Daniel Island developers look back on 30 years of transformation
Interviews and portions of this article were previously published in 2016 in The Daniel Island News, commemorating Daniel Island's 20th Anniversary.
The first time Daniel Island Company President Matt Sloan laid eyes on Daniel Island, it was from the top of the unfinished span of the James B. Edwards Bridge, which extended about halfway across the Wando River from Mount Pleasant.
The year was 1991 and parts of I-526 were still under construction. Sloan, a native of New York City, landed at the airport and made his way to the island, driving as far as he could onto the partially constructed bridge. Just 26 years old at the time, he was blown away by what he saw.
“You can see the airport, and you go, ‘Wow, I’ve never been here before, but I can see where I just flew in, and I can see downtown,'” he recalled during a 2016 interview. “In another couple of years, [I-526] is going to be done, and it’s a straight shot in. Here’s this giant farm and cattle ranch, and it’s about to be in the heart of the city.”
When Sloan finally set foot on the island soon after, he was entering a relatively untapped frontier: a quiet 4,000-acre expanse purchased by Harry Frank Guggenheim in 1946. Used mostly for hunting and farming, it had attracted few visitors and little attention.
“My first time on the property, it was corn and cows,” said Sloan in 2016.
But that was all about to change. The City of Charleston had just annexed Daniel Island, in what then-Mayor Joe Riley would later describe as his Louisiana Purchase.
“He managed to figure out a way to declare Daniel Island contiguous to the rest of the city,” said Sloan at the 20-year mark. “He had gotten some neighboring property owners to buy into it and bring the property into the city, and I got involved literally the next day.”
At the time, Sloan worked for New York-based public policy firm Hamilton, Rabinovitz & Alschuler, which had been hired by the Guggenheim Foundation to assess what the annexation would mean for its property. He was dispatched to Charleston to get a firsthand look.
In the early 1990s, the Guggenheim Foundation brought in local and national developers and consultants to formulate a master plan. Frank Brumley, a developer and investor with strong local ties who had helped develop communities on Amelia Island, Kiawah, and Wild Dunes, came onboard.
“Where else do you find 4,000 acres 20 minutes from downtown Charleston, totally undeveloped?” said Brumley in a 2016 interview. “It had been leapfrogged because of the Guggenheim ownership for the last 30 or 40 years, so you had this jewel just sitting out here with 23 miles of river and marsh front.”
Sloan and Brumley soon saw the benefits of being part of the City of Charleston.
“The first dollar that was spent on this community was spent by the City of Charleston,” said Sloan in the previous interview. “It was also clear that the mayor had a vision for the city. He was the first guy that realized that once the Mark Clark [Expressway] opened, the whole dynamic of how people commute and recreate and shop… was going to change, and that Daniel Island was ultimately going to be the center of the region.”
“Joe Riley was the key,” added Brumley at the time. “His leadership and his involvement. He sold the Guggenheims on it.”
PLANNING AN ISLAND TOWN
A master plan was created by a group led by acclaimed New York architect Jaquelin T. Robertson of Cooper, Robertson & Partners. The island town would reflect new urbanism and neo-traditionalism, with sidewalks, interconnected streets, green spaces, water access, and parks. The Daniel Island Development Company was formed as an independent subsidiary of the Guggenheim Foundation to get the process started.
Sloan and Brumley toured other master-planned communities and set about luring key institutions to the emerging island town. In the mid-1990s, they learned Bishop England High School was looking for a new location after outgrowing its downtown Charleston campus.
“Matt and I stood at the corner of Seven Farms Drive and Daniel Island Drive… in a corn field, with the officials, two nuns, and Father Larry McInerny,” recalled Brumley in 2016. “It was hot, and there were bugs everywhere. And we kept saying, ‘Now you folks need to come out here.’ They said, ‘Tell us again what’s going to happen out here?’ I said, 'Trust me, it’s going to be big.'”
The Daniel Island Development Company offered to donate the land, and Bishop England opened on Daniel Island in 1998.
“They were the first people ever to commit to coming here,” said Sloan. “We are extremely proud to have them here. It really put us on the map. It gave us Friday Night Lights football games, and it was a real validation. This is a much-revered institution in Charleston. Mayor Riley went to high school there, so it was a huge shot in the arm.”
“It was the best thing we ever did,” added Brumley.
The first neighborhood developed was Codner’s Ferry Park, and the first residents moved onto the island in late 1996.
The Guggenheim Foundation eventually decided it was best to sell the property rather than remain in the development business as a nonprofit. Brumley and Sloan, who had spent years implementing the master plan, decided to make an offer. Brumley’s older brother, George, and other family members joined as financial partners. In 1997, the group offered $12 million for Daniel Island. The Guggenheim Foundation accepted, and the Daniel Island Company was formed to continue the island’s development.
“They knew Matt, they knew me,” said Brumley. “They felt that we would implement the master plan that we had worked with Cooper Robertson to put in place, and they were smart enough to know that whatever happened on Daniel Island was going to have an effect on their Cainhoy property, so they wanted to make sure it was well done.”
With limited capital, things moved slowly at first.
“We kind of borrowed every penny we could get our hands on to buy it,” said Sloan. “We were building out one street at a time. We’d sell five lots and then build one more street.”
The company later brought in Crow Holdings and other investors to help fund the island’s golf courses, clubhouse, and residential infrastructure.
“It was just a chemistry that worked,” recalled Brumley. “So we got it underway, and they have long since gotten all of their investment back and a great return on it. They have been wonderful, wonderful partners.”
Soon, new neighborhoods began launching, Daniel Island Park took shape, and commercial development followed. Family Circle Stadium, now Credit One Stadium, opened in 2001, while the Charleston Battery moved its operations to a new stadium along Beresford Creek in 1999.
That same year, the I-526 interchange opened on Daniel Island as part of a land exchange with the State Ports Authority, an event that “changed everything,” Sloan said.
BUILDING A COMMUNITY
At the urging of George Brumley, the company offered land to churches and schools, helping bring Providence Baptist Church, Holy Cross Episcopal Church, Daniel Island School, and the Berkeley County Library to the island. Tragically, Dr. Brumley and 11 family members were killed in a plane crash in Kenya in 2003.
“My brother was very much a philanthropist,” said Brumley back in 2016. “Matt and I used to always say he was our moral conscience. He was a big proponent of our donating church sites and school sites. His basic concept, it was not unique, was that schools and churches are the basic fabric of a community, so you better get them in early, and you better get them in the right places.”
After the loss, Sloan and Frank Brumley refocused the Daniel Island Community Fund, established in the late 1990s, to continue Dr. Brumley’s legacy of giving back.
“I was proud when we set it up as a way to honor him, but more importantly – to do good things,” added Sloan. “What makes me proud of it now is it’s resident-led, and it will be here long after I am gone, and we hope it will continue to run well.”
Another key figure was the late Charleston attorney Henry Smythe, who had represented the Guggenheim family locally since 1946 and was involved in discussions about Daniel Island’s future.
“Henry Smythe had more of an impact [on the island’s development] than anybody else,” added Brumley. “He was the local contact, a successful lawyer who had been here for generations. [The Guggenheim family]) talked to him first and last. I don’t think we would have been able to buy Daniel Island if Henry Smythe hadn’t said OK.”
RAPID GROWTH AND RETURNS
In the early 2000s, development accelerated rapidly. In 2002, residential purchases hit $100 million, according to a Post and Courier article published in May 2003. Sales reached $50.7 million between January and March of the following year, compared with $13.7 million during the same period in 2002.
“The period from 1997 to 2007 was the best 10 years in the U.S. real estate business that I’ve ever remembered,” said Brumley during his interview celebrating the 20-year mark. “We paid off all the debt, we paid Crow their investment back, so when the music stopped in 2008 [from the housing crisis], we basically were able to sit it out.”
Their ultra-conservative approach enabled them “to sleep at night,” Brumley added.
“If you’re loaded up on debt, it’s not good,” Sloan said. “We are as conservative a land development business as one could ask for, and that’s why we’ve been able to stay the course.”
Ten years ago, Daniel Island Company officials anticipated the island would reach final buildout in about five years with roughly 6,000 residential units. Instead, construction has continued into the island’s 30th year, including new residences and mixed-use development around The Waterfront.
The development story has also moved beyond Daniel Island. In 2016, Sloan and his team were working on Carnes Crossroads and what was then described as a new community on the Cainhoy Peninsula. That community became Point Hope, where neighborhoods, schools, businesses, parks, and trails now fill a landscape that remains in the midst of significant growth.
“I foresee us staying here,” Sloan said at the time. “There is a lot of work to be done. Our best times are ahead.”
By the island’s 20th anniversary, property on Daniel Island was valued at close to $2 billion, generating about $30 million annually in property taxes, according to Berkeley County figures reported at the time.
“Billions of dollars of investment and thousands of jobs have been generated over our 20 year history,” Sloan said.
A decade later, construction remains part of the landscape, and the development footprint that began on Daniel Island continues through neighboring Cainhoy.
For Brumley, Daniel Island had already gone beyond what its earliest planners imagined.
“I have to say,” he added during his look back, “Daniel Island has exceeded all of our expectations.”