300 apartments proposed for Hilton Head Christian campus. How much will they cost?
Editor’s Note: This story has been updated to include information from Hilton Head Town Council’s first review of the plan on March 5.
When Hilton Head Christian Academy moves off Hilton Head Island for the 2020 school year, some want 300 apartments to take its place.
That’s according to an application filed to the Town of Hilton Head Island to change the zoning of the property to allow for residential development.
The application, filed by the Charleston-based prospective buyer of the site, proposes six buildings up to 55 feet tall, appropriate parking and amenities on the 13.8-acre site.
Those buildings “could include a mix of apartments from 500 square feet up to three-bedroom units of about 1,800 square feet,” according to the application.
Spandrel Development Partners’ application was approved by the town’s Planning Commission last week and moved onto Town Council for the first hearing March 5.
Town council members prepared statements on the project — most of which were critical — and sent the plan to the public planning committee to discuss and make suggestions before voting. That committee meets next on March 28.
A call to Spandrel Development Partners was not returned Monday.
A ‘crossroads’
The application comes at a time when the island is at a “crossroads” of development and a need for affordable housing, according to Planning Commission chairman Alex Brown, who voted against the rezoning.
“Should we allow for more construction on new ground when we’ve already got a dysfunctional economy in other areas?” Brown told The Island Packet. “Somehow we have to have some rules so we don’t build out Hilton Head without addressing our (workforce housing) needs.”
But the apartments would fill a plot of land that would be “unlikely” to be used for anything else the way it is, the application says.
Hilton Head Christian Academy’s campus — on Gardner Drive off William Hilton Parkway on the north end of the island — includes a baseball diamond and football practice field as well as one large building and a gymnasium.
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The question of whether the new apartments would be affordable to island workers hung in the air at the meeting about the application last week, Brown said.
Asked if the new housing would be workforce housing, representatives from Wood + Partners planning and landscape architecture firm said the development will be “diverse housing” and likely marketable to teachers and employees in the medical field.
Four calls to Wood + Partners over two days were not returned.
‘Strong demand’
In December, a housing consultant hired by the town said Hilton Head should define affordable housing for the workforce as homes or apartments that cost $875 per month or less.
Asked about the cost of the apartments at last week’s meeting, Wood + Partners representatives gave a range between $1,200 per month for a studio and $2,400 per month for a three-bedroom unit. The representatives emphasized the plans are not finalized yet.
For comparison, a 500-square-foot studio apartment in Bluffton is listed for $820 per month, according to floorplans available online from NextLoft Bluffton. At that development, reconstructed from an extended-stay hotel, a single-bedroom apartment is listed for $1,150.
The Hilton Head Christian site is five miles up U.S. 278 from the WaterWalk apartments at Shelter Cove Towne Centre.
Although the proposed project has 60 more apartments than the WaterWalk developments, town staff said the new project would have lower density per acre because the buildings would be more spread out.
“There is a strong demand in the local market for a high-quality multifamily apartment community,” according to the application. “Using the success of the WaterWalk apartments as an example, there is as much evidence of this ...”
This story was originally published March 4, 2019 at 3:02 PM.
