240-unit apartment project to begin construction off I-26 near Walmart and Volvo
RIDGEVILLE — The farthest westward apartment development in the Charleston area will begin to take shape in October.
The $41 million, 240-unit Preserve at Ridgeville will be built 35 miles from downtown Charleston on about half of a 27-acre wooded tract at 1050 Old Gilliard Road, also called S.C. Highway 27.
The apartments, at Exit 187 off Interstate 26 in the rural Berkeley County community of Pringletown, will be about a mile from Walmart’s $220 million distribution center being built near Ridgeville and just west of Volvo Cars’ auto manufacturing campus.
A rendering shows the planned 240-unit Preserve at Ridgeville Apartments coming to S.C. Highway 27 at Interstate 26 in Pringletown. Group 4 Designs/Provided
Walmart alone is expected to create 1,000 jobs where S.C. 27 meets U.S. Highway 78. Volvo, which is located in Santee Cooper’s Camp Hall business park, already employs about 1,500 workers. Another 2,500 are expected to be hired in the years after production of a second vehicle starts in 2024.
“We are going to be the closest housing to Camp Hall and the Walmart distribution facility,” said Eric Conkright, vice president of finance at Piedmont Private Equity.
The Atlanta-based firm bought the property through an affiliate called Ridgeville Invesco LLC in July 2020 for nearly $1.5 million, according to county land records.
The Georgia firm is partnering with Ecstatic Properties of Columbia and Material Capital Partners of Mount Pleasant to build the multifamily units.
Land clearing began in June, and vertical construction is expected to begin in the fall. The first units are expected to be available in the autumn of 2022 with project completion in the spring of 2023, Conkright said.
The proposed apartment development will include eight, three-story buildings of about 229,000 square feet altogether and a one-story community center.
Planned amenities include a resort-style swimming pool, fitness facility, outdoor seating, high-speed fiber internet, smart home thermostats and access control, dog park and pet-washing area, walking trails and an on-site leasing office.
On the apartment site where less than half the acreage will be disturbed, Conkright emphasized nature trails will be included and part of the parcel is wetlands where construction won’t occur.
“Some wetlands run through the middle of the site to make some of the buildings sit out on their own instead of looking out at another building,” Conkright said. “It’s going to feel a little more sprawling by utilizing green space, but it’s a very tranquil setting for this apartment complex.”
Conkright didn’t want to speculate on what the price per unit will be when the first units become available in just over a year, but he said apartments will most likely be priced about $200 less than the market rate for the area.
“We will be a more reasonable price point than in Summerville and Nexton areas,” he said.
That’s partially because the complex will be so far away from the Charleston metro area, but also because the land was less expensive, Conkright said.
“We now have all the permits,” Conkright said. Land clearing is expected to be completed in September.