Construction has started on Heritage at Summerville, a 250-unit rental townhome community taking shape on a 17-acre site in Summerville, South Carolina, about 24 miles northwest of Charleston. The project comes from The Crest Group, a Port Jefferson Station, New York-based developer, and marks the company's first ground-up development in the state.
According to Long Island Business News, the development will spread 22 buildings across the site, mixing 46 three-bedroom, 4.5-bathroom duplex-style townhomes with 136 two-bedroom, 2.5-bathroom units and 68 one-bedroom, 1.5-bathroom apartments. Unit sizes will range from 1,108 to 1,800 square feet, giving renters a spread of options from compact apartments to family-sized townhomes.
The amenity package leans into suburban family life. Plans call for a 5,000-square-foot clubhouse, an outdoor pool, three ponds and a dog park, along with an on-site daycare facility that will be operated by The Learning Experience, the outlet reported.
Financing and the People Behind the Deal
Crest Group secured $50 million in construction financing for the project from ConnectOne Bank. The bank's chief banking officer, Kevin Santacroce, worked on the deal alongside ConnectOne representative Kim Cioche, the report notes.
Santacroce said the bank was glad to back the developer's expansion. ConnectOne Bank is proud to finance Crest Group's expansion and support housing and local economic development, he said, per the same account. Daniel Scarda, who heads business development at Crest Group, framed the project as a bet on the region's trajectory, saying Summerville and the greater Charleston area are honestly one of the most active growth corridors we've seen across the U.S. Scarda added that population and employment growth trends in the area are expected to persist, the outlet reported.
Summerville Mayor Russ Touchberry welcomed the investment, saying the town was glad to see the Scarda family putting money into the community and was excited to see the completed project, according to the same report. The project team includes McDonough & Conroy Architects of Islandia and Thomas & Hutton of Savannah, Georgia.
Part of a Booming Rental Pipeline
Heritage at Summerville isn't the only build-to-rent project reshaping the area. Woodfield Development, in partnership with Prudential Financial's PGIM division, has already kicked off construction on Nexton Townhomes, a 114-unit project described by The Post and Courier as the next phase of The Radler apartment complex in the Nexton community. That development offers two- to four-bedroom floor plans ranging from 1,788 to 2,401 square feet, with access to a pool, sundeck, rooftop lounge, fitness center, coworking spaces, game room, amphitheater and pickleball courts, and it's scheduled for completion in late 2027.
At full buildout, the Nexton community itself is expected to include about 8,500 single-family and multifamily residences, more than 700 acres of commercial space, 2,000 acres of preserved land and 15 miles of walking trails, the newspaper reports. The scale underscores how fast the area around Summerville continues to fill in with new rental product aimed at the same wave of newcomers.
That growth has been building for years. Summerville's population has grown by more than 60% over the past quarter-century, according to a Post and Courier commentary piece, which also notes that nearly 250,000 people carry a Summerville address even though only about 52,000 actually live within the town's limits. The commentary attributes much of that surge to rising real estate prices pushing people out of Charleston, with Summerville becoming the metro area's top alternative — though the piece also points out the town has no control over some of the biggest growth areas generally considered part of Summerville, since they sit beyond its municipal boundaries.
Crest Group's Other South Carolina and Pennsylvania Projects
Beyond Heritage at Summerville, Crest Group previously acquired Central Townhomes, a 95-unit townhome community still being completed in Summerville, according to Long Island Business News. The developer is also active outside the Southeast, partnering with Greystone Capital and Black Bear Asset Management on two multifamily projects in Pennsylvania's Lehigh Valley.
That joint venture is building Van Buren East and Van Buren West in Palmer Township, bringing a combined 536 apartments to 48 acres at a total cost of $174 million. Van Buren East is a $67 million project planned for 216 apartments on a 16-acre site, while Van Buren West is a $107 million development slated to include 320 apartments across 13 buildings, per earlier Long Island Business News reporting.
Back in Summerville, Heritage at Summerville is expected to open in phases, with completion running from the first quarter of 2028 through the third quarter of that year. Building permits for residential and commercial projects in the area fall under the jurisdiction of the Dorchester County Building Services Department.
