New Bluffton apartments, and a traffic light, will be ready sooner than you’d expect

The new apartment complex sprouting up along Bluffton Parkway in the Hampton Lake community is expected to be complete by the end of next month.

Mark Senn, president of the project’s builder, Southeastern Developers, said earlier this week that the company is targeting Aug. 31 as the date for the first residents to move into the One Hampton Lake complex.

Construction of 300-unit gated community — known as Grand Oaks at Hampton Lake earlier in the development process and initially expected to open later in the year — is “moving right along pretty well,” he said.

One Hampton Lake will include various one-, two-, and three-bedroom floorplans with “quartz counter-tops and stainless steel appliances,” Senn said.

“It’s a very high-end kind of project,” he said. “We’re hoping this will be a one-of-a-kind type of place for Bluffton.”

Southeastern hopes the project’s amenities will help differentiate it from other apartment complexes in town, Senn said.

The community will include a central resort-style pool area overlooking Hampton Lake. The pool will be surrounded by three community spaces: a gym, events hall and a management office.

The community will be connected through a series of walking trails, and there will be kayak docks along the lakeshore for residents’ use, Senn said.

“The overall feel we are going for is outdoorsy luxury living,” he said.

Monthly rents for the new apartments have yet to be determined.

New traffic light planned on Bluffton Parkway

Southeastern Developers is adding a traffic light at Bluffton Parkway and Hampton Lakes Drive, just north of the new apartments.

Southeastern vice president John Lee said in an email Friday that the new light likely will be installed a bit sooner than the completion of construction and the arrival of One Hampton Lakes’ first residents.

Same developer working at Buckwalter Place

A stone’s throw north of Hampton Lakes and Bluffton Parkway, Southeastern is working with the Town of Bluffton on a public-private partnership to build a new mixed-use development in Buckwalter Place.

The developer plans to build a 113,000-square-foot Kroger Marketplace surrounded by other retailers and apartments. The property will also house new facilities for the town’s Don Ryan Center for Innovation.

Senn said the company is a bit behind schedule on the project but is making “really good progress.”

He said he expects the first new homes and businesses there to start opening late next year.

This story was originally published July 21, 2017 at 5:00 PM with the headline "New Bluffton apartments, and a traffic light, will be ready sooner than you’d expect."