South Street Partners raised $225 million in an inaugural fund. Investments will include a new an 18-hole golf course community with homes, on the nearly 900-acre Orange Hill piece of land, which is now used as an outdoor sporting site. Chris Randolph, a South Street partner, says the course would provide members with an additional golfing option and take some of the pressure off of the Kiawah Island Club’s two existing layouts, Cassique and the River Course.
South Street Partners plans to build a private golf course on Johns Island and invest in new and existing resort and residential projects locally and across the Southeast after raising $225 million in a new fund, The Charleston Post and Courier reported.
The real estate investment firm plans to turn the nearly 900-acre Orange Hill tract into an 18-hole golf course community with homes, The Post and Courier reported. It will include a short course and a practice facility for members of Kiawah Island Club. The property is now used as an outdoor sporting site by the private club.
The land use allows for a golf course and associated amenities as well as residential development, Chris Randolph, a South Street partner told The Post and Courier. He said plans are still evolving for the site, and it hasn’t been determined how many homes will be part of the development.
The golf course will take up about 300 acres, The Post and Courier reported. Part of the property is in a planned unit development through Charleston County that allows 181 home sites, a golf course, clubhouse, pro shop, amenity center and about 212 acres of preserved land.
“We are working with the county and other constituents on Johns Island for a plan that everyone is happy with,” said Randolph, whose firm is headquartered in Charleston and Charlotte.
A representative of the Johns Island Community Association did not immediately respond to a request from The Post and Courier for comment about the proposed plan.
Randolph hopes to start development of the as-yet unnamed layout next year, followed by 12 to 18 months of construction, The Post and Courier reported. He also said it was too early to provide a cost estimate for the course, which will be one of the few to be built in South Carolina in recent years.
Randolph said the course would provide members with an additional golfing option and take some of the pressure off of the club’s two existing layouts, Cassique and the River Course, where usage has increased sharply during the pandemic, The Post and Courier reported. The average member played 40 more rounds in 2021 than in 2019, according to South Street.
“We think there is a new market of people who have recently moved to Charleston who would have an interest in joining a golf club like this given its proximity to the city and especially since it offers members access to the rest of the Kiawah Island Club amenities,” Randolph said.
The new course will be designed by Beau Welling of Greenville, S.C., who previously worked with River Course designer Tom Fazio, The Post and Courier reported. Welling also is a partner with Tiger Woods in the golf course design business.
The vision for the new course is to create a playing experience that looks like it could have been crafted more than 100 years ago, South Street told The Post and Courier. It will be built around grand live oaks and feature “undulating fairways … and Old-World slopes and contours.”
Additionally, the Cape Club on Kiawah Island is expected to break ground in August, The Post and Courier reported. It will be built on the island’s south end next to the 78-unit, oceanfront Cape on Kiawah condominiums being developed by Colorado-based East West Partners. South Street Partners will develop the Cape Club for members of Kiawah Island Club.
South Street also recently acquired the 131-year-old Two Meeting Street Inn on the Charleston peninsula for nearly $7.7 million, The Post and Courier reported. It will be refurbished and become an overnight accommodation for Kiawah Island Club members when it reopens in 2023.
Randolph told The Post and Courier raising the money for the golf course and other developments was challenging during the pandemic but the effort attracted “outsized investor demand” because of “compelling opportunities.”
South Street Partners’ other investments from the fund include the acquisition and development of the 20,000-acre Palmetto Bluff community in Bluffton near Hilton Head Island, The Post and Courier reported. The company also has its sights set on other resort properties across the Southeast from south of Washington, D.C., to Florida and west to Texas.
“We are continuing to look for opportunities,” Randolph said.
Those could include existing properties or new developments, The Post and Courier reported. South Street also owns The Cliffs communities across the mountains of South Carolina and North Carolina as well as The Residences at Salamander in Virginia.
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