Kiawah builder expands
The longtime residential developer of Kiawah Island, which slowly is nearing
capacity, is amassing land not far from its signature real estate project.
Kiawah Resort Associates closed this week on three contiguous tracts
totaling about 250 acres on Johns Island between Bohicket and River roads,
just north of where they meet.
The sale price was not disclosed.
The land is adjacent to two other large parcels totaling 635 acres that KRA
snapped up in January. The company paid about $7 million for those
properties, or slightly more than $11,000 per acre, according to Charleston
County property records.
Townsend Clarkson, chief operating officer, said KRA has no immediate plans
for the newly acquired tracts but suggested one possible future use.
"If there is a need down the road for an additional golf course for Kiawah
Island, that property is close enough to provide easy access to it," he said
Friday.
KRA developed two private layouts on Kiawah — the River Course and Cassique
— as well as the posh Doonbeg Golf Club in Ireland.
"We look forward to being good stewards of the land and whatever we do will
complement Johns Island and other developments nearby," Clarkson said.
Two of the tracts KRA bought this week had been owned by Orange Hill
Development Group LLC. Led by a North Carolina-based real estate developer
named Tony Porter, it proposed building several hundred upscale homes on
those parcels and others in what was to be called the Lakes at Kiawah.
But that project ran aground about a year ago, shortly after North Carolina
Attorney General Ray Cooper began investigating Porter and his partners.
Cooper has alleged they defrauded investors and banks out of more than $100
million as part of a failed residential development near Asheville, N.C.,
called the Village at Penland.
A receiver then took control over Porter's assets, including the parcels
that KRA bought this week. The seller of the third tract was Ocean
Investments LLC.
KRA bought Kiawah from its Kuwaiti owners in 1988 and has been the developer
of the residential side of the upscale town ever since. In 1989, it sold off
the resort assets and the public golf courses, which are now owned by
Virginia billionaire Bill Goodwin.
This is not the first time KRA has strayed beyond the gates of Kiawah. Aside
from Doonbeg, it is working offshore on Christophe Harbour, a 2,500-acre
resort proposed for the Caribbean island of St. Kitts. That project will
feature a marina, two hotels, condominiums and a Tom Fazio-designed golf
course.
Closer to home, KRA built Freshfields Village, a shopping and office complex
at the end of Betsy Kerrison Parkway.
The company previously owned Mullet Hall Plantation, an 1,100-acre property
across River Road from the its newly acquired land. Clarkson said the firm
recently sold off its interest in Mullet Hall to one of its main partners,
Charles P. "Buddy" Darby, and The Beach Co., his family's Charleston-based
real estate company.
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