(Photo provided by Serhant)

One home features vaulted exposed-beam ceilings, woodwork crafted from locally sourced pine, a travertine-tiled event space and windswept decks overlooking the water. The other home is nestled deep in a stand of oak and palmetto trees, and has a pen full of farm animals in the yard. They’re connected by a five-minute boat ride — and a $15 million price tag.

That’s the list price for 107 Okatie Highway and Rose Island, two linked properties on Chechessee Creek in Beaufort County. The Okatie Highway parcel features a five-bedroom, 8,362-square-foot home designed by Jim Strickland of the Atlanta architectural firm Historical Concepts, and located on a 22-acre waterfront lot. Rose Island is a 450-acre private island featuring a four-bedroom, 2,006-square-foot home — along with a goats, sheep, and a miniature donkey.

“It's such a unique property — there's really nothing like it that we see on the East Coast,” said Patrick Ryan of Serhant, who is listing the property along with Christopher Smith. “It's a central point, right between New York and Florida. You have the ability to be within the Lowcountry, and have that southern charm and access to all of that. But between the 22-acre property with the main house and the island, it's really something special.”

At $15 million, 107 Okatie Highway and Rose Island is among the highest-priced active listings in the Lowcountry. Richmond Plantation, a 154-acre property near Huger featuring a 7,700-square-foot home built in 1927, is listed for $16.5 million, according to Realtor.com. A 9,000-square-foot home on the Ocean Course golf layout on Kiawah Island is listed for $16 million, and an under-construction 7,000-square-foot oceanfront home on Hilton Head Island is listed for $15 million.

Concrete walls and a safe room

Built in 2009, the 107 Okatie Highway home features a metal roof, poured concrete walls and commercial-grade construction, according to the listing. “The house was definitely designed to withstand hurricanes or any kind of storms,” Ryan said. “It was obviously built structurally sound, to where it will be able to last a long time.”

The home also has a concrete safe room. “Our understanding of it is that it's just like an added feature,” Ryan said. “You know, it's better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it. In the event you had a tropical storm or something come through, it's just like an additional comfort, and something pretty interesting that they decided to add to it.”

Across the creek on Rose Island, which is accessible only by water or air, things are a little more rustic. The home on the island was built to be off the grid and self-sustaining, according to the listing, although the island itself features 110 buildable acres that are zoned for residential, Ryan said.

“You have the ability to build additional lots,” he added. “Over 18 other properties could be put over there on the island, if somebody decided that they wanted to do that. … They have the main house, so if they decided they want to add additional properties on the island for their personal use, that’s something they definitely could do. We could also see somebody coming in and deciding to build additional properties, and maybe utilizing those with others other than their own family.”

The Rose Island home was in place when the current sellers acquired the property, Ryan said. And the island property comes with a few eccentricities — like its own battery-powered electrical system, and a series of wooden obstacles (think balance beams, climbing ropes, and monkey bars) running throughout the forest. Then there’s the pen with the farm animals, which Ryan said could convey if the buyer so wishes.

What promoted the addition of the mini-menagerie? “It was just kind of like, why not?” Ryan said. “You have the ability to do it, so why wouldn't we? That was more of the thought behind it.”

‘There’s so much potential here’

Since both the main home property and the island have boat docks — the one off the Okatie Highway parcel is two levels, with a shaded sitting area and mini-kitchen on top — offering them together affords potential buyers more options, Ryan said. Its competition isn’t just other luxury homes in the Beaufort and Hilton Head areas, but other moneyed enclaves up and down the Atlantic coast.

“Typically, when we're dealing with this price point, somebody doesn't own just one property. They're going to own several, and it's going to be strategic for them,” Ryan added. “Several of the people that we've communicated with, they have properties in the Hamptons, they spend time down in Palm Beach. They're going to own more than one home when they have this type of money.”

And even for one of the higher-priced listings currently on the market in the Lowcountry, there’s a potential cost savings involved — given that a comparable property on a private island in South Florida can fetch $30 or $40 million, and with only a fraction of the acreage at that. Which is why Ryan believes more $15 million Lowcountry listings are on the way. 

“We've had this exodus from California and people leaving New York, and Florida has always been where people would go,” he said. “But our market has grown so much, and there's so much potential that's here. Charleston, Beaufort, Bluffton, our whole area in general is really in its infancy stages of growth. It's just going to continue to grow. There's just so much opportunity that's here.”