Daniel Island experiencing boomtown growth

Real estate sales on Daniel Island are thriving and businesses large and small are making bets on the island’s appeal. Nearly a third of the way into its development plan, the island community is the modern equivalent of an old-fashioned boomtown.

“Daniel Island is moving at the greatest rate of activity ever,” says Matthew Sloan, vice president and COO of the Daniel Island Company, the group that spearheaded the development of Daniel Island. “Sales are up 60 percent this year and by August we sold more than we did in all of 2001. This August, in fact, was the best month in company history.”

A development plan for Daniel Island was first introduced in 1989, when the Guggenheim Foundation sold the island to the Daniel Island Company, a new entity formed by officers of the Daniel Island Development Corporation, which in turn had been working with the foundation to develop the plan and manage the early phases of the development. The plan from the beginning was to develop the island as a mixed-use community with businesses, homes, parks and playgrounds, nature trails, golf courses and marinas.

The island’s location at the convergence of the Wando and Cooper rivers is one of the keys to the plan’s success. Undeveloped real estate near Charleston was all but non-existent until the completion of the Mark Clark Expressway made the island accessible. The City of Charleston annexed 4,500 acres of land in 1991 that will eventually contain some 5,000 households and numerous commercial developments.

Commercial space leasing and sales on the island have been just as brisk as residential sales. Evergreen America, a steamship line that relocated to the island from East Bay Street, leases space in its offices to three tenants. “We had a real estate agent who assisted us with leasing the space, but to be honest with you, we didn’t need much help,” says Anna Bodisan, the company’s assistant manager for administration. “You wouldn’t believe the companies who wanted to come out here. Everybody wanted to be the first on Daniel Island.”
The island has drawn a wide range of businesses, from large firms such as software company Blackbaud Inc. to “mom-and-pop” operations.

“We’re lucky,” says Sloan. “The centrality of location means that a business doesn’t have to survive on the rooftops that are here. It can draw (customers) from anywhere in the area.”

Businesses also depend on healthy residential development. With 560 completed homes, 450 apartments and more than 2,000 residents, the community, says Carolyn Lancaster, the Daniel Island Company’s vice president for marketing, is starting to take on a life of its own.

The connection to Charleston and the coast is a large part of the island’s appeal, Lancaster says, but the small-town quality is the overarching component. “Daniel Island is a very unique proposition.”

Sustaining the kind of growth that has accelerated the island’s development plan requires a marketing effort that extends beyond the Charleston metro area. According to Daniel Island Company figures, about 45% of the homebuyers are coming from outside the area, principally from the Northeast.

“We spend a lot of money on marketing and that generates an incredible number of leads into our system,” says Sloan. “With buyers coming from here and elsewhere, we’re able to draw from two wells.”

The pace of development on the island was facilitated by the additions of the Charleston Battery soccer team, Blackbaud Stadium and Family Circle Cup, a premier stop on the women’s professional tennis tour.

“We never envisioned having a professional soccer team,” Sloan says. “And the Family Circle Cup was certainly a surprise. They were happily at home in Hilton Head, but when they were looking to move, we were able to get them here.”
As for the future, company officials say they see no reason to alter the course of the development plan. One of the next major developments is an elementary school planned for the island by Berkeley County. And depending on the housing market, anywhere between 4,000 and 5,000 additional residential units are planned before the development’s time horizon concludes.

“How long it’ll take is always dependent on market conditions,” says Lancaster. “But there are at least 10 to 15 years of active development left.”

SIDEBAR:

Businesses located on Daniel Island as of August 2002:

Barnwell Whaley Patterson & Helms LLC
Berenyi Engineering Inc.
Bishop England High School
Blackbaud, Inc.
Brumley, Meyer & Kapp
Carolina Capital Management
Charleston Battery
CIGNA Healthsource
CSS
Daniel Island Company
Daniel Island Family Dentistry
Daniel Island Media Company
Daniel Island Real Estate Co. LLC
Daniel Island Salon
Daniel’s Landing Apartments
Evergreen America Corp.
Fairchild Street LLC
Family Circle Cup/Daniel Island Tennis Center
First Greensboro Home Equity Inc.
Greystar
H. H. Hunt Assisted Living Inc.
Hampton Inn
Hill Construction Corp.
Hinchey, Murray & Pagliarini LLC
J & A Custom Homes
James Doran Company
Laura Albert’s Tasteful Options
L’Paradise Salon & Day Spa
NBSC
New Tradition Custom Homes
NGCOA
Proforma Print Solutions
Providence Baptist Church
Publix Supermarkets
Queen Anne’s Revenge Restaurant
Rex Thompson Homes of Charleston
River Landing Chiropractic Inc.
Sandy’s Cleaners
Soda Water Bar & Grill
Spring Arbor of Rock Hill
State Farm Insurance
SUNCOM
Tandem Investment Advisors,Inc.
Tecklenburg Market & Café
Trident Daniel Island Medical Center

Source: The Daniel Island Company