in their leases while building owners and developers are examining options to convert offices into space that can be used in other ways, such as biomedical research.
The colossal office shutdown has added to the economic pain of the pandemic for street-level businesses downtown, as the hundreds of thousands of workers who would otherwise have streamed every day into Seattle's downtown core remain at home. It's difficult to envision a vibrant downtown Seattle emerging from the pandemic, researchers and businesspeople say.
Seattle restaurateur Ethan Stowell's Italian eatery Tavolata, which already has locations in Belltown and on Capitol Hill, had been slated to open a branch in a brand-new office building downtown on Second Avenue and University Street that's been leased by Dropbox, Qualtrics and coworking group Spaces. Stowell had expected the \"majority\" of business to come from workers in nearby offices.
The sign is up, but the opening has been postponed indefinitely, Stowell said. Nearly all the workers who would have occupied the building's offices are still at home.
\"There are no tenants,\" said Stowell. \"We'd be opening for no one.\"
Demand for dense, city-center corporate campuses from giants like Amazon, Facebook and Google led to a decade of breakneck office development here. Occupied office space in Seattle has grown 34% since 2010, according to the Downtown Seattle Association.
Now, those towers sit hollow. Roughly 90% of the 47 million square feet of leased Seattle office space is currently vacated as a result of the pandemic, according to Kauffman. In Bellevue, that figure is little better, 85%.
Office tenants, by and large, have continued paying rent on the unused space. But there are signs that some businesses may not return to the office: While vacancy rates are still hovering below 10%, according to research from commercial brokerages – near historic lows – office space available for sublease is rising as tenants try to exit the market.
In downtown Seattle, office space available to sublease has grown 20% since the start of the year, from 2.1 million square feet to nearly 2.7 million square feet, according to commercial brokerage CBRE – the largest jump since Amazon announced it would sublease its 722,000-square-foot space in under-construction Rainier Tower in early 2019. Available sublease space is only expected to increase.
And as leases come up for renewal in years to come, some employers may choose not to re-sign, or ask for less space or significant concessions. By 2022, Moody's forecasts as much as 22.3% of King County office space could be vacant.
Nationally, amid softening demand for space and an overall climate of economic uncertainty, prices for office buildings have fallen for the first time since 2011, according to Bloomberg. In Seattle, office building purchases are in deep freeze, according to the Commercial Brokers Association. The dollar value of sales for local office buildings was down 78.1% year to date as of June.
Judging by the actions of some large, tech-driven companies, the end of the pandemic may not mean the end of remote work. Companies including Zillow and REI have signaled that many workers will stay out of the office even if a coronavirus vaccine is developed. Facebook envisions half its employees working remotely on a permanent basis within the next decade. A Microsoft-commissioned survey found that 71% of managers and employees want to work from home post-pandemic.
Remote work \"is here to stay,\" declares a market report from local commercial brokerage Broderick Group. \"This is a long-term trend.\"
The commercial real estate industry saw a precursor of what could come in early August, when REI announced it would sell its brand-new Bellevue office complex. Remote work had proved surprisingly successful, said Ben Steele, REI's chief customer officer. And, he noted, it made little financial sense to occupy the sprawling campus amid plunging in-store revenue.
Publicly, most in commercial real estate remain cautiously optimistic that the pandemic-prompted surge in remote work does not mean the death of office space – at least in the long term. Amazon, for one, continues to bet big on office space, announcing last week it plans to up its occupancy in Bellevue by 2.75 million square feet by 2025.
\"People at the end of the day do not like to work from home,\" said developer Martin Selig, pointing to some reports that remote work productivity is declining as the pandemic stretches on, and that at-home employees are feeling increasing senses of isolation and ennui. Selig reopened his office nearly six weeks ago.
Industry watchers expect occupancy to return to pre-pandemic levels within four years after a vaccine enters mass circulation, according to Kauffman.
For ground-floor retailers reliant on the workaday rhythms of coffee meetings, business lunches and happy hours, though, that timeline spells \"devastation,\" said Stowell.
Grocery store Kress IGA, on Third Avenue and Pike Street, closed permanently last month after the economic effects of COVID-19 compounded other hardships, said Tyler Myers, the president of the real estate group that owns the supermarket. The city's 2018 sweetened-beverage tax and 2016 garbage fee hikes hit Kress IGA's bottom line, and a perception of persistent crime along the Third Avenue corridor made Myers worry for employees' safety, he said.
Then the pandemic hit, and the office workers who made up a large portion of the store's foot traffic vanished. \"I have convenience stores that are doing more business than\" Kress IGA, Myers said. He's confident people will return to the neighborhood when the pandemic is over, he said, \"but in the meantime, it's not a great place for my employees to be.\"
At least 66 downtown businesses have already closed permanently, according to the Downtown Seattle Association. Work-from-home isn't entirely to blame: Restaurants and retail were shuttered until the county met reopening standards in June, and the collapse of the convention and cruising industries have also played a role, said Don Blakeney, the organization's vice president of advocacy and economic development.
Still, he sees the shrinking number of office workers as a large part of the equation. \"The influx of people who came down every day weren't there to spend the money,\" said Blakeney.
There may be a feedback effect, too. As the pandemic slams Seattle's restaurateurs, artists and musicians, large office tenants may find some of what made the city attractive to prospective employees has vanished, said University of Washington marketing professor Jeff Shulman, who hosts the Seattle Growth Podcast.
In the short term, the street-level view of Seattle is grim, he said. \"We'll be seeing a lot more businesses boarded up, closed down, with for-rent signs in their windows,\" Shulman said.
Those forecasts have prompted developers to increasingly consider how to convert office space into other uses, said Brad Hinthorne, a Seattle principal at commercial architect Perkins and Will.
\"People are trying to open their property to the widest variety of future tenants, whether that's life science or medical or traditional office,\" he said. Those types of conversions can be costly, but they're less expensive than building from scratch – meaning \"we're certainly going to be seeing more of it,\" Hinthorne said.
One change that's unlikely: today's office buildings turning into tomorrow's residential towers, Hinthorne and Selig said. Installing additional plumbing and kitchen fixtures would be cost-prohibitive – and because office towers typically take up much more of a city block than do apartment buildings, dwellers in that kind of converted space would likely still be left with undesirable tunnel-like units stretching 50 feet from hallway to window.
Even companies that have indicated most strongly they're reconsidering their space needs haven't given up on offices altogether. REI is looking to lease satellite offices on the Eastside and in South Puget Sound, and brokers report there's already interest in its vacant headquarters, including from bullish-on-remote-work Facebook.
But the office space that survives the pandemic will likely look much different from what employees remember.
Even once offices reopen, employees will be reluctant to return unless they're confident they won't catch the coronavirus at work, said CBRE research director Julie Whelan. That could involve spreading out desks to ensure workers can maintain a social distance in the office, reversing a decades-long trend toward denser offices. Spaces for impromptu meetings and collaboration will also likely close.
Some employers are also asking for more flexibility as they navigate an uncertain economic climate, Whelan said. That means shorter leases, potentially including contracts with coworking spaces like WeWork that offer prefurnished offices and a shorter time commitment than a traditional lease.
Robin Cardoso, WeWork's Pacific Northwest director, said the company has fielded twice as many local inquiries from potential enterprise clients between March and August as it did in the same period last year. The interest comes from companies working to de-densify their existing office space and to secure meeting space closer to where employees live, she said.
Tagboard CEO Josh Decker said renting some amount of coworking space for meetings is likely in his company's future, once restrictions on in-person gatherings loosen.
Decker negotiated Tagboard's way out of its downtown Redmond office lease in April after realizing, he said, \"that my team is succeeding in spite of being remote.\" The company – which brings graphics and social media posts to TV news, live sports broadcasts and stadium screens – had a record sales quarter and shipped a new product, Decker said.
\"It would have felt really wasteful to have (the office) sitting there empty while we're paying for it,\" he said. With the money saved, he hired a new marketing director, Decker said.
\"Even if we were legally allowed to go back to our spaces,\" he said, \"I wouldn't want to do it.\"
","kicker":"","text_alignment":"Left","href":"/web/v1/content/245622410","allow_ads":true,"allow_stn_player":true,"byline":"","template_type":"","story_teaser":"","owner":"The Seattle Times","copyright":"(c)2020 The Seattle Times","allow_comments":true,"image":""},{"id":"245622030","url":"https://www.islandpacket.com/news/business/article245622030.html","asset_type":"wirestory","state":"published","title":"Language in Seattle-area rental ads divides neighborhoods along racial lines, study finds","publication":"mcclatchy-wires","layout_option":"","home":"/web/v1/sections/50877","home_section":{"name":"Business","url":"https://www.islandpacket.com/news/business/"},"modified_date":1599744660,"published_date":1599724800,"keywords":"REAL, RENTAL, LANGUAGE","access_tags":["matbasic"],"additional_sections":["34705","34711"],"credit":"","dateline":"SEATTLE","summary":"New research from the University of Washington offers some clues as to why, more than 50 years after the federal government banned housing discrimination, Seattle's neighborhoods remain segregated by race.","content":"New research from the University of Washington offers some clues as to why, more than 50 years after the federal government banned housing discrimination, Seattle's neighborhoods remain segregated by race.
The study, published last month in the peer-reviewed journal Social Forces, suggests that language in rental ads may have racially coded subtexts, possibly reinforcing biases among white prospective tenants that less-white neighborhoods are unsafe, peripheral and uninteresting.
The study underscores many academics', authors' and activists' depiction of racism as subtle, insidious and present in nearly every institution of American life – including the rental housing market.
The UW study was notable for narrowing in on how one industry sustains racial hierarchies – without seeming to talk about race, said Junia Howell, a professor of sociology at the University of Pittsburgh who researches racial inequality.
\"If we're being honest with ourselves, every American knows we have coded language around race,\" she said. \"When we're looking for the formal elements of segregation, there doesn't need to be a sign that says 'whites only.' Segregation has always been much broader than that.\"
The researchers scraped tens of thousands of Seattle-area rental ads posted on Craigslist – the area's largest online rental marketplace – from March 2017 to September 2018.
Those 18 months saw the tail end of a breathtaking apartment boom as major tech employers ramped up hiring. At one point, 50 software developers a week were moving to the city during that period.
After analyzing the ads, a computer program surfaced 40 themes, or \"topics,\" embedded in the copy that landlords and property managers wrote to market their units. Some ads, for instance, boast about the building's central location. Others emphasize security systems, while others play up goodies like pools and lawns.
Mapping where different themes were prevalent across Seattle showed ads for rentals in less-white neighborhoods are more likely to emphasize buildings' safety and private, in-complex amenities, the study found. Those ads also stress how easy it is to get out of the neighborhood, discussing short commute times and proximity to transit connections.
Comparable units in predominantly white areas are described much differently, the study found. Those advertisements more often play up neighborhood walkability and community, and buildings' \"vintage charm.\" Ads in predominantly white neighborhoods are also more likely to be for shared units, the study found.
Take, for instance, these two advertisements, quoted in the study:
For an apartment complex in Bitter Lake, where 45% of residents are nonwhite, compared to 33% in the city as a whole: \"Step out back and find a nice stretch of private grass at your disposal ... 24 Hour security in complex.\"
For a building on Capitol Hill, where 25% of residents are nonwhite: \"A vintage building with extremely modern conveniences! Located at the intersection of several main streets ... there are endless options for entertainment.\"
Both units are near parks, grocery stores, cafes and bars, said UW doctoral student Ian Kennedy, the primary author of the study. But whereas rental ads portray Capitol Hill and other predominantly white neighborhoods as exciting and central, ads like the one for the Bitter Lake unit suggest \"non-White neighborhoods ... need to be adorned\" – with amenities like lawns and pools – \"and secured to be suitable for habitation,\" the study authors wrote.
The contrast could indicate what kind of community ad-writers assume prospective renters will value, said Kennedy.
The study didn't make any conclusions about how the language in advertisements might directly sustain neighborhood segregation. But the authors hypothesized the racially coded language may signal to apartment hunters where Seattle's white residents live, prompting them to exclude certain neighborhoods from their housing search. Previous research from the UW has shown people tend to live around others who look like them.
The study expands on research into why neighborhood segregation persists when explicit discrimination has been outlawed for decades.
\"In Seattle, there's been a perception since the early 1900s that there's been a connection between race and housing value,\" said UW professor emeritus Quintard Taylor, who has chronicled the history of Seattle's Black community.
Developers, lenders, landlords, real estate agents, property managers and homeowners codified Seattle's neighborhood segregation, with tools including covenants that prohibited nonwhite people from living in certain neighborhoods and lending practices that made it more difficult for nonwhite residents to obtain home loans. Those practices \"pretty much guaranteed that Black folks were going to live in the Central District,\" Taylor said.
Rental units were also segregated, archived copies of The Seattle Times show: As late as the early 1970s, prospective renters scanning classifieds in this newspaper would learn that some units were \"restricted\" – code for \"whites only.\"
Housing discrimination was formally outlawed by the 1968 Fair Housing Act. But Seattle remains strikingly segregated today. South Seattle residents are more likely to be people of color compared to residents of neighborhoods such as Magnolia, Ballard and West Seattle, which have higher-than-average shares of white residents.
A perception that less-white neighborhoods are less desirable continues today, Taylor said. \"These ads show the historical legacy ... of practices like restrictive covenants that made neighborhoods exclusive, and drove up the value of housing because of that exclusivity,\" Taylor said.
The UW researchers found the racialized language in today's advertisements was more subtle than the overt discrimination of decades past. But it's also more pervasive – and more insidious, the study's authors argue.
Local landlords balked at the imputation that their advertisements were racist. If ads mention a security system, it's because some neighborhoods in Seattle are actually less safe than others, said Charlotte Thistle, the owner of a South Seattle rental house.
\"There's a lot of segregation in housing in Seattle, and there's violence in ethnically diverse neighborhoods such as mine,\" she said in an email. \"The reasons why this is so may be the subject of much sociological research and debate, but there's no denying that it is the case. The language in rental ads is merely a reflection of this, not the cause of it.\"
The study authors agreed that, in part, the language in the ads likely reflects the results of racist policies and practices in real estate and urban planning. Decades of investment in predominantly white neighborhoods, often at the expense of more diverse parts of Seattle, have led to some real differences in how those neighborhoods look and feel at the street level, the study notes.
Take walkability, a topic more prominent in ads for units in whiter-than-average neighborhoods. Central Seattle, between Interstate 90 and the ship canal, tends to be more pedestrian-friendly than neighborhoods north of 85th Street, which were incorporated without sidewalks, said Gordon Padelford, the president of nonprofit Seattle Neighborhood Greenways, which advocates for safer streets. It also tends to be whiter than other parts of the city. And the streets where pedestrians are most likely to get hit by cars – Rainier Avenue, Aurora Avenue and Lake City Way – all run through lower-income neighborhoods with fewer white residents than the city at large.
\"The number one reason people live in Seattle's urban core neighborhoods is walkability,\" Padelford said, citing a 2015 Puget Sound Regional Council study. \"It sounds like the real estate people have probably seen the same study I've seen.\"
But the language in the ads may also reflect biases with only a thin connection to facts, the study suggested.
When it comes to safety, for instance, crime rates vary only slightly between whiter North Seattle and less-white South Seattle, said Howard Greenwich, research director at urban development nonprofit Puget Sound Sage. The perception of crime, though, is only loosely tied to the presence of actual criminal activity.
\"The premise of the ad writers is completely cynical,\" Greenwich said. \"It really is playing on white people's base fears. The ads are about how white people are going to feel when they go see that apartment and walk into communities of majority people of color.\"
In other ways, too, the advertisements may reflect racial assumptions about who prospective renters might be. While ads for units in less-white neighborhoods are more likely to emphasize those neighborhoods' transit connections, some nonwhite residents of those neighborhoods say they're underserved by transit, according to a recent Puget Sound Sage report. That's because the region's transit network is good at funneling workers into the downtown core, but many nonwhite Seattleites don't work downtown.
And the ads place a racial value on aesthetics. Ads for units in predominantly white neighborhoods were more likely to stress buildings' \"vintage charm\" than ads for buildings of the same age and quality in less-white neighborhoods. In other words, in the language of rental ads, not every old building counts as \"vintage\" and \"charming\": Typically only ones in white neighborhoods do.
Whether landlords and property managers writing rental advertisements have racist intent is beside the point, Kennedy said: So long as the reality of neighborhood segregation by race goes unquestioned, the rental housing market is bound to reproduce that reality.
\"There are so many positive things\" about Seattle's majority nonwhite communities, Greenwich said. \"By writing ads for people who are coming from outside of the community – hooking their train to the massive growth of incoming high-paid tech workers, lawyers, accountants – landlords are missing all of that.\"
","kicker":"","text_alignment":"Left","href":"/web/v1/content/245622030","allow_ads":true,"allow_stn_player":true,"byline":"","template_type":"","story_teaser":"","owner":"The Seattle Times","copyright":"(c)2020 The Seattle Times","allow_comments":true,"image":""},{"id":"245642010","url":"https://www.islandpacket.com/news/business/article245642010.html","asset_type":"wirestory","state":"published","title":"Lee Nelson: Here’s exactly how much home staging costs – and when it’s worth it","publication":"mcclatchy-wires","layout_option":"","home":"/web/v1/sections/50877","home_section":{"name":"Business","url":"https://www.islandpacket.com/news/business/"},"modified_date":1599776701,"published_date":1599724800,"keywords":"REAL, BANKRATE, STAGING","access_tags":["matbasic"],"additional_sections":["34705","34711"],"credit":"","dateline":"","summary":"If you're selling your home, you know it should be clean and clutter-free, along with photogenic.","content":"If you're selling your home, you know it should be clean and clutter-free, along with photogenic.
Home staging can help accomplish this, and has been proven to bring in more interested buyers and sell your home quicker and for more money. In fact, 85% of staged homes sell for 5 percent-23% over list price, and a staged home can stay on the market for just 23 days, according to the Real Estate Staging Association (RESA).
How much does home staging cost?
The cost to stage a home ranges widely, anywhere from $1,000 to $8,600, with the national average running from $2,300 to $3,200, according to FixR, a home remodeling website.
Generally, a home stager will charge first for a consultation, which can cost $150 to $600 for two hours, FixR reports. The bulk of the cost is then determined by the size of the home and whether it's occupied or vacant.
A 2,000-square-foot vacant home, for example, can cost $4,000 to stage upfront, with a rental fee of $2,000 per month for all the furniture and decor until it's sold. For an occupied home, the cost can vary depending on the rooms the seller wants staged and the style and condition of their existing furnishings.
The cost of staging a home for two to three months typically falls somewhere around 0.75% of a home's list price, according to Pam Tiberia, owner and designer at Spruce Interiors in Hampton, New Hampshire. So, if your home is being listed for $320,000, the cost to stage it for a few months would be $2,400.
For higher-end homes, however, the cost can be more.
\"Typically, luxury homes range around 1% to 1.25% of the list price for staging,\" says Tiberia. \"These costs include labor, furniture rentals, movers and an insurance policy to protect the inventory.\"
Virtual staging might be the least expensive option, with some companies doing renderings of rooms as inexpensively as $35 a room, says Tiberia, who typically does a combination of occupied and vacant staging.
How home staging works
Eighty-three percent of buyer agents report that home staging makes it easier for homebuyers to visualize a property as their future home, according to the National Association of Realtors.
Home staging indeed offers a new outlook on your home, and each stager offers their perspective and different services. Some offer services like shopping and incorporating recommended items, such as a new shower curtain, accent pillows and updated bedding.
\"Many stagers also rent these kinds of props and come in to style the home before photos and open houses,\" says Tiberia.
Some other services a home stager might offer include:
–Discuss how best to furnish a space and recommend which furniture should be removed or added, along with accessories, art and styling items.
–Point out any noticeable repairs or maintenance issues.
–Recommend best spaces within the house to be staged, particularly in vacant staging. (Not all rooms need to be staged, typically.)
–Advise homeowners on defining ambiguous spaces and how to stage them. Some homes with extra rooms or funky floor plans can be solved by creative staging and furniture placement.
–Talk about removal or changes to window treatments to lighten a space.
With virtual staging services, on the other hand, most companies use photo editing software to render a conceptual view of what a room or the entire property can look like, according to RESA. Some of the editing techniques in virtual staging include:
–Paint color and floor changes
–Removing existing furniture from a photo and adding in digital images of new furniture, artwork, plants, and more
–Changing the visual views from the windows
Is home staging worth it?
About three-quarters of home sellers see a 5% to 15% return on investment over the list price of their home after making an average investment of 1% of the list price, according to RESA.
\"There are fewer houses on the market in a seller's market, so those that are professionally staged will typically command more interest and garner more offers – creating a bidding war situation in which the home sells for more than the listing price,\" explains Tiberia.
\"In either market, a buyer's or seller's market, the better a home presents, the more perceived value it has, which typically makes it sell faster and for more money,\" says Tiberia. \"Staging addresses many potential buyer objections, such as wall colors that are too specific, tricky floor plans or worn or outdated finishes.\"
Ways to save on home staging
While paying to have your home staged is often well worth the cost, not every staging service has to drain your bank account. You can do some DIY projects to save big bucks, and also use other savvy strategies in order to save:
–Many times, the home sellers stop at the consultation with a stager just to get ideas and then do some of the staging themselves, says Tiberia. This could be an option for you if you're looking to save considerably.
–See if you can negotiate with the stager to reduce costs by having only certain rooms staged.
–Declutter and clean your home to make sure buyers can actually see what they're potentially purchasing. Box up, clear out and spotlessly clean every surface to make it sparkle for tours. If you need to keep some items, you can rent a storage unit (although this can contribute to costs) or ask a friend or relative to store it in their basement or garage until you move. Otherwise, you can give items away or sell them.
–Painting interior walls yourself with a white or off-white color can change things dramatically. You may also want to hire a professional window cleaning company to help showcase your home's natural light.
–Updating lighting and fixtures can also enhance rooms, notes Tiberia. You can add decor such as mirrors or floor and table lamps.
–One final pro tip: Move all furniture away from the walls. It'll help communicate the ideal flow in each room to buyers, and help them envision how they can maximize the space.–––
Visit Bankrate online at http://www.bankrate.com.
","kicker":"","text_alignment":"Left","href":"/web/v1/content/245642010","allow_ads":true,"allow_stn_player":true,"byline":"","template_type":"","story_teaser":"","owner":"Bankrate.com","copyright":"(c)2020 Bankrate.com","allow_comments":true,"image":""},{"id":"245641575","url":"https://www.islandpacket.com/news/business/article245641575.html","asset_type":"wirestory","state":"published","title":"Erik J. Martin: What is a title search? How this important step can make or break your closing","publication":"mcclatchy-wires","layout_option":"","home":"/web/v1/sections/50877","home_section":{"name":"Business","url":"https://www.islandpacket.com/news/business/"},"modified_date":1599776221,"published_date":1599724800,"keywords":"REAL, BANKRATE, TITLE","access_tags":["matbasic"],"additional_sections":["34705","34711"],"credit":"","dateline":"","summary":"There are a lot of hurdles to clear when purchasing a home. You need to obtain the necessary financing, the property needs to be professionally appraised and inspected, and you need a title search to ensure you can legally own the property free and clear.","content":"There are a lot of hurdles to clear when purchasing a home. You need to obtain the necessary financing, the property needs to be professionally appraised and inspected, and you need a title search to ensure you can legally own the property free and clear.
What is a title search?
A title search is the process in which a title company or attorney examines public records and other documentation about a property to ensure it is able to be sold and its title is free of any claims, liens or other issues that could jeopardize your ability to legally own the property.
\"This search is conducted to ensure that marketable title to the property can be obtained and that no encumbrances affect the property rights of the purchasing party,\" explains Sarah Stitgen, closing attorney at Cook & James, a firm in Roswell, Georgia.
Stitgen notes that a title search is mandatory for any real estate transaction that requires title insurance. This includes homes purchased with financing, as mortgage lenders require a title search in order to provide funds for the loan.
\"Think of title searches on a house like an employer's background check on a job applicant,\" says Landy Liu, New York City-based general manager of Better Settlement Services. \"This protects the lender as well.\"
Who completes the title search?
An attorney or title company usually performs the title search, which is most often initiated after the seller and buyer execute a contract. The steps involved can vary depending on location, however.
\"In New York City, the search is done by independent title companies,\" says Greg Maybaum, a real estate attorney in New York City. \"Once the contract is signed, the purchaser's attorney typically orders the title search, and either that attorney or the title company provide the completed report to the seller's attorney. It's the seller's attorney's job to then manage and address title issues with the title company.\"
The company or attorney generally does the sleuthing at the office of the county or municipal clerk where the property is located. Many of the necessary records are now available online, so the searcher often does not need to physically visit an office to conduct the search.
\"This person reviews many sources of information related to the property,\" explains Suzanne Hollander, an attorney and real estate professor at Florida International University in Miami, such as:
–Deeds
–County land records
–Property plats
–Tax liens (federal or state)
–Divorce cases
–Bankruptcy court records
–Probate cases
–Construction liens
–Judgments
A thorough title search will also likely include details about mortgages attached to the property, street and sewer assessments, taxes and any other title problems present, Hollander says.
\"The search may go back as far as 50 years, or as far back as needed to identify the root deed and review each subsequent transfer of the property,\" says Stitgen. \"This ensures there is proper chain of title moving from grantee to grantee, all the way through the current owner.\"
Once all the information is gathered, the title company or attorney will create an abstract report that reveals what has been found regarding the title.
What happens if issues surface during the title search?
A title search may uncover one or more problems with the title. Here are some common issues, along with corresponding strategies to resolve them:
–Break in the chain of title – This issue can appear when there is a missing deed in the chain. \"If party A conveys property to party B, and then party C conveys the same property to party D, we are missing the link between parties B to C,\" says Stitgen. \"This can be resolved by obtaining a deed from party B to party C, or a deed from party B to party D.\"
–Improper or missing legal description on the deed – Depending on the nature of the error, this typically requires getting a corrected deed from the same parties to fix the error. \"In some cases, an affidavit from a scrivener, preferably the party who drafted the document or recorded the document, someone with knowledge of the transaction, may suffice to solve the problem, but only if the mistake is non-material and doesn't change the nature of the legal description,\" Stitgen says.
–Potential missing interests – When the title chain includes a transfer via an estate, it's essential to make sure any heirs have properly relinquished their interests in the property. \"If this has not been done, it will be necessary to obtain deeds from these parties releasing their interests,\" says Stitgen.
–Open security deeds – The title search may uncover an open security deed from the current or prior owner that was never released. \"If so, some research needs to be conducted to determine if this is left open in error. If it was, you'll need to obtain a release from the holder of the security deed,\" advises Stitgen.
–Liens – A lien is a legal right or claim on a property that is commonly used as collateral to fulfill a debt. A title search will often identify potential liens on a property. These will require extra research to learn if the lien has expired, if the lien is possibly not actually for a party in the chain of title, or if it is a valid lien that needs to be paid.
–Unpaid property taxes – Any outstanding property or \"ad valorem\" taxes, which are based on the assessed value of the home, will need to be paid before transferring the title to the new owner.
If one of these issues or another is found, homebuyers generally have three options, depending on what's allowed in their purchase contract, according to Hollander:
1. Ask the seller to the resolve the issue before closing
2. Ask the seller to compensate the buyer for the cost to fix the issue
3. Walk away from the deal and receive a refund of their deposit
Cost of title services
There are two main costs for title services provided by a title company or attorney:
1. Settlement service fees – These include expenses incurred to close the loan, such as the cost of wire fees, escrow and underwriting the title insurance policy. The latter includes the title search fee and cost to resolve issues discovered, according to Liu. The price to conduct the title search alone often ranges between $75 and $100, and can be paid for by the buyer or seller if the parties agree.
2. Title insurance premium – \"Title insurance ensures the person who is buying or refinancing the house as the rightful owner of the property,\" explains Liu. \"The premium is a one-time cost paid at closing that can range from 0.5% to 1% of the purchase amount. Because it's a percentage of the purchase amount, your premium can increase if your loan amount goes up.\"
Can I do my own title search?
Anyone can search property records through their county clerk's office, and no law says you can't conduct a title search yourself. But the experts strongly recommend against it.
\"Conducting a title search requires knowledge of real estate requirements and lien periods and the ability to navigate various courthouse records. It's not advisable to do this without experience, due to the complexity of records and indexing,\" says Patti DeGennaro, senior operations manager with Title Alliance, Ltd., in Media, Pennsylvania.
Also, \"if you wish to purchase title insurance for your property, conducting the title search yourself will not suffice because the title insurer will require that a professional conduct, review and advise on the search prior to issuing a policy,\" adds Stitgen.
Visit Bankrate online at http://www.bankrate.com.
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