The company that has developed Kiawah Island for a quarter century has a new owner.

South Street Partners of Charlotte said Monday that it has bought Kiawah Partners, The Post and Courier reported. The price was not disclosed.

The sale comes a year after a family feud over the developer’s real estate holdings went public in a Charleston County lawsuit.

“We’re excited to be a part of it,” South Street managing partner Patrick Melton told the newspaper. “It’s a special place.”

Melton is taking over as chief executive of Kiawah Partners. He replaces Charles P. “Buddy” Darby III, who co-founded the company 25 years ago and is no longer with it, the newspaper reported.

“I want to thank all of our employees and property owners for their support and wish South Street Partners continued success,” Darby said in a written statement.

What changes hands

The deal covers more than 400 undeveloped lots on Kiawah, according to The Post and Courier. It also includes two private golf courses on the island, the River Course and Cassique, along with the Freshfields Village commercial center, Kiawah Island Real Estate and Kiawah Island Utility.

Kiawah Partners’ holdings outside South Carolina are part of the sale, too. The company owns the Doonbeg golf resort on the west coast of Ireland, which the newspaper described as money-losing, and the proposed 2,500-acre Christophe Harbour development on the Caribbean island of St. Kitts.

Melton said the new management is “evaluating” the overseas properties but has no immediate plans to change them, the newspaper reported.

Not everything on the island was included. The Sanctuary hotel and the resort’s golf courses, including the Ocean Course, are owned separately and were not part of the deal.

A family dispute

The two central figures in the dispute were Darby and his first cousin Leonard Long, a former executive vice president of Kiawah Partners, according to The Post and Courier.

Long and a group of partnerships, trusts and individuals who held minority stakes in the Darby-led real estate ventures sued last June in the Charleston County Court of Common Pleas. They asked that the businesses be dissolved and the properties divided or sold. The suit alleged that Darby had tried to “squeeze” the smaller partners out of their stakes, and it suggested the minority owners objected to investments Darby was leading outside Kiawah.

All of the plaintiffs and defendants are relatives of the late J.C. Long, whose real estate holdings included the Isle of Palms, the newspaper reported.

The case was settled in December. The terms were confidential but included a buyout clause, according to the newspaper. Long brought South Street to the table, talks began in February, and Long will have an advisory role with the new owners, Melton said.

From a $105 million purchase

Long and Darby were part of the group that bought most of the 10,000-acre oceanfront island in 1988 for $105 million, The Post and Courier reported. Since then, Kiawah has become a high-end resort and vacation-home destination. Last year, its Ocean Course was the site of the PGA Championship.

Darby’s company has worked closely with the island’s championship golf. In a 2006 PGA of America release, Darby, then identified as president of Kiawah Development Partners, said the 2007 Senior PGA Championship would bring “top level corporate sponsors to the state, which enhances the economic development climate.”

South Street’s website has described the firm as a Charlotte-based real estate investment, management and development company focused on distressed real estate in the Southeastern United States.

Melton called the purchase a minimum 10-year investment for his firm and its backers.

“We believe it’s a first-in-class asset,” he said.

What’s next

South Street said it will abide by the existing development agreement between Kiawah Partners and the Town of Kiawah Island. Melton was meeting with elected officials Monday, and island property owners were being notified of the sale by mail and email, the newspaper reported.

The new owners also plan to move ahead with Kiawah Partners’ proposed 50-home development at Captain Sam’s Spit, according to The Post and Courier. Conservation groups and other opponents have criticized that project.