Seabrook Getting Better and Better

For my tastes and to my way of thinking you really can't get much better than Seabrook Island – gorgeous natural surroundings, the pleasures and convenience of country club living, less than 30 minutes from downtown Charleston! It's hard to improve on that, but it sounds like they just might have a plan that will do it!

"Three decades after the first residents and golfers moved to this 2,200-acre oceanfront paradise, Seabrook Island is poised for a makeover. The circa-1974 amenities of the private island, including its stucco-and-steel Beach Club, Island House restaurant and golf clubhouse, will soon fade into history as a $31 million redo transforms the dated structures into a resort complex.

'It will change the whole face of Seabrook, and it will probably make it a much more upscale type of place,' said Jim Leib, president of the Seabrook Island Club. 'The clubhouse and Beach Club were really pretty grand facilities in their day. It’s just that their days are long
past.'
Work has already begun on the project, which is a joint venture of the Seabrook Island Club and the Seabrook Island Property Owners Association. About $10 million of the project will be funded by the property owners’ association and will pay for a community center and lakeside pavilion to be built near the entrance of the island on Palmetto Lake. The Seabrook Island Golf Club is shelling out $21 million for a new golf clubhouse and dining facilities, a new beach club, a remodeled 22-acre equestrian center with a new office and barns, and a reconstructed tennis complex.

'The club’s original business model was the resort rental business and conference business,' Salvo said. 'The buildings that are there now were essentially built for that business and are somewhat dysfunctional for our current business model. Truthfully, we were trying to do two things: be both a private club, a private island and be in the resort rental business. You can’t do both.'

The Seabrook Island Club is now focused on attracting more full-time residents to the island, Salvo said. There were 1,250 residents on the island at the time of the 2000 census.

The Horizon Plan, what Salvo calls the island’s adaptation to and understanding of what a new generation of Seabrook Island families wants, will also voluntarily reduce the footprint of the island’s amenities along its 3.5-mile stretch of beach. The current 30,000-square-foot Beach Club facility, which contained a number of oceanfront conference rooms that no longer are needed, will be demolished except for its pools and outdoor café.

'Trading old buildings right on the ocean for one smaller building and open spaces is going to be a real positive, visually and environmentally, for the island,' Salvo said. 'This is all about pride…building pride in your community.'”

For the full Charleston Regional Business Journal article: http://charlestonbusiness.com/pub/13_26/news/11042-1.html

For renderings of the Horizon Plan's additions and changes: http://www.discoverseabrook.com/news/details.aspx?nid=719&snid=731&lnid=-1&cid=3673