A Fortune 500 home builder that moved into the South Carolina market last year recently bought part of an expansive new planned community in Berkeley County.
An affiliate of Pennsylvania-based Toll Brothers paid $1.54 million in mid-July for 20 lots in Cainhoy Plantation off Clements Ferry Road.
Last fall, Toll acquired Sabal Homes of Mount Pleasant to enter the Palmetto State market. The builder is the eighth-largest in the U.S. with $7.1 billion in gross revenue, based on 2018 figures compiled by online home firm Builder. The company closed on nearly 8,300 homes that year.
Cainhoy Plantation sprawls across 9,000 acres along Clements Ferry and Cainhoy roads between the Cooper and Wando rivers.Â
The city of Charleston annexed the wooded plantation — owned for decades by the Guggenheim family — more than 20 years ago.
About 9,000 homes could rise on the tract north of Daniel Island. It already features schools, apartments, Publix supermarket, a few restaurants and retailers.
About half of the tract will be conserved under a plan announced in 2018 by development manager DI Development Co.
Community space
The Charleston Trident Association of Realtors is using a $4,500 "Placemaking Grant" from the National Association of Realtors to help transform a vacant lot in Hanahan into the Yeamans Hall Canteen, a public space that will host live music and food trucks.
The new public space can be found in a corner lot at Yeamans Hall Road and Griffin Street, across from Hanahan City Hall.
"Placemaking can help foster healthier, more social and economically viable communities," said Michael Sally, former president of the North Charleston-based association and a current Hanahan city councilman. "It creates places where people can make a connection to their neighborhoods and become invested in making things better."
Rusty Hughes, president-elect of CTAR, presented the check to Hanahan in mid-July.
Master plan
A master-planned community in Berkeley County recently picked up a top nod for land planning.
The 5,000-acre Nexton development on the edge of Summerville nabbed the "Grand Award for Best Community Land Plan" during the 2020 Gold Nugget Awards' virtual ceremony in July.
Presented annually by the Pacific Coast Builders Conference, the international event recognizes architects, land planners, builders and developers in more than 50 categories.
Nexton includes homes, apartments, office space, schools, restaurants, retailers, walking trails and 1,000 acres of green space. The planned community recently hit a milestone of 1,000 homes sold. At full build-out, it will have about 7,000 housing units.
