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Sheikdom of Kuwait invests $17 million off South Carolina coast
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A weathered plantation house, built in the 16th century by South Carolina
Governor Arnoldus Vanderhorst, stands alone on the interior of Kiawah Island. It will
soon, however, be surrounded by condominiums, beach houses, golf courses and
tennis courts. The developers of the island plan to restore the Vanderhorst mansion
and transform it into a museum.
Environmentally-balanced development?
on a state-sponsored study of the South
Carolina coast, has calculated that more
than half of the state's coastline has already
been developed, and another third is either
planned for development or privately
owned.
Only 17 per cent of the coast has been
preserved for future generations," Porcher
said. This is an unfair and unwise
proportion."
Porcher is on the conservation committee
of Charleston's chapter of the Audubon
Society, and plans to appear before the
county council in an attempt to block the
petition to re-zone Kiawah Island from
agricultural use to planned development.
The re-zoning petition will most likely be
granted. "I'm afraid most of them (the.
county council) at this point are tending
towards the development," Porcher said.
Porcher feels the state government will
also be unsympathetic with the
conservationists' cause. "The political
structure of the state is all for the
development of Kiawah," he said. "We'll get
no help from them whatsoever."
Apparently few people in the area aside
from the traditional preservationist
crusaders the Audubon Society and Sierra
Club are protesting the development.
Most are indifferent, and many welcome the
investment and the job opportunities that
will be created as a result of construction.
There are currently 21 houses, belonging
to personal friends of the late C.C. Royal, on
Kiawah. Most owners have acquiesced to the
invasion of their isolated island.
"We've always felt that eventually the
island would be developed," said Dr.
Richard Sosnowski, a native of Charleston
who co-owns a beach house with his father
and brother. "We just hope that as much of
the natural state of the island will be
preserved as possible."
Sosnowski and his neighbors may take
some consolation from their lost privacy:
after development, the resale value of their
property will be greatly enhanced.
Dr. Samuel Hunt, a psychiatrist from New
Haven, Conn., is the only property owner
visibly protesting the development "Kiawah
is one of the few remaining islands on the
Eastern seaboard," he said. "It is a priceless
natural resource. It should not be developed
i
Twenty-five years ago, C.C. Royal, a
lumberman from Aiken, S.C., bought a
coastal bland near Charleston for $125,000.
The isle was a semi-tropical paradise, shaded
by palmettoes and moss-hung, live oaks. The
land paid for itself in timber.
Last February, Royal's widow and six
children sold the barrier island to the
sheikdom of Kuwait for $17 million. To the
wealthy. Kuwaitis, the 1 0-mile long island
was not a paradise, but an investment. They
immeidately began plans to transform it into
a lush seaside resort. ,
Although the names are new, the plot of
the Kiawah story is a familiar one along the
Carolina coastline. Rising real-estate taxes
have made it practically impossible for
private owners to maintain large tracts of
idle coastland, and one by one, the coastal
islands have been surrendered to large
development companies.
Kiawah is one of the last remaining
refuges for the variety of exotic wildlife that
previously flourished along this country's
southern Atlantic shores. Disturbed by an
occasional bird-watcher or fisherman.'deer,
racoons and wild pigs wander freely through
its wind-pruned forests. The island's most
precious inhabitants are the brown pelicans
that fish for sea bass in the surrounding
waters and the loggerhead turtles that nest
on its beaches.
. Unfortunately, these animals are seeing
their last days of privacy. Construction
crews have already begun their invasion, and
as soon as a re-zoning request is granted by
the Charleston County Council, a site is
being cleared for the island's first resort
facility the Kiawah Inn.
: The sale of Kiawah is only the latest in a
succession of island sellouts that has
included Baldhead Island, Seabrook Island,
Pawley's Island, Hilton Head and others.
Dr. Richard Porcher, a biology professor
at The Citadel in Charleston who is working
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Construction machinery has already invaded Kiawah and sits Idle along the dirt
roads waiting for the re-zoning proposal to be passed by the Charleston County
Council. The first building constructed will be the plush Kiawah Inn.
for the benefit of a few wealthy people. It
ought to be preserved without development
for future generations."
Before the Kuwait transaction, the gate on
the dirt road keading to Kiawah was
padlocked, and keys were distributed only to
the C.C. Royal family, a small handful of
property owners and a few of their friends.
"If the preservationists had their way, the
island would be locked up and totally
preserved. There would be no people,"
Frank Brumley, general manager of the
Kiawah Beach Company said. Kiawah
Beach is the organization overseeing the
development of the island for Kuwait. A
public beach is included in the company's
planned complex of high-cost
condominiums and beach-front and
fairway-view lots. "Charleston Company
needs a good, quality, environmentally well
balanced beach-front recreation area,"
People are certainly not a new species to
Kiawah. The island was first settled in'the
latter part of the 18th century by Arnoldus
Vanderhorst, who later became governor of
South Carolina.
' Kiawah remained a Vanderhorst family
possession until it was bought by C.C. Royal
in 1952.
In 1961, a bill was introduced in the U.S.
Senate proposing the Kiawah land be
considered for acquisition and conversion
into a public recreation area. Royal, with the
help of South Carolina Governor Ernest
Hollings and U.S. Senator Strom
Thurmond, fought the proposed acquisition.
"They'll have to pitch me into the Atlantic
Ocean," Royal told the Charleston News and
Courier at the time.
Royal remained dry and the acquisition
attempt was defeated.
With Kiawah's price tag now at $17
million, the federal government seems to
have lost interest in acyorsrrionviand the
island is' destined to become' a' playground
'fb'f extravagant tourists? " .
Jim Tufts, a young North Carolinian, is a
zealous outdoorsman and a member of the
conservationist Sierra Club.
V He is also a dedicated employee of the
Kiawah Beach Company, an organization
planning the development of Kiawah Island
in South Carolina.
Tufts sees no .real conflict between his
personal interests as a conservationist and
his profession as a developer. "These areas
are going to be developed," he said, "and I
want to help see to it that they are developed
properly." .
. Kiawah Beach, owned and financed by
Kuwait, is a recently formed extension of
was established to "protect the eggs, which
normally become the prey of raccoons and
oppossums.
Brumley hopes the development will have
a minimal impact on the turtles, "Out of 10
miles' of beach front, there are only seven
miles that ; we consider developable. It
happens, and damn lucky for us, that the
area that is least developable is the area of
the highest nesting impact of the turtles."
The company also plans to establish
rookeries to insure the survival of the rare
island birds.
Brumley, who was in charge of the Amelia
Island development in Florida before the
"We totally control the exterior of the
house, as well as where the house is placed on
the lot," Brumley said. "We have the right to
disapprove the design of a house purely on
aesthetics." Several of the handful of houses
already on the island are somewhat
obnoxious to the tastes of Brumley's40-man
organization and have been sighted for
eventual reworking.
Brumley readily admits the development
may damage the island's ecological balance.
"There's going to be a change," he saidN
"There's got to be. You can't insert , that
number of people on the island and expect
not to have some adverse effect on the
Stories and
photos
by
Alan Murray
o
Wealth awes tiny country
Thinking the developers are
environmentally and socially
responsible 'is like saying it is
better to have a genteel person
rape you than a brutal person.
Either way, it's still rape.' the
only protesting property owner
on Kiawah Island.
Sea Pines Company, a multi-million dollar
concern, responsible for the development of
the Sea Pines Plantation at Hilton Head,
S.C., and Amelia Island near Jacksonville,
Fla. The company prides itself on
construction of comfortable, low-density
resorts in a natural environment. "They are ;
the best in the country," Tuts said.
,' Frank . Brumley, vice-president and
general manager of the Kiawah Company,
stresses his organization's concern for the
environment. "What our company does
best," he said, "is blend into the natural
scape."
Brumley's claims seem to be more than a
superficial attempt to appease an ecology
conscious public. His company has
contracted an environmental research
corporation to make an extensive study of
the island, its vegetation and wildlife. "We
will put the development in the areas that are
least sensitive and totally preserve those that
are more sensitive."
Over the past summer, the company also
funded a study of the rare loggerhead turtles
that nest on the island's beaches. A hatchery
Kiawah concern was established last April,
suggests the Sea Pines Plantation at Hilton
Head as a general model for the Kiawah
development. He stresses, however, that th
resort area, like the island itself, will be
unique: V Vv it-i ',
The development is planned for a 15-year
period and will include beachfront
condominiums, single-family fairway-view
lots, several plush inns, golf courses, tennis
courts and other recreational facilities. The
architecture will be designed to complement
the natural environment, and no structure
. will be higher than five stories.
Much to his contractors' distress, Brumley
intends to insure that as few trees are cut
down as possible. Many will be re-located,
and eventually a tree nursery will be
established somewhere on the island.
Blending, a concept which appears to be
antithetical to most seaside developments, is
a near obsession with Kiawah Beach. The
design of houses built by owners of single
family lots will be subject to the discretion of
the developers.
ecology. It's our job and responsibility to
minimize that impact.
Brumley also acknowledges that low
density, environmentally oriented
development inherently means high prices.
The projected cost of a two-bedroom
condomimium is $60,000 or more, rand
interior, wooded, third-acre lots will bj? no
less than $15,000. -Vl
Brumley does not, however, see the island
as being an enclave for the rich. The more
luxurious condominiums and high-priced
lots, he. admits, will be fairly exclusive but
the inns and the lower-priced condominiums
will be within financial reach of middle- ;
income families.
Many Charlestonians, including" ' the
island property owners, are glad the island
will be developed under the guidance of the
environmentally and socially responsible
Sea Pines Company.
But one property owner, Dr. Sam Hunt,
disagrees. "That," he said, "is like saying it is
better to have a genteel person rape you than
a brutal person. Either way, it's still rape."
Kuwait is an Arab nation in the northwest corner of the
Persian Gulf, slightly smaller than the state of New Jersey. It
is a desert country with no rivers, and aside from oil, sand is
its most abundant resource. The need for beach property
certainly wasn't a factor in the country's purchase of Kiawah
Island.
The purchase, in fact, was not the result of any particular
need, but rather an overabundance of capital. The country's
oil exports are expected to bring the government $10 billion
in revenues this year.
At present production, Kuwait's oil reserves will be totally
depleted within a century. The government has attempted to
reduce production in order to conserve oil, but pressures
from oil companies and oil-consuming nations have made
production cutbacks all but impossible. U.S. Treasury
Secretary William Simon visited Kuwait and other oil
producing Arab states in July to discourage production
cutbacks. It would be in their interest, he told them, to
expand production, see prices decrease some, and invest oil
revenues in the United States.
.-This year, Kuwait has approximately $6 billion which
must be invested abroad. The Kuwait Investment Company,
owned jointly by the government and the, ruling family of
Kuwait, is responsible for the monumental task of wisely
investing the oil income. The United States is the company's
prefered nation for investment, primarily because financial
transactions are faster in the United States.
"It takes our Swiss bankers months to invest what we can
move through the American market in an hour," Khaled
Abu Al-Saud told U.S. News and World Report last May.
Al-Saud is the Palestinian Arab who heads the Kuwait
Investment Companv.
Kuwait has already spent over $100 million in this
country. Its other investments include half-ownership in
Atlanta's Hilton Center, a 27 per cent share in an Idahp
cattle feeder lot and property in California's San Remo
Valley.
Richard Williamson, a Columbia, S.C. native, is the
Kuwaitis' financial advisor and lives in the Arab country
nine months a year. Williamson, a former Merrill-Lynch
employee, was bullish on Kiawah and was instrumental in
negotiating the island's sale.
Contrary to the rumors of an influx of camels and oil wells
circulating the Charleston area, the Kuwaitis have no
intention of endowing their island resort with an Arabesque
motif. "Needless to say they are proud of their own culture,
but they don't plan to transfer any of them to Kiawah," said
Frank Brumley, senior vice president and general manager
of the Kiawah Beach Company.
"They are a very sensitive people," said Brumley, who
recently visited the tiny Arab country. "The ones that we've
been involved with were educated in American universities
and are very articulate people who are very much concerned
with the impact they make on the United States. They know
if they ruin the environment on Kiawah through the zoning
process, it will kill their opportunity to do it again."
- Brumley estimates that the total development of the
island, covering a 16 to 18 year period, will cost Kuwait at
least $250 to $300 million.
Unlike most real estate developers, Kuwait has no desire
or need for short-term returns on its investment. They are
interested solely in long-term profits. As a result, Kiawah
Beach will have the time and flexibility needed for proper
planning and construction.
'
For years, Kiawah has been a haven for wildlife of all sorts.
Herons, egrets and ibises fly over the island's semi-tropical
forests, alligators sun-bathe beside its marshes and horses
graze In its fields. The Kiawah Beach Company, developers
of the island, plan to preserve the animals and their habitats
' as. best cs possible, but their large scale construction will
undoubtedly upset the Isle's fragile eco-sy stem.
Unlike the residents of N.C's coastline who are fighting
valisntly to prevent the development of the Jockey's Ridge
area, South Carolinians are for the most part acquiescing to
the gradual encroachment of their entire coast by resort1
developers. Local protest to the Kiawah development has'
been minimal, and the proposal to re-zone the island from
esrlcultural uia to planned davelopment Is expected to be
passed unchallenged by the Charleston County Council.
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