An apartment complex off Maybank Highway on Johns Island is a step closer to adding 89 units.
Charleston’s Design Review Board on Nov. 2 unanimously gave preliminary approval to designs that SeamonWhiteside submitted for 3015-3041 Reva Ridge Drive, The Post and Courier reported Nov. 5. The apartments would be an addition to Crowne at Live Oak Square, a mixed-use development that includes retail and office space, said Joanne Riddle, an architect with William Blackstock Architects, according to the newspaper.
The plans spread the apartments among three three-story buildings, with a plaza in front of one of them.
No written public comments were submitted. At the meeting, Liz Munn, speaking for the Charleston County Tree Preservation Alliance, objected to the dwarf crepe myrtles planned as tree mitigation and said the group would rather see grand oaks, which handle floodwater better, the newspaper reported.
Board Chair Erin Stevens agreed and suggested a native species instead. She said she would prefer to avoid anything “ornamental that doesn’t have any ecological value,” according to The Post and Courier. The board made the tree change a condition of its approval.
Live Oak Square, a 10-acre cluster of six retail and office buildings in front of the 282-unit Crowne at Live Oak Square apartments, was developed, owned and managed by Crowne Partners Inc., Beach Commercial said in a 2021 announcement that it had finished leasing the retail space. The apartments, built in 2017, sit in 11 three- and four-story buildings on 18.9 acres at 3014 Reva Ridge Drive, REBusiness Online reported in 2018, when Grandbridge Real Estate Capital provided a $31.5 million Freddie Mac loan on the property.
Charleston County records list the existing apartments’ owner as Crowne at Live Oak Square LLC, which shares a Birmingham, Ala., mailing address with Crowne Partners’ office there. Another entity at the same address, Crowne at Live Oak Square Phase II LLC, owns three smaller tracts in the complex totaling about 3.4 acres, the records show.
