Roofer in Summers Corner, SC

Coming to Life in Summers Corner

Lennar is proud to make the dream of homeownership real for everyone – and now they’re doing it at Summers Corner, the close-knit, vibrant community in Summerville. This spring, they’re breaking ground on a brand new neighborhood: Azalea Ridge.

More than just a new community, Azalea Ridge will also offer homebuyers a mix of home designs to choose from – something for every need and style. Homes at Azalea Ridge are being designed in harmony with the Lowcountry lifestyle, climate, and environment. Broad front porches invite relaxation and conversation. Picturesque windows bring the beauty of the outdoors in. Open floor plans nurture get-togethers with family and friends. Homeowners can connect with nature and the world with free Wi-Fi available around the community parks, the Commons, and Buffalo Lake.

Summers Corner was designed to have each home no more than a 5-minute walk from a park or garden. This way the community feels more connected, more intimate, and with everything within reach.

Everything’s Included® Homes

And, as part of Lennar’s Everything’s Included® program, homebuyers get all the extra features they want, included at the best possible value. Some of the homes offered will include stainless steel appliances, upgraded cabinetry, granite countertops, subway tile backsplash, stylish trim packages, and more.

Lennar also includes modern home automation packages in every home. The Wi-Fi CERTIFIED Home Design™ program keeps residents connected and in control. Each home will have consistent, reliable Wi- Fi coverage in every part of the home, it also provides a host of integrated automation and voice control features – from secure digital front door locks and video doorbells, to smart climate control, and more.

Meet me at the Commons

Summers Corner is proud to have onsite elementary & middle schools – all part of the top-rated Dorchester District Two school system – both are within easy walking and biking distance. Families can walk little ones to school; neighbors can cheer on the home team; and the whole community can catch the latest performance at the 1,100-seat Performing Arts Center, scheduled to open later this year.

The Commons, home to the Corner House Café + New Home Info Center, is the heart of Summers Corner where homeowners, visitors, and future homeowners can learn more about life here. It’s also where master gardeners can be found tending flowers, herbs, and vegetables in the community garden; where homeowners and visitors enjoy locally roasted coffee and seasonal fare; where everyone gathers for the weekend events filled with food trucks & live music to the monthly outdoor farmers’ market. And, it’s all just across the street from a new Publix grocery store now under construction.

Next stop, the Water’s Edge

One of the defining landmarks at Summers Corner is Buffalo Lake, a fresh water lake 95 acres in size. Here, you’ll find an open-air lakeside pavilion with a broad deck and grassy area, as well as a fishing dock and a place to store and launch canoes and kayaks. It is a constant reminder that life at Summers Corner is an adventure.

To be part of all the big things coming soon to Azalea Ridge at Summers Corner, and to be the first to receive exclusive updates on new home designs, pricing, included features & more, join the VIP Interest List at SummersCornerVIP.com or call (843) 514-8295. The Summers Corner Information Center is open daily and located at 1609 Beech Hill Road, Summerville, SC 29485.

Matt Whitfield grew up in the Ashborough East neighborhood on the southwestern edge of Summerville, which back then felt a long way from the bulk of the town's growth toward Interstate 26. Driving down Bacons Bridge Road and turning west on S.C. Highway 61 would have pointed him toward—Jellico's Tackle Box? Givhans Ferry? Cottageville? Safe to say, there wasn't much in what were mainly vast swaths of the East Edisto timber tract managed by paper producer MeadWestvaco.

That changed somewhat in the early 1990s when the Legends Oak golf course community opened near the intersection of S.C. Highways 61 and 165. But it's really changing now, thanks to the continued development of a Summers Corner neighborhood that could one day boast as many as 7,000 homes and is transforming this once-quiet corner of Dorchester County in the process.

"That area is really expanding," said Whitfield, now an agent in the Summerville Main Street office of Carolina One Real Estate. "And what's really great about that area is that Summers Corner may be zoned for a lot of houses, but since they're part of the East Edisto Conservancy, they're very specific on requirements for green spaces and not having houses elbow-to-elbow. They do a great job of keeping that spacing and keeping that natural feeling and not just having that urban sprawl you see.”

Summers Corner is set off from U.S. Highway 17-A by Buffalo Lake, and protected wetlands border each of the development's communities—the Village, Sweetgrass, Azalea Ridge and Horizons, the latter being an age-restricted community for those 55 and older. Lakes, ponds, parks, walking trails and gathering areas are found throughout the development, all of it combining to give Summers Corner a different feel from the other master-planned communities on the I-26 side of Summerville.

"Buyers are wanting that Lowcountry feel," said Roni Haskell, an agent in the Summerville East 2nd North Street office of Keller Williams Key. "They want sidewalk-lined streets; they want a place where they can meet their neighbors. They have crafted their own community in that in that area, and it's just on the outskirts of Summerville, and so there's not that hustle-and-bustle feel. It's a more relaxed atmosphere in Summers Corner, and that's attractive to a lot of people who are migrating here. Maybe they're used to hustle-and-bustle, and they just want simplicity. And Summers Corner is that."

Schools, parks and pools

"Summers Corner is a newer built community, and with that comes ease of maintenance. And the amenities that have been built are very family-focused," she added. "The schools alone are a strong pull for many families that want that ease of commute. And now that it has a 55-plus community integrated into it as well, it creates a nice crossover for families who want their parents nearby. So you have families that are living in Summers Corner that now have their parents living adjacent to them in the same community."

The Village, the section of Summers Corner just off S.C. Highway 61, is comprised primarily of traditional Charleston-style homes with double-side porches. In the Sweetgrass and Azalea Ridge sections, Lennar is building the Carolina series, which is aimed mainly at first-time buyers; the Arbor series, intended for move-ups and occasional first-time buyers; and the Coastal series, larger homes for move-up buyers such as those with growing families.

"They have such a wide range of options," Whitfield said. "I think they have maybe about 30 different floor plans available, with houses that start at around 1,400 square feet and go up to 3,500 square feet. And they have very competitive pricing—I think they now start around $350,000 and go up to about $500,000. I have some clients that I put into Summers Corner just a couple of years ago, but as lives change and needs change, they're thinking about purchasing a different house in Summers Corner. They like the community so much, and it offers so many options that they can shift into something else."

Added Haskell: "Lennar builds a good product, they build it at a very competitive purchase price, and they give strong incentives," she said. "So, when you couple a nice community with good, quality builds, good price points and strong incentives, it's a win for a lot of people. And that's what's driving the continued success of that neighborhood."

Summers Corner was recently honored as Masterplanned Community of the Year by the Charleston Home Builders Association at the organization's 2023 Prism Awards. And add to that the presence of Horizons. This gated 55-plus community currently features home plans that range from $332,000 to $397,00, with future releases going up to $449,000. Lennar began selling homes in Horizons in 2023 and had seen 215 closings in the development by early December.

"We have a lot of a lot of seniors who are relocating to the area, and they want to be near their family and grandkids," Whitfield said. "And honestly, the pricing that they have in Horizons at Summers Corner, nobody right now can even come close to that for that type of community."

Record-breaking year in sales

While the Summerville area has become the Lowcountry's hub of master-planned communities, not all of those developments are alike in the minds of potential buyers. "When people start looking, it's not just that they want to live in a master-planned community," Haskell said. "People start by focusing on the location, what is surrounding it, and how it makes them feel."

This means buyers who may consider the Berkeley County master-planned communities just over I-26 are not necessarily the same ones who will consider Summers Corner, tucked into the quieter Dorchester County side of town. Indeed, area natives can easily recall a time then a drive down S.C. Highway 61 past the plantations meant only trees on either side of the road. But now, Summers Corner's location has become a strength.

"Even though Summers Corner is a big community, it's much more serene and quiet," Whitfield said. "It's like being in a small town. It really has that feel. And yet, it's right on Highway 61, so you can still get downtown easily. It's typically people who are looking for something that's just a little bit quieter, but still someplace where you can get out and meet a lot of people and enjoy yourself within your community, and not worry about all the traffic on the other side of town."

Haskell agreed. "There's not really a crossover," she said. "Very quickly, it becomes the buyer either wants the Berkeley County side or the Dorchester County side, and a lot of that has to do somewhat with proximity to work. And I would say that families buying into Summers Corner are coming there for the Dorchester District 2 school system."

There is a commercial area planned for Summers Corner, which, according to the community map, will be located across S.C. Highway 61 from the residential developments. The commercial area will be anchored by a Publix grocery store, which, according to Post and Courier reports, paid $3.05 million for a 10-acre parcel in 2017 and could begin construction on the 51,000-square-foot supermarket in March of 2025. Other retailers will fill in around the Publix.

"The commercial is always a piece, too," Haskell said. "It's a big piece to the lifestyle and convenience aspect for a community. You have to have enough residents to support it. They're at that brink of really needing it."

Summers Corner is planning a future extension to S.C. Highway 165, giving the development a secondary entrance and exit point. And "once the Berlin Myers Parkway extension is complete, it's going to make it a lot easier to get over to that area. It won't be just two-lane roads to get there," Whitfield said. "And I think that will bring a lot more people and definitely have a positive impact."

It can be hard to believe that just a few years ago, this burgeoning community, which now features parks, schools, amenities, and thousands of residents, was a dense forest managed by a packaging company. Summers Corner, though, has clearly discovered a winning formula and has a decade of development still in front of it. And as for this once-sleepy corner of Dorchester County? From a residential development standpoint, it turned out to be a sleeping giant.

As the Charleston area continues to grow and attract more residents, so does the need for food and the vendors who provide it.

No fewer than 12 new grocery stores are in the works across the Lowcountry, including plans to tear down and replace one store on site and relocate two others.

Around Charleston, the population boom — now expanding at an average net daily rate of 36 residents, according to the latest update — keeps fueling competition among supermarket chains that are angling to be as close as possible to the proliferating housing enclaves that keep their cash registers ringing.

That's about 13,300 new residents each year spread across Charleston, Berkeley and Dorchester counties, with many of the newcomers settling on the fringes of the growing region, especially in large-scale developments in Goose Creek, Moncks Corner and Summerville.

The three counties saw a 20 percent population surge over the past decade to a combined 830,000 residents, according to the Charleston Regional Development Alliance.

Competing grocery chains closely analyze the numbers to decide where to set up shop.

By one measure, a general rule for a full-service supermarket of 40,000 square feet or more to be viable is to have 10,000 residents, or about 4,000 rooftops, within a 20-mile radius. If there's competition in the market, the required number of residents is higher and vice versa for an area with no rivals.

Berkeley bound

Near Summerville, North Carolina-based Harris Teeter and competitor Publix of Florida are building stores on Nexton Parkway, across the street from one another, to serve the developing 5,000-acre Nexton community, eventually home to nearly 19,000 residents.

Both are set to be completed this year in the Berkeley County development, with Harris Teeter set to open in the spring and Publix likely welcoming customers by mid-year, according to Nexton spokeswoman Cassie Cataline.

On the opposite side of Nexton, Lowes Foods of North Carolina plans to build a new supermarket on North Creek Drive, across the street from the Cane Bay development.

It will anchor a retail center on the corner near fast-food restaurant McDonald's. Look for an opening possibly in 2025, according to property owner and Charleston businessman Eddie Buck.

A little farther to the east, Publix also plans to anchor a corner shopping center at U.S. Highways 176 and 17A in Carnes Crossroads, a 2,300-acre mixed-use housing development that could accommodate about 11,000 residents at full buildout. Like Lowes Foods, it is expected to open in 2025, according to a Publix spokesman.

Cartload of competition

Southwest of Summerville, another Publix could begin construction in 2025, based on bidding documents last fall that show a 51,454-square-foot store slated for a 10-acre site on Beech Hill Road, across from the planned 8,000-home Summers Corner community.

The 7,200-acre mixed-use community with schools and shops has about 1,200 homes sold and another 250 under construction, according to Jason Byham, division president at Lennar, the homebuilder that bought the tract for more than $26 million in 2018.

Real Estate

In Mount Pleasant, three new grocery stores are in the works.

The Fresh Market of North Carolina plans to take over the 26,000-square-foot site discount grocer Lidl abandoned before moving in at Bowman Place Shopping Center at Bowman Road and Johnnie Dodds Boulevard.

The Greensboro-based grocer took over the remainder of the 15-year tenant agreement Lidl signed three years ago with the option for 15 additional years, according to a document filed in the Charleston County land records office.

Fresh Market has not announced an opening timeframe.

Business

On the northern end of the East Cooper town of nearly 100,000 people, discount grocer Aldi leased several acres at U.S. Highway 17 and KOA Campgrounds Road for a second Mount Pleasant location.

Aldi plans to build a 23,000-square-foot store on the land next to South Morgans Point Road after signing a lease last spring for 20 years with the option to renew up to 25 years. Construction has not begun, and the no-frills grocer has not announced a projected opening timeframe.

Also in the works is a new Trader Joe's. The California-based, German-owned chain recently confirmed its plans to open a second store in Mount Pleasant. The site was not announced, but the grocer is looking at part of the former Bi-Lo supermarket site in Sweetgrass Corner Shopping Center near Highway 17 and the Isle of Palms connector.

On James Island, German-owned Aldi recently leased 22,000 square feet in the former Bi-Lo supermarket on Folly Road.

Retail

The company's seventh Lowcountry store will sit next to Planet Fitness and likely open in 2025 "if not earlier," according to Mark Hoffman, director of development for New Jersey-based Garden Communities, which has owned the 4.5-acre retail center since 1994.

Building bigger

Three existing supermarkets are set to be replaced.

On Daniel Island, Publix wants to demolish its longtime store on Seven Farms Drive and build a 50,472-square-foot store and pocket park it in its place in the same location, according to plans presented to the city.

The new construction will replace the existing 29,618-square-foot supermarket that was built in 2002 as the only grocery store allowed on Daniel Island under an agreement with the developer of the master-planned community.

Construction likely won't start until 2025, and it will take 12-18 months to build the new store, according to Publix spokesman Jared Glover.

The grocer hasn't announced interim plans for shoppers while the replacement is being built. The nearest option for shoppers is across the Wando River — a Harris Teeter five miles away on Long Point Road in Mount Pleasant. Publix has another store about 7 miles north in the Point Hope development off Clements Ferry Road.

In West Ashley, plans are making their way through the city review process to relocate Publix from a free-standing building at Ashley Landing Shopping Center to a newly constructed site on the eastern side of the main retail center where Big Lots and Dollar Tree currently operate.

The property owner has not projected a relocation timeframe, and the future of the current Publix site has not been determined.

Finally, plans are in the works to build a new Harris Teeter supermarket up to 65,000 square feet on part of a 50-acre parcel adjacent to Freshfields Village Shopping Center between Kiawah and Seabrook islands.

The larger grocery store will replace the existing site in Freshfields. It's part of a planned 160,000-square-foot retail center that will connect to Freshfields off Kiawah Island Parkway.

The new supermarket probably won't materialize until 2027 as plans are still to be finalized, according to Chris Corrada, a principal with the development firm Riverstone Properties of Richmond, Va., which owns the parcel to be developed.

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SUMMERVILLE — Some Dorchester County residents spent the first two weeks of September without receiving any mail, and they're still uncertain if the problem has been resolved.

On the outskirts of Summerville, homeowners in the new Azalea Ridge portion of the Summers Corner neighborhood have been experiencing ongoing issues with mail delivery, emergency assistance and school registration.

Residents were told the problem comes from a mistake made when the ZIP codes were being realigned. The mistake has resulted in mail delays and packages being sent to wrong addresses across town.

One of those residents, Livia Perez, said her family recently had issues with registering their kids for school and getting help from the Dorchester County Fire Rescue after their carbon monoxide detector went off.

"It took 25 minutes for the fire department to get to our house," she said.

The Perez family had to contact the department to let them know about the Ridgeville and Summerville address mix-up.

They bought the home with the original understanding that it would have a Summerville address. When they went to close on the home the day after Memorial Day, that's when they were informed the ZIP code was now a Ridgeville one.

The deed to their home lists the address as Ridgeville. The change also led to a $500 annual increase in their home insurance costs.

Jason Byham, the local division president for Lennar, the developers over Summers Corner, said in 2015 the U.S. Postal Service approved all of the development to be in the 29485 Summerville ZIP code.

The Ridgeville ZIP code change was done without Lennar being notified in advance. Lennar changed the deeds to Ridgeville to allow residents to close on their homes and move in.

Byham said they were informed that the change was a mistake around USPS overlooking the 2015 agreement.

“It unfortunately caused major disruption in homeowners' lives," he said.

Lennar was able to reaffirm with USPS the Summerville address. Lennar is also taking on the costs of changing residents' deeds back to Summerville.

Rick Badie, a USPS spokesman in South Carolina, said some of the address data provided to USPS representatives was incorrect and that's what ultimately led to the mishap.

Badie didn't confirm who sent the incorrect data.

"The issue is being resolved and we regret any inconvenience to our customers," he said.

Some residents are still apprehensive as to whether the situation has been handled. Perez said it's because they've been hearing that since May.

Their biggest concern is with the election coming up.

Some of the postal workers are aware of the situation so they have been able to successfully complete some deliveries.

Other times, some of the mail is sent to the Oakbrook Post Office and some is sent to the Ridgeville one. Residents have also received delivery notifications from Amazon with photos of packages delivered across town.

“We’re definitely not getting all of our mail," Perez said.

SUMMERVILLE, S.C. (WCIV) — A Summerville family says their $535,000 dream house has turned into a nightmare.

“This is what we wanted. We fell in love with the outside, the exterior, everything,” said Michael O’Hea, who moved into the house in the Summers Corner neighborhood in June of 2017. He says immediately after moving in, he and his wife noticed defects cropping up throughout the house.

“You see the cracks in the wall you see the cabinets coming off the wall,” Brandy O’Hea told ABC News 4.

Floors are also uneven in several parts of the home, and two cracks have formed on the both sides of the home’s exterior.

The O’Heas also described mold issues with the home and drainage problems that required the installation of a French drain.

Dan Ryan Builders constructed the home, which the O’Hea’s say is a "Keenleand II" plan.

ABC News 4 called and emailed Dan Ryan builders requesting an interview and asking if the home was being examined for structural issues. Dan Ryan’s regional president emailed the following:

“We are aware of the O’Hea’s concerns with respect to their house. We are in the process of scheduling an engineer to inspect the house and will take appropriate action thereafter.”

The O’Hea’s say Dan Ryan Building sent two structural engineers in the spring who performed a visual inspection of the home, but those engineers were no-shows at the next scheduled appointment.

“We’ve had no shows. Contractors showing up with no materials, no paint,” Michael O’Hea said. “We had seven different personnel but it’s past that now.”

The O’Heas said several of their neighbors are experiencing similar issues with the Keeneland II model. Representatives from Dan Ryan have not yet commented on that.

As it stands, the O’Heas simply want their little slice of suburbia back in one piece.

“I want my home,” Brandy O’Hea said. “I want the home we paid for. We put everything in this home.”

The Better Business Bureau’s website shows 57 complaints filed against Dan Ryan Builders in the last three years, but it also rates the company an A+.

The BBB’s website lists some of the criteria for that score as pertaining to how quickly and appropriately the company has handled complaints.

Dan Ryan told us the building company scheduled its structural engineer to inspect their home less than two days after we contacted them for this story, but that engineer is scheduled for October.

The O’Heas say they’re considering a class action lawsuit.