Grimball Farms to Stay Natural For a While

REAL ESTATE

By Katy Stech

The Post and Courier

Monday, June 2, 2008

The nearly 1,000-acre Grimball Farms tract on James Island will remain untouched forestland for a while longer, after a private investment group couldn't borrow enough money to buy the land.

The group intended to buy the tract for about $28 million earlier this year, after its current owner, Florida-based Ginn Co. , got all the permits from Charleston's various planning boards, said Bobby Masters, Ginn's executive vice president. It then planned to work with a development group led by golf legend Gary Player to build about 227 homes around an 18-hole public golf course.

But Masters said the investment group couldn't get the financing it needed to go through with the transaction, which would have marked the most-expensive property sale on James Island.

Now, Ginn executives are considering developing it themselves, he added. It's unclear whether Player's group would still be involved with the development.

The company has tried at least twice before to develop the tract. In 2005, city planners objected to Ginn's plans to build about 600 single-family homes and marshfront condominiums. A second proposal for 310 homes was also rejected.

The latest 227-home plan, which the company sought on behalf of the investment group, was approved earlier this year.

Ginn is focusing on two other local projects: the yet-to-be-built Promenade resort off Morrison Drive on the peninsula, and its land holdings at Patriots Points in Mount Pleasant.