The Sea Island area of Johns Island, Seabrook Island and Kiawah Island aren’t exactly known for their conveniences. Sure, they are relatively close to Charleston, James Island and West Ashley – each of which have a business for practically every need – but for the residents of the Sea Islands getting to those conveniences requires a longer drive, most likely in traffic.
Building some of the conveniences that residents in the Sea Island area could use makes sense. That’s why John Skerchek of potential development Island Park Place presented to the Kiawah Island Town Council on August 1.
The presentation was mostly done as a courtesy as a neighboring property of the Kiawah Island Town Council’s Chambers. Although the Town has no annexation authority over the property, it will be located next door to its Council chambers, which is in unincorporated Charleston County.
Island Park Place will be a health and wellness village. With the new MUSC Medical Center coming to the Sea Islands, Skerchek said Island Park Place will complement that. In the presentation, he stated, “Our health and wellness village will support the goals for a high quality, mixed-use, pedestrian-friendly environment that will complement and enhance the emerging concentration of world-class health care and supporting wellness practices.”
The Island Park Place developers are an 11-person team, all who live on the Sea Islands. Their hope is to not only make it available for Kiawah and Seabrook residents, but Johns Island as well.
Their team includes experts on traffic, the environment and architecture, and they even have a former DHEC staff member as a partner to guide them on South Carolina regulations.
In the presentation, Skerchek also noted, “The trend toward health villages is to recognize that the industry’s future will transform from a health care system that historically focuses on treating the sick to a valuebased one, designed to keep people healthy and well.”
The Island Park Place website has a survey for members of the public to fill out. The idea for the survey is so that the developers can get a better understanding of what types of health services residents in the area would like to see. Some of the options are cosmetic procedures, dermatology, dentistry, a medical spa, healthy eateries, gastroenterology, podiatry and more.
In the presentation, Skerchek wanted to make it clear that the development will be considered a low impact design, meaning that they will put an emphasis on nature and the environment. They will have grand tree protection zones, extended buffers, walking and biking trails, open spaces, a fitness path, wetland preservation and what they call healing zones. They are also adopting the concept of “timeless architecture.”
The healing zones, pedestrian trails and paths, as well as the open spaces, will not only be utilized by patrons of the area, but also by the employees. They’ll also be used for treatment, Skerchek said.
“We have limited our footprint to preserve the natural elements of the wetlands and natural habitats and are confident that we are helping to preserve the iconic Southern live oak trees which will be a master planning focal point throughout the village.”
The architectural firm for the project, LS3P, was on hand to present the concept of the design. Design Leader, vice president and principal Brian Wurst said, “We design without ego, so when John came to us, we looked at his vision and we fully embraced it. We went with a cool, comfortable, Southern manner of living. The interior would be warm and comfortable. The architectural expression enhances the mission of the medical village. It will be a place of creative healing and health, so we wanted that walkability and those courtyards. We wanted that organic village feeling. Like a welcoming space for all. We want this idea of transforming to an outdoor space for employees and patients getting treatments.”
A potential benefit that Skerchek mentioned is hopefully reducing traffic. Island Park Place could reduce some traffic leaving Johns Island, since residents will no longer have to access some of the services off the islands. Those same services would now be offered at the new health village.
Thompson Turner Construction also contributed to the presentation and had their Director of Strategic Planning Ginny Kirk speak at the Town Council meeting. She said, “Thompson Turner serves a number of sectors, including K-12, higher education, hospitality and health care. With health care, we have built a number of projects in a range of sizes and scope. We recently completed a small replacement hospital in the Pee Dee community for MUSC and are currently working on a larger hospital in Summerville, as well as two large projects downtown for the College of Medicine and the College of Health Services. We also worked with Prisma on smaller projects that might be more relevant to what the health village will bring. We enjoy working in the health care sector and we think this is an important project for the community.”
Island Park Place will be submitting the plans to Charleston County, and then there will be a four to five month process before they can get before the Charleston County Planning Commission, so all the plans at this time are preliminary.
The team said they would like to see “keys in doors” in 2026.
Council Member Michael Heidingsfelder asked how the medical services would be divided up in the whole plan. Skercheck said, “This is a suburban/urban mixed use property. This would have about 60% direct medical services and about 20% health retail, like eateries.” Pharmacy is also considered medical retail at this time. Some practitioners have also asked about the availability of dwelling units on the property for employees, so Skerchek said they do plan to have a very limited amount of residential spaces on the site as well.
Skerchek added, “I initially came here in the early 1990s, and bought my first property in 1997 on Kiawah Island, so I am a resident. I have witnessed the changes and the lack of day-to-day health care solutions. I want to guarantee the best results, and we are passionate about this.”
For information, visit ippsupport.com.