St Simons, Sea Island has been discovered -- growing, exploding, prices are going up...

St. Simons has been discovered once again. O, The Oprah Magazine, named St Simons Island as one of its "60 charming American towns you haven't heard of but should visit ASAP" earlier this month. St. Simons Island is 11th on the list.

This among other similar laudations recently has us thinking that St. Simons Island Real Estate will start surging in value more than ever before. Particularly it has us thinking about beachfront in particular this week. There have been a run of beach front / beach view sales this year and many have been our sales. If you think about it, there is not a lot of beach on St. Simons Island and folks have decided to get it before there is nothing left to buy.

Jekyll Island’s is also enjoying a resurgence of media attention as it has been placed in 2019 on a number of “best of” lists, including topping Money magazine’s “20 Best Places to Go in 2019.” Jekyll also claimed No. 2 on the “Today” show’s list of the “19 best beaches for families and kids,” and TripAdvisor put Driftwood Beach as the No. 10 beach in the United States for its 2019 Travelers’ Choice Awards.

History has shown us that our beautiful Golden Isles have been a favorite for the rich and famous for centuries. In 1886, the island was purchased by the Jekyll Island Club, a turn-of-the century vacation resort patronized by the nation’s leading families. Club Members included such prominent figures as J.P. Morgan, Joseph Pulitzer, William K. Vanderbilt, Marshall Field, and William Rockefeller. In 1904, Munsey’s Magazine called the Jekyll Island Club “the richest, the most exclusive, the most inaccessible club in the world.”

In 1926, automobile magnate Howard Coffin added it to his other land purchases in coastal Georgia. Two years later, he opened the Cloister Hotel that was nicknamed the "Little Friendly Hotel" and turned over its management to his cousin, Alfred W. Jones. Upon Howard Coffin’s death in 1937, A. W. Jones inherited the property, along with other tracts of nearby coastal land owned by the Sea Island Company.

From its beginnings, the Cloister was a success, attracting a variety of "Roaring Twenties" luminaries. Presidents have been attracted there also; President Calvin Coolidge spend his Christmas holidays on Sea Island in 1928 and gave the new hotel national attention. The Cloister appealed to businessmen, politicians, and celebrities, including New York Mayor Jimmy Walker, Edsel Ford, John D. Rockefeller, Jr., Eddie Rickenbacker, and many others. In addition to the hotel, Mr. Coffin also dreamed of creating a residential community on the island and encouraged his guests to consider building "cottages" nearby. To that end, he brought in electricity, water and telephone service, and improved causeway access to both St. Simons and Sea Islands. Among those building homes was Eugene O’Neill, who wrote the play Ah, Wilderness! while there.

Although growth slowed during the Great Depression, the still modest resort was able to make it through the financial crisis and World War II. In the postwar years, the Cloister and its surrounding community grew slowly, with the hotel welcoming a steady stream of distinguished guests, including U.S. presidents Hoover, Eisenhower, Ford and Carter. In 1949, Sarah Churchill married photographer Anthony Beauchamp on the island. Among the thousands of honeymooners to visit were George and Barbara Bush. The island’s residential community also grew in numbers and in stature, with some lot prices pushing into the millions of dollars by the end of the 20th century.

In 2001, The Lodge was built on St. Simons Island with the help of Bill Jones. The Lodge became a hub for golfers and yet another accommodation under the Sea Island umbrella. By 2003, A. W. "Bill" Jones III decided it was time for a complete restoration of the Cloister building, which lacked a proper foundation, and did not meet modern building codes. Over a three-year period, the hotel was demolished and replaced with a new, luxurious structure that retained the look and feel of the original. Upgrades were also made to the resort's beach club and spa. 

Just two years after its grand re-opening, the financial panic of 2008 and the subsequent Great Recession hit the Sea Island Company from several directions and the family owned property was sold in bankruptcy. In April 2016, Sea Island Acquisitions completed a $40 million expansion that added a new "Garden Wing" to the Cloister with 63 rooms. 

In June 2016, the Anschutz family of Denver, Colorado, headed by Philip Anschutz, bought out the other three investors to become the sole owner of Sea Island Company and placed the resort into a 100 year trust to preserve the property.

Personally, we are going on our 4th generation of having a family home on Sea Island and watching things change over the decades. My grandparents started coming before my mother was born and in those 85 years, our family has never missed a spring vacation on Sea Island and has had many homes on the island also. I used to ride a horse named Scooter or a horse named Blue from the old Sea Island stables through the property where the Sea Island shops are today and across the street through what is now Sea Island Lake Cottages. We would then canter through the marsh and through the dunes until we hit the beach. Never worrying about traffic or private property. Obviously today, it’s quite different for us and our kids. That said, I feel our area is still at the beginning of what I think will be a quite exclusive and expensive properties to be developed here over the next several decades. As we all agree, its one of the finest places to live or visit.

Even if you are not considering purchasing something for years, we would love to start working with you and just keep you updated on things that we think you might be interested in…many of which are not even listed in the MLS. We are the top 1% of Realtors on St. Simons and Sea Island…as you can see from the properties list in the missed opportunities, we have sold a large number of properties on the list. 

Mike