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SUMMERVILLE, S.C. (WCSC) - Enrollment is officially open for interested parents and families to sign up for a new private preschool opening up in the summer of 2024.

Goddard Schools Summerville is a unique program focused on behavioral health and well-being through play and inquiry-based training.

“Our mission is kindergarten readiness for all of our students,” Goddard Schools Summerville Co-owner Amy Strickland said. “And we serve families with little ones from 6 weeks up til right before kindergarten starts.”

The curriculum gives kids a chance to learn their own way by using their senses and minds to make early education more engaging and exciting.

“It empowers children to find their voices, ask questions,” Strickland said.

There are hundreds of these programs across the nation, Nexton’s new location being the eighth in South Carolina.

Tuition will vary depending on the age of your children, how many you hope to enroll and what schedules you would prefer.

The school needs final approval before it can begin building the facility. Officials hope to start construction next week.

The school will be located in a developing shopping center on Nexton Parkway and Brighton Park Boulevard.

The area is being built up and occupied by young families.

Some tell me that’s why it is the perfect spot.

One local parent with a former Goddard student says it’s been hard for young families to find childcare resources in the area.

“The Charleston childcare scene is absolutely in a deficit, we really need more and more,” Parent Katie Olejniczak said. “I know a lot of families there that desperately need daycare or desperately need an early childhood development program. And these waitlists are absolutely absurd.”

Olejniczak says the program made a remarkable impact on her daughter’s lifestyle.

“Cam in general loves being around people, loves playing, and she was just in such a positive environment.”

Strickland says it’s the most fulfilling experience she’s had.

“To be able to send 40 kids year after year to kindergarten not scared, not anxious, but happy and confident and ready to take on the world and so excited about school,” Strickland said. If they’re excited about school when they start kindergarten, that really maintains.”

Owners hope to kickstart an office space so that interested families can meet in person and ask questions.

For now, if you’re interested in joining the program as family or staff, you can find out more here.

Copyright 2023 WCSC. All rights reserved.

A large Berkeley County tract near the Summerville area’s industrial real estate epicenter recently sold for nearly $17 million.

Rushmark Properties paid $16.8 million in late May for about 300 acres along Interstate 26 southwest of Jedburg Road and north of Dawson Branch Road, according to public land records.

The largest chunk of land in the transaction — about 263 acres — was sold by North Charleston Lands Corp. for about $15.3 million. A group of smaller adjoining parcels made up the remainder of the deal.

The property is just west of a parcel off Woodhill Patch Lane near Jedburg Road that was sold for $5.75 million in October to an affiliate of Camping World.

A representative of Rushmark did not respond to a request for comment about the plans for its newly acquired property.

The Falls Church, Va.-based firm has been active in the local market for years. Among Rushmark’s previous commercial real estate holdings was a part ownership with Charleston developer and investor Frank Haygood in the S.H. Kress & Co. building at 281 King St. on the peninsula. They sold the art deco-style structure for $19.5 million in 2019.

Now open

A new apartment development is now open on the Charleston peninsula.

Quarterra Multifamily, a subsidiary of single-family homebuilding giant Lennar Corp., and Cresset Partners last week announced the completion of the 303-unit Cormac Apartments where Morrison Drive meets Meeting Street Road.

Real Estate

The rental complex has studio to two-bedroom apartments with monthly rates ranging from $1,500 to $4,000. Residents have access to a controlled-access, three-story, above-grade garage as well as on-street parking and 19 electric-vehicle charging stations.

The complex also features an eighth-floor rooftop terrace with a butler kitchen. Three elevated courtyards can be found on the fourth floor, including one with a pool and clubhouse.

Cormac also includes 13,068 square feet of retail space and a pair of public ground-level courtyards. The moniker comes from the birth name of 18th-century pirate Anne Bonny, who may have lived in Charleston as a child.

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New builder

The company behind a Berkeley County tract as big as the Charleston peninsula is adding its own homebuilder to the lineup of companies already doing business at the site.

Brookfield Residential, which acquired Newland, the former developer of the 5,000-acre Nexton project near Summerville in 2021, plans to build a new collection of townhomes in the mixed-use community as its first project in South Carolina.

The builder is an affiliate of Brookfield Properties, which invests in logistics, hospitality and retail assets. Among its holdings is Columbiana Centre in the Midlands.

The Nexton townhomes will be built in the Midtown neighborhood. The 1,600-square-foot, two-story, three-bedroom properties will be priced starting in the mid-$300,000s.

They also can be outfitted with extra driveway space and a one- or two-car garage. Pre-sales will begin mid-summer with a model residence opening later this year.

Builders in Nexton have sold more than 2,600 homes to date. At completion, it’s projected to have more than 7,000 dwellings, or about 17,500 residents, making it as big as the populations of Moncks Corner and Georgetown combined.

Other Nexton builders include Ashton Woods, Centex, David Weekley, Del Webb, Homes by Dickerson, New Leaf, Pulte Homes, Saussy Burbank and True Homes.

Nexton is owned by a subsidiary of North America Sekisui House LLC and is managed by Brookfield.

Rebranding

A national nonprofit with an office in Charleston that provides apartment companies with pre-screened, trained and ready-to-work talent is now operating under a new name.

The former Shelters to Shutters is now Entryway.

The multifamily industry continues to grapple with high turnover rates for entry-level employees. Entryway offers a unique program that focuses on sourcing talent where hiring managers may not be looking: individuals and families at risk of or facing situational homelessness.

The nonprofit offers training, employment and housing to qualified individuals who aren’t living on the street but are close to it.

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SUMMERVILLE, S.C. (WCSC) - Some businesses say prioritizing a sense of place in the town of Summerville is most important and sometimes that means new development, despite what some people might think.

Dorchester County has a proposed plan to turn 500 N. Main St., also known as their main county building, into a hotel, retail spaces, a parking garage and more.

Some businesses located in the heart of Summerville, like Eva’s Restaurant, think change is about time.

“If we don’t have growth, we don’t have a future,” general manager Tina Howard said.

Eva’s Restaurant has been serving the town since 1944. With the proposed development, Howard says she’s not worried about competition.

“I think it would benefit us as a small business with, you know, bringing in tourists,” Howard said. “...I don’t feel it would hurt us personally because we have such a strong, established business.”

Diane Frankenberger, the owner of People, Places & Quilts, says she’s watched Summerville grow for over 30 years. She says with the old post office as the new public works art center, the old Coca-Cola company as the new YMCA and an old hardware store as her own business, she believes both the county and town councils prioritize preservation.

“You have to go forward with the future,” Frankenberger said. “We still can’t have the same houses around here and the old town hall and no computers and blah blah blah. And so, it’s keeping a sense of place, but moving forward with an eye towards the future.”

The county has already approved plans to preserve part of the county building, which once was the old hospital, and improve the current Veteran’s monument.

“I think when people are calling names or say, ‘Don’t do something,’ let’s wait and see and work together and make the best use of what we’ve got there,” Frankenberger said.

Howard says she wants her 6-year-old grandson to be able to experience a flourishing Summerville, just like she has all her life.

“A lot of people complain about the growth and ‘People will stop coming here, we’re full, don’t come here,’” Howard said. “Without growth, we don’t have a future. The future is growth.”

Frankenberger says she’s ready to move forward.

“No more gas on the fire,” Frankenberger said. “Let’s put water on the fire.”

Dorchester County provided the following statement about the proposed plan:

Dorchester County is looking forward to having greater capacity and flexibility to complete the following projects from fee revenues of the redevelopment:

Funding to preserve the façade of the old hospital building.

A new civic park and improvements to the Veterans Memorial.

An additional $8 Million in funding to DD2 schools to supplement $2 Million from the TIF.

Provide $20 Million in funding for a Community Recreation Facility in the Summerville area.

Provide $2 Million in additional funding for streetscaping and improvements to Main Street and Cedar Street.

Provide credits for workforce housing for teachers, firefighters, law enforcement, and first responders within the multi-family development for at least 15 years.

A modern County office building and additional Class A Office Space in the downtown area.

A new downtown hotel and restaurant to provide much-needed retail and hospitality amenities in the downtown area.

Create additional parking by providing for the construction of a parking garage in the downtown area.

Copyright 2023 WCSC. All rights reserved.

SUMMERVILLE, S.C. (WCSC) - The S.C. Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism recently granted nearly $34,000 to bring more people into Summerville.

The town, acknowledged for its charm, history and its people, wants to make sure everyone gets to experience some of the Summerville way.

“It feels good to be able to show off our hometown to people who can come visit and vacation here,” Town of Summerville Public Information Officer Chris Makowski said. “And to really see the beauty and the people that are here.”

Summerville sees a record number of visitors, sitting at around 250,000 every year and housing more than 50,000 permanent residents.

The town hopes to boost the statewide economy by encouraging tourism and development in the area.

The community shared their thoughts on the funding and what they hope to see come out of it.

One family, planning to move to the area in just a few weeks, was ecstatic.

“As far as bringing tourists in, I do feel like it’s worth it,” future Summerville homeowner Whitney Mourlam said. “It’s just a gem, and it’s worth coming inland a little bit to check it out.”

“It’s a great location, like a little way from the touristy feel but you can really blend in and feel like you’re a local right away,” future Summerville homeowner Mark Mourlam said. “We want to grow our family down here and live everything Summerville has to offer.”

One long-term resident said he enjoys seeing his town thrive, but worries about what it could mean for traffic, infrastructure and the cost of living.

“I’ve watched the growth, and it’s terrific how fast and how large this place has gotten,” Summerville Homeowner John Calvert said. “But you can only build so many apartments and so many subdivisions. We’re running out of space!”

There are no specific projects or plans for the grant.

The Town of Summerville says they want to allocate the money toward marketing campaigns through social media, magazines and the local visitor center, to name a few.

Copyright 2023 WCSC. All rights reserved.

SUMMERVILLE — Jacob Limehouse, 26, and his wife do not want children and had already discussed Jacob getting a vasectomy. Then the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in late June 2022, allowing states like South Carolina to seek to ban or severely restrict access to abortion, and that sealed it for them.

“That definitely added to the desire to get it done,” Limehouse said.

After doing what he felt was a lot of research, much of which downplayed the risk from the procedure, he went in for a vasectomy on Jan. 9. What followed was a trip to the emergency room and a week at Summerville Medical Center battling severe complications that have left him with lingering pain and extensive medical bills.

Limehouse wasn’t alone in his newfound interest in vasectomies. Immediately after the Dobbs decision by the Supreme Court, the search for information on vasectomies hit a five-year high on Google Trends, according an article in the journal Fertility and Sterility. In many states, particularly those which banned or severely restricted abortion in the wake of the decision, interest in vasectomies took off, according to an analysis by The Post and Courier.

In Michigan, where a temporary injunction blocked a 1931 law that banned abortion except to save the life of a mother, inquiries about vasectomies at one clinic increased 225 percent compared to the year before, according to a study in the Journal of Urology. Another study at 10 academic medical centers spread across the country found an overall 10.9 percent increase in vasectomy interest among patients compared to a slight decrease the year before. The rates varied across the centers and were higher in states where bans or restrictions were enacted, the authors found.

In Ohio, where a ban on abortions after six weeks is on hold, the number of inquiries at one large clinic increased 22.4 percent in the months after the decision compared to the year before, according to a study in the International Journal of Impotence Research. More of those men, like Limehouse, tended to be younger and childless compared to those who sought vasectomies the year before, the Ohio study found, which lines up with the experience at other clinics.

Not every clinic is seeing an increase.

“We’re seeing roughly the same number of vasectomy consultations,” said Dr. Tracy J. Tipton of Urology Associates of Charleston. Because the practice sets aside a certain number of slots for vasectomies, the wait to get in has increased over the last several years, particularly during the pandemic, but is back down to about four to six months, he said, what it has been for the last couple of years.

While weighing the impact of the abortion ruling and surge of interest in vasectomies, there were also concerns about how the procedure was being portrayed on social media, according to a Perspective in the Journal of Urology, which is published by the 23,000-member American Urological Association. Particularly troubling were suggestions that vasectomies were a “solution” to contraception concerns and that the procedure was easily reversible, the authors noted. But reversal procedures are “technically challenging and expensive” surgeries that insurance companies are not likely to cover, the Perspective found.

Tipton of Urology Associates in Charleston said reversals are rarely covered by insurance and not likely to work if many years have passed, so he counsels his patients to consider a vasectomy as permanent.

“I try to tell them, yes, technically this is reversible but you should think about this like an irreversible procedure,” he said. “If you are on the fence, maybe we need to think about this a little bit more.”

‘It could happen to you’

The risks involved might also be downplayed on social media. When Limehouse did his research, he found the complications were portrayed as “super minor,” mainly swelling, bleeding at the surgery site and some persistent pain that could last a month. He got similar counseling about complications at the clinic.

On the afternoon he headed in for the procedure, “I wasn’t nervous at all,” Limehouse said. “I had read so many positive stories. I couldn’t find a negative story, to be honest.”

The whole thing took maybe 20 minutes under local anesthesia, he said, then he rested for five minutes before heading home.

But almost immediately, there was a lot more swelling than he expected, even when applying ice packs. Then he got nauseous, then dizzy, then tried to make it to the bathroom.

“The next thing I know, my wife was standing over me, trying to wake me up,” Limehouse said. It was the first time in his life he had ever fainted.

His wife, Marissa Christine Wiggins, called her parents for advice. When the nausea continued and Limehouse passed out again, they took him to the ER at Summerville Medical Center. Limehouse said he was only semiconscious then but Marissa told him he was extremely pale. He was rushed back for tests and a CT scan and eventually admitted for syncope, fainting or passing out, after his blood pressure dropped significantly when he stood up, according to Limehouse’s medical records.

The CT scan found a suspected blood clot just under 3 inches in diameter above his left testicle and swelling throughout the area but nothing else remarkable, the records showed. When he was again administered a test for syncope by standing for several seconds, “I passed out in the nurse’s arms,” Limehouse said.

His hemoglobin level, which measures the red blood cells that carry oxygen, and hematocrit level, which looks at the percentage of red blood cells, appeared normal at first but began dropping. A few days later, when his hemoglobin dropped to about half the normal range, nurse Ellen Patrick flagged it, records show. The urologist who performed the vasectomy, whom Limehouse does not want named, came in to perform surgery and removed the blood clot. But Limehouse said neither he nor his family was told about the clot.

Summerville Medical Center did not provide a relevant response for comment or make the nurses, whom Limehouse credits for getting the care he needed, available for comment.

Months later, he is left with some pain and a load of medical bills from his stay. He started a GoFundMe to seek help.

Still, “I don’t regret getting the procedure,” Limehouse said. “I’m happy I did it. But I regret the little research I did.”

Overall, the rate for serious complications for vasectomies is low, with infections and hematomas or lumps from blood clots, in the 2-4 percent range, according the World Journal of Men’s Health. But it is something to keep in mind, Limehouse said.

“What’s the old saying? It could happen to you,” he said.