Criminal Defense Attorney inBluffton, SC

More than a dozen property owners in one of Bluffton’s luxury communities alleges the developer devised a plan to “carry out a deceptive and costly hoax” on them, according to an 83-page civil action lawsuit filed last week in Beaufort County.

At its core, the plaintiffs’ main frustrations are overcrowded amenities, forced paid-membership in the Palmetto Bluff Club, and an attack on short-term rentals, according to the suit.

“The lawsuit is about the illegal actions of the developer of Palmetto Bluff, which is working with the other Defendants to carry out a deceptive and costly hoax on Palmetto Bluff property owners,” the suit says.

It alleges the Palmetto Bluff Development, LLC “constructed a house of cards, buttressed by deceptive and illegal governing documents — intending to exit before the cards collapsed.”

Crescent Communities, a Charlotte-based development company, purchased Palmetto Bluff in 2000, and it has since grown to become the town of Bluffton’s largest tract, with space for 4,000 residential dwelling units and 180 acres of commercial development.

The gated waterfront community features residential properties, including a number of multimillion-dollar homes, with amenities including swimming pools, fitness facilities, dining venues, clubhouses and courts for racket sports.

The master plan for the community calls for about 4,000 homes, of which “at least 800” lots have already been constructed and 400 more are underway, the suit says.

It’s also the location of five-star hotel and spa Montage Palmetto Bluff, which made national headlines in 2019 when Justin Bieber and Hailey Baldwin had their wedding there and again when No. 1 overall NFL draft pick Trevor Lawrence and his longtime girlfriend tied the knot there last year. Palmetto Bluff has never lacked for celebrity visitors.

Residents, who pay for the amenities, “frequently” find they are “overwhelmed” by hotel guests and events, who receive “preferential treatment” according to the lawsuit, adding owners no longer have access to the amenities that influenced them to purchase within Palmetto Bluff.

“There is no room in the dining venues; there is no room by the pools; there is no room on the courts; there is no room in the fitness areas,” the suit says.

The plaintiffs allege Palmetto Bluff passed the costs of the amenities onto the homeowners but kept the benefits for itself by prioritizing the resort guests.

The suit names 12 defendants — Palmetto Bluff Development, LLC; Palmetto Bluff Preservation Trust, Inc.; Palmetto Bluff Club, LLC; PBLH, LLC; Palmetto Bluff Real Estate Company, LLC; Montage Palmetto Bluff, LLC; Palmetto Bluff Preservation Trust Board of Stewards and four of its officers, and South Street Partners, LLC — and 25 “John Does,” which are “unidentified corporations, entities and/or individuals” who potentially will be added to the suit as it progresses.

The main defendant appears to be the Palmetto Bluff Development, but the lawsuit accuses the others of acting “in concert with one another” as Palmetto Bluff “orchestrated its fraudulent scheme,” the suit alleges.

A “catalyst” for the legal action was a change in ownership of the development in June 2021, according to the suit, where South Street Partners, LLC is now “making the day-to-day decisions” therefore “directly responsible for the current situation.”

South Street Partners is a private equity firm out of Charleston, which is a co-investor with London private equity firm Henderson Park. The suit alleges the companies “have a business plan to flip Palmetto Bluff within eight years ... after bringing from it as much profit as they can manufacture.”

“These profit-focused private equity executives see Palmetto Bluff as a lucrative short-term transaction on a manipulated spreadsheet,” the suit says.

It also alleges that homeowners being required to join the for-profit Palmetto Bluff Club, which requires a joining fee and dues, is unlawful because it is not a homeowners’ association. However, the suit says homeowners have no stake in the club.

Lastly, the lawsuit says although the developer originally allowed some designated homes to be rented out short term, it “later realized, to its irritation, that these rentals directly compete with its hotel business” and diluting the resort’s profits. Now, the developer is “weaponizing the community’s governing documents to propel business away from” these homes.

An internal document included in the suit states the firm’s goal is to “do away with” neighborhood amenities and short-term rentals besides their own.

No other actions or response from either the plaintiffs or the defendants have yet been publicly filed, but a Palmetto Bluff spokesperson released a statement Tuesday evening saying “the planned changes ... are designed to be in the best long-term interested of our residents.”

“We regret that a small handful of our existing property owners, who have elected to use their homes as short term rental properties, are dissatisfied with these planned modifications,” the statement said. “They do not impact the Bluffton resident access to visit and enjoy Palmetto Bluff, rather only impact a renter’s access to the private club component of the community and are in keeping with the governing documents. South Street Partners has a long term commitment to the Palmetto Bluff community, our members and the town of Bluffton.”

This story was originally published April 19, 2022 5:38 PM.

Here are some upcoming arts and cultural events in Beaufort County to enjoy.

“In the Heights,” the Tony-winning best musical

When a winning lottery ticket, a power outage, and romantic tension shake up the neighborhood, the long-time friends and neighbors make discoveries about each other and themselves.

Featuring an exhilarating score by Lin Manuel-Miranda, this fresh and revolutionary musical combines Latin rhythms and dance to tell a captivating story about what it means to chase your dreams as you cling to your roots and to celebrate the community from which you grew.

Bluffton Village Festival, known as “Mayfest”

This is one of the area’s favorite festivals because it has something for everyone, such as food, arts and crafts, music, and entertainment.

Two stages — the main stage in Martin Family Park and a second on Bridge Street — will provide a variety of entertainment. Admission is free.

Look forward to the Derby Hat parade, the Country Project, the Pie-Eating Contest at Dubois Park and the infamous Ugliest Dog Contest starting at 1 p.m. at Heyward House.

Terpsichore by Hilton Head Dance Theatre

Don’t miss Hilton Head Dance Theatre’s annual production of both classical and contemporary dance. It’s always an audience favorite!

“The Versatile Jazz Band,” by the Lowcountry Jazz Band

The 17-member Lowcountry Jazz Band will present jazz favorites about love, standards arranged by the gifted composer Wally Menard and newer arrangements of jazz classics, all with engaging introductions.

The Jazz Band with vocalist Robin Lind is a subgroup of the Lowcountry Community Concert Band under the auspices of the Osher Life-Long Learning Institute and is directed by Mary Woodmansee Green. The concert is free; an offering will be taken to support the band’s purchase of music and equipment.

Swing into Summer concert

Hilton Head Big Band, under the direction of Pete Stephenson, will premiere “Where is Freedom?” by musical theater writers Luanne and Kristen Rosenfeld. The new song, arranged by Richard Orr and performed by Amber Thornburg, will be featured at the Swing Into Summer concert benefiting the Junior Jazz Foundation. The foundation helps ensure young music students get the instruments, lessons and opportunities they need to keep music alive on Hilton Head for the next generation.

“America Sings!” by the Hilton Head Choral Society

A celebration of the American spirit! Join the chorus, the Atlanta Symphony Brass Quintet, and a special guest speaker in an all-American musical program including a tribute to the men and women of our armed forces, current and past. Celebrate the Memorial Day weekend with the HHCS.

Artists of HOPE works on display

Artwork produced by The Artists of HOPE, a group of local cancer patients and survivors, is on display on Hilton Head. Many of the paintings are available as part of a silent auction to raise funds for the H.O.P.E. Life Cancer Recovery Fund which provided the art therapy to this group.

Looking ahead to summer

Ben Wolfe and his Southeastern Summer Theatre Institute have two amazing musicals planned at the Seahawk Cultural Center on Hilton Head. For more info, go to HHISummerMusicals.com or call 866-749-2228.

Nancy Wellard may be reached at coastalartnews@gmail.com.

BLUFFTON, S.C. (WSAV) – The Bluffton Bobcats baseball team will wrap up its regular season next week before embarking on their postseason journey.

One player that Bluffton will need at his best to advance far in those playoffs is pitcher and third baseman Nico Martucci, a threat at the plate and on the mound.

Martucci, who has dreams of playing college baseball, sat down with WSAV for our weekly Recruiting Spotlight. The following transcript is lightly edited for grammar and syntax.

Q: How did you kind of choose the positions that you chose? What was it about pitching and playing third base for you?

A: I always played third and first growing up. During 12 and 13U, I started pitching and really fell in love with it. When I’m pitching, I just have a lot of confidence up there and I really think I can do my best on the mound.

Q: In terms of your recruiting, are you allowed to have contact with other schools yet?

A: The rule for sophomores is that a college cannot contact you, but you can contact them.

Q: What kinds of schools have you reached out to?

A: I’ve reached out to a couple of schools in South Carolina like College of Charleston, Charleston Southern, but I haven’t really reached out to any other schools. I’m looking to do that this summer.

Q: When you reach out to a school, what does that actually mean? Is there a questionnaire that you fill out?

A: No, when you reach out, you usually go to a prospect camp and then you would email them after and then you email them your schedule. I sent our schedule out to College of Charleston and come to Shipyard, which is close to them, and give them times and dates and everything to make sure it doesn’t mess up their schedule.

Q: I’ve talked to one or two other baseball and softball players and they described that process of sending out the schedule. Since the college cannot actually talk to you, do they just sit in the stands and observe?

A: Yes, sir. They kind of just show up, you don’t know if they’re there or not so you always just have to play well.

Q: When you think about what you want to improve on over the summer, is there anything that stands out?

A: It’s a combination of velocity and accuracy. Obviously, you want to throw harder than most kids but you also have to be accurate. I really want to increase my velocity this summer. My top velocity last summer was 84, so I’m probably sitting at the low-80s. I’d like to be sitting at mid-80s this summer.

Q: What is your pitch repertoire like? You have the four-seam fastball it sounds like, what else do you have?

A: I have a four-seam fastball, a slider and a changeup. I’m trying to work on my curveball right now, trying to get it like more of a 12-to-6 motion.

Q: You hear a lot in the MLB about advanced pitching stats like revolutions per minute. How much do colleges get into that?

A: It’s mostly velocity and accuracy. They also look at spin rates, though. Like on a curveball, that’s obviously going to have a higher spin rate than a fastball.

Q: When you think about your relatively short time in high school so far, do you have a favorite moment or accomplishment that stands out?

A: Last year as a freshman, I pitched against Beaufort’s varsity and pitched eight innings and a hundred-something pitches. That stands out to me because I really proved to myself that I could sit up there and grind with a good team.

Q: What is your schedule like this summer? I know travel baseball can get pretty hectic.

A: We have six tournaments this summer and half of them are at colleges. We’ve got one at Coastal Carolina and one at Gardner-Webb and then some in the Atlanta area.

Q: You said you’re looking to reach out to some more schools this summer. Any in particular that you have in mind?

A: My dream would honestly be just to play Division I baseball, just to get to that level and experience it. I don’t have a certain team right now that I’d want to play for. I’m open to anyone.

PERFECT GAME: https://www.perfectgame.org/Players/Playerprofile.aspx?ID=702479TWITTER: https://twitter.com/martucci_nico

The seed for Ryan Clark's love of gardening was planted with his grandmother when he was a kid. "My earliest memories of childhood are about gardening with her," says Clark. Fast-forward to 2016, when he was ready to cultivate the plot he built with his dad in his parents' Bluffton, South Carolina, backyard. "When I planted my first vegetables there, my grandmother was with me," he says. "It was a special moment, kind of a role reversal, and now I'm carrying on her tradition." His year-round efforts yield a bounty of organic produce, herbs, and flowers. He also collects fresh eggs from his brood of 12 hens and honey from two hives of bees. Clark describes gardening as a "total creative expression," while his background with a degree in biology helps with the plant-growing process. "I jokingly tell people that this is my full-time job outside of my real one," says Clark, who has a career in marketing. "My favorite part of the day is when I slip off my work shoes and put on my boots." Here, he takes us inside his Lowcountry oasis to share his gardening tips.

"One of the themes of the garden is duality. I put interesting companion plants together to serve different roles and help one another out," says Clark. In the front beds, for example, he pairs daffodils with society garlic, which deer don't browse. After the daffodils bloom during winter and early spring, the society garlic flowers in late spring and summer. "The leaves look very similar and take up the same amount of real estate, but you still get two kinds of blooms. Then as the daffodil foliage is regrowing for the next season, it blends into the society garlic," he says. Clark also likes to incorporate plants that can serve multiple purposes. The cypress trees and boxwood hedges placed along the border act as a screen for the garden, and he uses fresh clippings for holiday greenery.

"I didn't want people to see the whole garden right from the get-go. There's a sense of adventure as they walk through the yard because I let things reveal themselves," says Clark. The flowy flower borders in front balance out the tidier, formal raised beds inside the fence. He adds a mixture of annuals, perennials, and evergreen shrubs so the beds will be in bloom year-round. Gaura, snapdragon, butterfly bush, chaste tree, and Mexican bush sage welcome bees and butterflies. Inside, the garden is divided into quadrants with beds devoted to fruits, vegetables, and cutting flowers. Wander along the pea gravel walkway to discover the chicken coop and the potting shed.

Clark leverages plants to his advantage around the chicken coop. Wisteria grows on the south-facing front side, so during the winter (when all its leaves fall off), the chickens can warm themselves in the sun. During spring and summer, the wisteria foliage comes back, providing shade and cooler temperatures. The jasmine growing on the coop adds fragrance to help mask the smell of the flock. When it comes down to it, Clark advises, "Just allow nature to do its thing, and don't try to fight it too much."

Clark's 12 hens inspired the garden's name, The Daily Dozen. Follow along with his harvests on Instagram, @the_daily_dozen.

When Clark had no luck growing alliums, he conceded to the climate and invested in plants that would thrive in his area. "Focus on what does well, and celebrate that. Not everyone is going to have the same success with everything. That's the beauty of it too," he says. Citrus trees love the Lowcountry conditions, so Clark went all in. Planting them along the border creates a screen for deer, squirrels, armadillos, and other bothersome animals. He harvests 'Meyer' lemons, 'Persian' limes, 'Key' limes, 'Valencia' oranges, blood oranges, and clementines, just to name a few fruits.

None of the produce goes to waste because Clark shares his bounty with friends and family. He makes tomato-basil soup and pickles with some of his bumper crop and gives lemons to his grandmother, who uses them in her water every day. Clark juices the excess citrus, freezes the liquid in ice trays, and defrosts the cubes as needed. He has also experimented with homemade limoncello and clemencello.

He loves to share his happy place with others. "The garden has been home to big life moments and also provides elements of tradition," he says. It's where a friend held their wedding and where Clark picked the flowers for his brother's nuptials. He also grows the sweet potatoes for his family's Thanksgiving meal, and his grandmother uses the oranges for her Christmas salad.

The median sales price for a single-family home in Beaufort County during February was $480,000. That's an increase of 15.5% compared with February 2021, according to a USA TODAY Network localized analysis generated with data from Realtor.com.

On a year-over-year basis, prices have been rising for 21 consecutive months. February prices are down from $490,000 the previous month.

The number of houses sold fell by 21.8% from a year earlier. A total of 287 houses were sold countywide during the month of February. During the same period a year earlier, 367 single-family homes were sold.

Real estate sales can take weeks or months to be recorded and collected. This is the latest data made available through Realtor.com to the USA TODAY Network.

Beaufort County condominiums and townhomes sold in February had a median sales price of $310,000. That figure represents a 25.5% increase year over year. Some 140 were sold, down 11.9% from a year earlier.

How hot is Beaufort County's real estate market?

Information on local housing markets is available through the USA TODAY Network, with more data from Realtor.com.

In Beaufort County, the top 10% of the properties sold had prices of at least $1,200,000, up 34.8% from a year before.

In February, 50 properties sold for at least $1 million, consisting of 44 single-family homes, four condominiums or townhomes and two other properties.

The median home sale price — the midway point of all the houses or units sold over a period of time — is used in this report instead of the average home sale price because experts say the median offers a more accurate view of what's happening in a market. In finding the average price, all prices of homes sold are added and then divided by the number of homes sold. This measure can be skewed by one low or high price.

The USA TODAY Network is publishing localized versions of this story on its news sites across the country, generated with data from Realtor.com. Localized versions are generated for communities where the data quality and transaction volume meets Realtor.com and USA TODAY Network standards. The story was written by Sean Lahman.