You can reserve a Margaritaville Hilton Head home soon. Here’s how much $ you’ll drop

Longtime Jimmy Buffett fans or folks who just like the singer’s vibe are days away from a peek inside a new Margaritaville-themed residential community being built in Hardeeville.

And if they’re ready, they can make a deposit on a home.

Latitude Margaritaville Hilton Head’s sales center opens Feb. 17, according to Bill Bullock, senior vice president at Minto Communities, a residential building group that’s partnered with commercial developer Sutton Properties Inc. and Buffett’s Margaritaville brand to bring the community to Jasper County.

On that day, Bullock said, prospective buyers — aged 55 and up — can put money down to reserve a lot and home of their choice, or they can forgo a deposit and just get a feel for the place. Whatever they decide to do, they can to set up a March 10 follow-up appointment with a contractor to talk about construction, he said.

But it will be “first come, first serve” Feb. 17, Bullock said. And while there’s no pressure to make a financial commitment during the ensuing “preview period” through March 10, he said, people who don’t make a deposit might not get the lot they want.

Deposits will cost $10,000, Bullock said. They are refundable until the final contract is signed March 10. Homes in the community will range from the “mid-$200,000s to upper-$300,000s,” he said.

The sales center will be equipped with technology that can produce three-dimensional computer renderings and floor plans complete with elevations and other dimensions, but there won’t be any physical model homes to tour until June or July, Bullock said.

The preview period is designed to take the pressure off the buying process, Bullock said. And it’s a different approach than the one Minto took with a Margaritaville-themed community in Daytona Beach, Fla. — where hundreds of Parrotheads camped out overnight be first in line when the first home sales started in November.

“We were very pleased with the response,” Bullock said of the Daytona Beach sales-center opening. “But we were surprised with the intensity of the response.”

Bullock added that Daytona Beach model homes were opening for tour Feb. 24, and that the floor plans would be identical to those in the Hardeeville community. There might be some slight architectural style variances, he said, but the Florida models would give prospective South Carolina customers a strong sense of what to expect.

The Hardeeville development, located on the southern tip of Hilton Head Lakes, is planned for roughly 2,700 acres off U.S. 278 and will include about 3,000 homes.

In comparison, Sun City Hilton Head spans about 5,000 acres, has about 8,000 homes and is home to roughly 15,000 people, according to Valerie Dolenga with Sun City’s developer, Del Webb.

And like Sun City, Latitude Margaritaville Hilton Head will be gated.

The new community will not have a golf course, but it will have a 72-acre publicly accessible retail, dining and entertainment area off the highway.

This story was originally published January 31, 2018 at 2:04 PM with the headline "You can reserve a Margaritaville Hilton Head home soon. Here’s how much $$ you’ll drop."