Finding Real Paradise in Historic Charlestown

For a while, Chuck and Nancy Carder thought they were in heaven. In the mid-1990's, the couple sold their Los Angeles travel agency and moved to Kiawah Island, S.C., which they had visited several times over the years. They built their dream house on Cinder Creek, a luscious saltwater marsh. The Carders could go kayaking from a dock behind their house and when they weren't perfecting their golf games, they could watch dolphins swim in the creek. "At first, we truly felt this was perfection," Mr. Carder said. But the Carders wanted more. "Our image of retirement was to escape from the rat race — like a lot of other people — and live happily ever after in a gated resort community with golf, beauty and the beach," Mr. Carder, 66, said. "We liked it, but after a few years we were bored. We got tired of the cocktail circuit, and I began to realize that there is more to life than playing five rounds of golf a week. We felt that we needed to run back to life, if you will." So in 2002 they sold their 3,300-square-foot Cinder Creek house for $1.25 million, earning a profit of around $450,000, and bought a 100-year-old house on Tradd Street in Charleston for $770,000. "There is a real trend toward this sort of thinking and activity," said Chad Drayton, a partner in DraytonRealEstate.com and a Charleston native. "There is a bulk of people who retire at 55, flock to Kiawah and think, `Man, I'm going to play golf every day.' And they do that for a couple of years, and then all of a sudden they realize that there is only so much golf that you can play. And only so much time you can spend on the beach." Lois Lane, a partner in Lane & Smythe Real Estate, says that she has seen a number of buyers like the Carders in the last four or five years who move to downtown Charleston as the second leg of their retirement. "They move to the barrier islands like Kiawah thinking it is a dream come true," she said, "and gradually they realize that they just need more to do — more restaurants, theater, movies — and that it is inconvenient to live 45 minutes away from all of that." Robert and Karen Siegel couldn't agree more. In 1992, the couple, who lived in San Francisco, where Mr. Siegel was president of the men's apparel division at Levi Strauss & Company, vacationed for two weeks on Kiawah and fell in love with the island's wildlife, lagoons and miles of sand and surf. Before they headed back home, the couple purchased a beachfront lot. Five years later, they began building an 8,000-square-foot 14-room house with covered porches and ocean views. In 1998, Mr. Siegel retired as the chairman and chief executive of the Stride Rite Corporation, where he went to work after Levi Strauss, and the Siegels and their two daughters, Abigail, now 14, and Sophie, now 9, moved to Kiawah. "On the one hand we loved it," said Karen Siegel, 47. "It was gorgeous. The first morning that I woke up in that house, with our bedroom facing the ocean, I opened my eyes and looked out, and I saw the railing on our deck, a white column, the top of a palm tree and the bright blue ocean. And I thought, `I've woken up in an Estée Lauder ad. This is just incredible.' But after a while, the view is the view, and you really want to be doing more. You want the kind of life that downtown has to offer." "Kiawah is magnificent, a marine forest," agreed Mr. Siegel, 67. "But it is not for everybody. It depends on what your interests are and where you are in life. Even though you think it is for you, you realize that you can only look at the ocean so much." In 2002, the Siegels paid about $2 million for a 12-room house on Lamboll Street, in the heart of Charleston's historic district. About a year later, they sold their Kiawah house for $6 million. Like many people who relocate from the barrier islands to downtown, both the Carders and the Siegels eventually tired of the 45-minute drive back and forth to Charleston. "When much of life is centered in Charleston — movies, theater, schools, restaurants — living on Kiawah can be hard to manage," Mr. Siegel said. And the drive into town on the Bohicket Road is very dangerous, particularly at night. It is long and narrow and very dark." The road is a factor for many people. "When we moved to Kiawah 12 years ago, I said, `When my husband says that he doesn't want to drive Bohicket at night, then I will know that it is time to leave,' " said Catherine Rickwell, 68, who recently moved downtown. "There are so many crosses and flowers along the side of that road, because of all of the car wrecks that happen," she said. "We had a couple of friends in accidents, and it is not worth it. I loved every minute of Kiawah. It was hard to leave, but it was just time to go. And now I love living downtown." Attitudes like these are translating into a very hot market for Charleston residential property. According to Mr. Drayton, prices in downtown are $400 to $700 a square foot. "Right now, there are 69 houses actively on the market in downtown for over $1 million," he said. "Condos range from about $500,000 to $2 million, and single-family houses range from $800,000 to $3 million to $4 million." For their part, the Carders and Siegels have never looked back. "There is so much more to do here, and the kids are so much happier — they are near their friends," Mrs. Siegel said. "And there were almost no kids their age who lived on Kiawah all year round. Here we are in the heart of things. Out there, after a while, I felt like my mind was turning to Jell-O." Mr. Siegel says living downtown "keeps me younger in terms of my energy and outlook." Mr. Carder knows how they feel. "In downtown Charleston, I have the feeling of being connected," he said. "This is where I belong. And I never really had that feeling at Kiawah. Out there, I felt as if I had flunked retirement. Kiawah is beautiful — the American Dream — but it is not for everybody." Mr. Carder has turned his Kiawah experience into a business opportunity. Recently, he started yoursecondlife.org, a Web site that provides assessment tools to help people ascertain what is the best retirement solution for them. "People need to think more about where they want to be in their second lives," he said. "It is about more than just picking a resort or development. You have got to know yourself and know truly what your personal needs are." And, he adds, those of your animals. "Our terrier, Reagan, is much happier now," he said. "On Kiawah, she couldn't really run loose because of the alligators. Now she is free to chase cats or anything else she wants. Reagan is a very happy camper here on Tradd Street in downtown Charleston."

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