Conservationists outbid developers to preserve waterfront property
In a significant win for conservationists, The Nature Conservancy outbid developers in February to buy the historic riverfront estate known as Gregorie Neck.
A version of this story originally appeared in the Summer 2024 issue of Saving Land magazine.
When the largest undeveloped waterfront parcel in South Carolina came to market last year in a rare sale by private owners, the property’s future, along with the future of the surrounding area, came into question.
“It could have been thousands of homes, it could have been industrial development, commercial space, docks all along the river. But it’s not going to be any of those things, it’s going to be open space and habitat for wildlife to thrive,” said Kristin Williams of Open Land Trust.
In a significant win for conservationists, The Nature Conservancy outbid developers in February to buy the historic riverfront estate known as Gregorie Neck for $35 million. The Nature Conservancy then began working with the accredited Open Land Trust to place a conservation easement on the entire 4,400-acre property, located between Savannah and Charleston in rural Jasper County. Once the easement is in place, the land will be sold to private buyers.
“This region is experiencing such intense growth; when we saw the opportunity to protect a property like this — with so much water frontage and direct interstate access — we knew we had to make it happen,” said Dale Threatt-Taylor, The Nature Conservancy’s executive director in South Carolina.
Gregorie Neck will be the newest portion of two nationally recognized conservation areas: the ACE (Ashepoo-Combahee-Edisto) Basin and Southern Lowcountry Basin, comprising 500,000 acres of preserved lands. Located near the Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort, Gregorie Neck will also be a key piece of the South Carolina Lowcountry Sentinel Landscape, established in 2023 to focus conservation efforts on protecting ecologically significant areas that strategically support military readiness in the southeastern corner of South Carolina.