Flip-flops and surfboards: Why you’ll soon see homes on the way to Port Royal’s beach
Imagine paddleboards strapped atop golf carts parked under beach cottages on a familiar winding drive on the way to launch a boat or hunt shark teeth.
Developers plan homes along Sands Beach Road. The houses would be raised off the ground on a marshfront vista on the path to a public beach and boat landing on Battery Creek in Port Royal.
The spot is one of the only public beach access points in northern Beaufort County and unique in allowing cars and golf carts to drive in and park on the sand.
Coastal breezes, expansive views and screened porches are among the developers’ selling points.
“It’s kind of a beach-house feel,” real estate broker Whit Suber said of the planned housing development. “Because it’s going to Sands Beach.”
Plans are for 13 home sites, with dual driveways and open air parking underneath homes raised about 15 feet. The number of homes is down from a proposal for 58 back in 2011 and 26 to 27 home sites proposed by a land planner last year, said Suber, a representative for the development group Grey Ghost Properties.
A sidewalk will be poured along the road or behind the houses along the marsh, with details still to be decided on how best to connect bicyclists and pedestrians to the waterfront.
The new houses would be the latest in a home-building rise in the town in recent years.
The same developers have also submitted plans nearby for 70-80 single-family homes on the northwest end of the former port property known as the Harrison Bluff neighborhood. The area would include several private docks for waterfront homes and a community dock for the neighborhood, said Chris Butler, one of the project’s developers and owner of Butler Marine who opened a boat storage and sales operation on the port property.
The beach cottage sites will be distinct from the neighborhood perched on a 25-foot bluff above Battery Creek, the developers say.
“That’s going to be a totally different feel than the bluff neighborhood, where it feels like your traditional neighborhood,” Butler said. “I think you’ll see more flip-flops, T-shirts, and if I saw a surfboard sitting on the front porch at a Sands house, that’s completely what I would expect.”
The developers don’t yet know the eventual home sizes and prices for the beach or neighborhood sites, Suber said Thursday.
Neighborhood home sites could be available by early next year. The beach-area lots, which range from 52 feet wide to 70 feet wide, could be ready by the end of the year, Butler said.
Grey Ghost Properties bought the former state port property last year. Activity so far has included a new restaurant, Fishcamp on 11th Street, and boat storage and sales.
This story was originally published November 15, 2018 at 2:58 PM.