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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.

Summers Corner offers beautiful layout options like this Fanning model.

Future proposed Club at Summers Corner

Summers Corner offers a peaceful and walkable streetscape for residents to enjoy.

Whitfield

Haskell

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.

DORCHESTER COUNTY, S.C. (WCIV) — Last week, a fire devastated the Apel family's home in the Summers Corner community.

AGoFundMe was quickly started to support the Apel family and in just a few hours, the $5,000 goal had already been reached.

Yet people continued to donate and in 24 hours? The fund had reached about $11,000.

Read More: Flames envelop home in Summers Corner community of Dorchester County

As of Monday morning, donations were just over $12,530, with people still actively donating.

The GoFundMe states the money will help the family replace all that was lost in the house fire and support them until they reestablish a new home.

The photo used on the page shows two adults and four children.

Read More: Dozens give back in North Charleston on Easter Sunday

Flames could be seen shooting out of the kitchen of the home on Gnarly Oak lane at around 5 p.m. Friday.

The homeowner said the fire started on the porch of the home and quickly spread. Fire officials said the cause was an apparent electrical issue.

Everyone home at the time was able to escape without injury.

They might not have the bright lights of the big city, the hustle and bustle of crowds on Fifth Avenue or the Miracle Mile, but South Carolina’s metropolitan areas have an appeal all their own.

Not surprisingly, people from large cities across the country have been discovering the benefits of the Palmetto State’s smaller metro areas and have been moving in droves since the pandemic to improve their work-life balance.

As of July 2021, the U.S. Census Bureau reported South Carolina’s population of 5.19 million was 1.4 percent higher than the previous year, and the metropolitan centers accounted for much of the growth.

“These areas have a lot of the same amenities as the bigger cities, like New York and Chicago, good retail, entertainment; they still have that city vibe, that’s what makes them so attractive,” said Laura Ullrich, an economist at the Charlotte branch of the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond.

As the population grows in Charleston, Greenville and Charlotte-Gastonia at the North and South Carolina border, like the Pied Piper, companies are following the crowd of young workers and taking advantage of other amenities the state has to offer.

“Companies want a place where younger people are moving,” said Ullrich.

Greenville Business

Add the state’s location on the East Coast, Charleston’s port and tax incentives related to driving additional population growth, and it’s an ideal enticement for businesses to invest in the state, said Ullrich.

Walmart Inc., encouraged by Charleston’s vibrancy, growing population, the state’s pro-business environment and its proximity to the deep-water Port of Charleston, opened a 3 million-square-foot import distribution

“One of the advantages of being a member of this vibrant community is the region’s existing infrastructure, including the Port of Charleston and Interstates 26 and 95,” said Charles Crowson, director of corporate communications.

Other large corporations and smaller businesses are, like Walmart, establishing themselves or expanding in and around the state’s bigger metropolitan areas.

It’s showing up in employment numbers. Statewide, seasonally adjusted figures from the S.C. Department of Employment and Workforce shows 79,900 new jobs were created since July 2021. Charleston drove 23 percent of the growth, with 18,400 jobs added. Greenville was second with 12,300 new positions, or 15 percent of the total.

Greenville Business

Over the last 12 months, $3.8 billion in new investments have been made through 115 projects developed across the state, said Kelly Coakley, director of marketing and communications at the S.C. Department of Commerce.

“We’ve tracked about a billion dollars’ worth of capital infusion announced in the Charleston region over the past year,” said Megan Fink, director of marketing and communications at the Charleston Regional Development Alliance. “That includes capital raises by local firms as well as capital investments by local firms.”

In the 10-county Upstate region that includes Greenville, “We have been remarkably successful coming out of and during COVID,” said John Lummus, president and CEO of the Upstate SC Alliance.

He attributed much of the state’s good economic fortune to the statewide policy that allowed manufacturers to be considered a necessary business and stay open during the pandemic.

From 2020 to last month, 22 new projects brought a total investment of about $495 million to Greenville, according to the alliance.

At its new Dorchester County distribution center, Walmart employs more than 1,300 workers. It anticipates hiring and investing in the training and development of more than 200 more local full-timers.

And for manufacturers — one of the leading job growth sectors in the state — South Carolina has a “real advantage over competitor regions,” said Lummus.

“The state has an incredible manufacturing economy and high-tech companies in the manufacturing sphere,” he said. “In the Upstate, we have 110,000 people working in manufacturing and 2,100 manufacturers.”

Looking at the unemployment rate — 3.2 percent in July — one might think that the industry is having trouble going to find the workforce they need, Lummus said.

“But they are finding workers from employed and underemployed people who can make more by moving up into higher tech jobs,” he said.

Combine that with ReadySC — a workforce training program that is part of the state’s technical college system — and manufacturers have a healthy pool of workers to draw from.

The same holds in Charleston and its suburbs, where Volvo Car USA announced it would build its first US plant in 2015 to manufacture its S60 mid-size sedan and XC90 sport utility vehicle.

“The Lowcountry offers easy access to international ports and infrastructure, a well-trained labor force, an attractive investment environment and experience in the high-tech manufacturing sector,” said Katherine Bergmann, head of communications and community relations. “All of that, combined with the quality of life, makes Charleston a great place to live and build a career.”

Volvo expects to grow its workforce over the next year and is looking for talent from all areas and demographics. As it competes for workers, recruitment challenges exist, Bergmann said.

But workforce challenges are particularly prevalent for smaller businesses in growth sectors, including leisure and hospitality, where 6,000 jobs have been added in the Charleston region over the last 12 months as the industry continued to recover from the pandemic.

One of the Charleston area’s longtime restaurant chains knows the labor challenges all too well. The Kickin’ Chicken is now closed on Tuesdays at all five locations throughout the Lowcountry because it can’t get enough help.

“It’s a struggle at all locations,” said Chip Roberts, president and co-founder of the 25-year-old dining chain. “The problem is from top to bottom, from management all the way down. It’s thin all over.”

The restaurant group should have about 250 employees, but Roberts said it’s operating on about 150.

The Kickin’ Chicken has done better during the summer on hourly staff, but Roberts said, “If they don’t feel like coming to work, they don’t. You are already thin, so what are you going to do, fire them?”

Roberts said the chain considered closing part of the dining rooms to limit demands on the waitstaff, but he noted the restaurants still need someone with management skills to open and close.

“It’s hard to find some skilled labor and cooks,” he said.

Roberts pointed out it’s easier to find help in the Charleston area’s suburbs of Ladson, Goose Creek and Summerville.

Marilyn Knox with Culver’s restaurant experienced that firsthand.

When the franchisee opened her second Charleston-area Culver’s frozen custard and ButterBurger restaurant on Ladson Road on Aug. 29, she already had all 60 new employees lined up.

Knox said it took about a month to hire all the workers she needed at the new restaurant site.

She believes the secret is the way the company takes care of its employees through incentives, bonuses and holiday parties.

“People want to feel like they are part of a team,” she said.

At the newly opened Pasture & Grain restaurant in Mount Pleasant, owner Ira Hill remembered being fully staffed almost immediately after announcing the new eatery planned to open in a former pizza restaurant in June.

“As time went on, we lost 40 percent of those we hired,” he said in mid-August.

“It’s been a labor of love for interviews,” Hill said. “We are short-staffed, but we’re not poorly staffed. It’s universally challenging. You want quality workers as well.”

He also is well aware of the challenges throughout the food-service industry in hiring and retaining workers.

“We are entering the business at one of the worst times in the industry, so we have to get it right and provide quality.”

Construction is another sector grappling since COVID-19 with a nationwide labor shortage driven by a lack of qualified help, and that could impede progress in areas that need improvement to ensure the continued growth of South Carolina’s metropolitan centers.

In South Carolina, more than 90 percent of companies responding to an Associated General Contractors of America survey said they have positions open. Nearly 80 percent are having difficulty finding workers to fill them. Employers that belong to the trade group attribute the crunch to a lack of candidates with the specific jobsite skills they need.

“There is plenty of work to perform and not enough people to do the projects,” said Ken Simonson, AGC’s chief economist

SUMMERVILLE, SC (WCBD) – Dorchester District Two received the green light to move in the new Rollings Middle School of the Arts building in Summerville.

Students and staff will begin the 2018-2019 school year on Monday, August 20th.

The new school is located in Summers Corner on S.C. 61. According to the Rollings Middle School of the Arts Facebook page, state inspectors approved the building nearly two weeks out from the first day of school.

News 2’s Laura Smith had the chance to sit down with Principal Patrick Pye before the move happened at the historic building downtown Summerville.

The 1924 building has served kids for nearly 100 years. It will be turned into office space for Dorchester District Two.

Pye says it needs a lot of work and will look completely different when renovations wrap up.

“It’s kind of like grandmas house. You walk down the halls and you see they’re quite narrow, there’s no lockers, there’s no running water in science labs. It’s not built for the 21st century learner,” said Rollings Middle School of the Arts principal, Patrick Pye.

The new Rollings will come with wider hallways, lockers, larger classrooms, and a major auditorium upgrade for performances.

Pye says it will be the largest in Dorchester County and is capable of seating 1,100 people.

“Not only will we be able to do all of our performances and events, the district can use that facility as well as the community,” said Pye.

Students must audition for an art to attend Rollings. The district will add 60 students each year until enrollment reaches 850.

What students and parents should know:

1) New Bus Routes

2) New Bell Schedule

3) New Building Tour – Sunday, August 19th.

Rollings Middle School of the Arts will be on the high school bell schedule. School will start at 8:55 a.m. and dismiss at 3:55 p.m.

Sixth grade meet the teacher is now scheduled to happen on Wednesday, September 5th.

Seventh and eighth grades meet the teacher is Tuesday, September 11th.