Months after Chart House closes, a new restaurant is ready to take its place

Note: This story has been edited to include a statement from Landry’s Inc., the owner of Chart House, which was received after deadline.

You might be disappointed that Chart House has been closed on Hilton Head Island since Oct. 5, but there are bigger plans ahead for the waterfront location.

The SERG Restaurant Group announced Tuesday morning that a new restaurant, Skull Creek Dockside Restaurant, will take over the former location of Chart House at 2 Hudson Road and plans to open in early summer of this year, according to Brittany Shane, a spokesperson for the group.

“The SERG Restaurant Group is excited to expand its family of 10 restaurants they already have in Hilton Head and Bluffton by adding a new restaurant in the former Chart House restaurant site,” she said. “It is expanding our waterfront views, and it should be our first destination for families in the Lowcountry.”

Plans for the new restaurant include a connected space between the neighboring SERG restaurant, Skull Creek Boathouse, and the new business, that will allow for more family entertainment and make room for events like oyster roasts.

“We’re going to have an expanded outdoor area between the Boathouse and the new restaurant that is going to include a playground for children, an adult playground, a stage,” she said. “It’s going to be awesome.”

A news release from the SERG Restaurant Group states this space will include a treehouse for kids and an outside bar with an expanded outdoor patio for the adults. Shane said this adult playground would include activities like cornhole and ping-pong tables.

Though the connected space will be shared by both restaurants, Shane said the new venture was not an expansion of Skull Creek Boathouse.

“So there is going to be some overlap between Boathouse and the new restaurant, but it’s going to be its own entity within the SERG family,” she said.

More than 100 employees will be hired for the restaurant in the spring, and the new business will offer lunch, brunch, happy hours and dinner, per the news release. There are also intentions to build out the second-floor as a private event space with a water view.

Chart House representatives released a statement in October saying that the restaurant had closed its doors Oct. 5 due to Hurricane Matthew and would remain closed until further notice. Representatives did not disclose at the time whether the restaurant had damage from the storm or if repairs were being made almost a month after the business closed.

A spokesperson for Chart House was contacted Tuesday morning about whether the restaurant will relocate on the island.

A statement from Shah Ghani, VP of Operations at Landry’s Inc., the owner of Chart House, was received late Tuesday night.

“Due to damage from the storm, coupled with a pending natural lease expiration, the landlord decided to reclaim the space,” he said in an email. “We still believe Hilton Head is a great city and will continue to explore other opportunities. In the interim, we encourage all our customers to visit us at our Savannah location."

The news release from the SERG Restaurant Group said updates and information on the new restaurant in the coming months can be found on the Skull Creek Dockside Restaurant’s Facebook page at www.facebook.com/docksidehhi.

This story was originally published January 3, 2017 at 1:33 PM with the headline "Months after Chart House closes, a new restaurant is ready to take its place."