Large swaths of land by the lake owned by The Beach Company have been sold to a multi-national corporation for $7.6 million, records show.
Pastime Amusement Company sold 99.52 acres at 5425 St. Paul Road for $237,677.64 to Flo Fund Domestic LLC. According to the Secretary of State's office, that limited liability company is registered to CT Corporation System in Columbia, a foreign LLC formed on July 31, 2014.
The address of the grantee (Flo Fund) on that deed shows that the new owner is GMO Renewable Resources of Boston, Massachusetts.
GMO's website shows two North American locations: one in Boston and another in San Francisco. There's also branches in England, the Netherlands, Australia and Singapore.
A call seeking comment from the Boston office was not returned.
Signing the deed for Pastime Amusement Company was its executive vice president, Charles S. Way Jr., who is also Chairman of The Beach Company and a former secretary of commerce for South Carolina.
A call seeking comment from The Beach Company in Charleston was not returned.
Another deed shows Beach Lake Properties LLC -- which is registered to Beach Co. CEO John Darby -- and the Darby Way Family Partnership LP (limited partnership) sold their respective 83 and 17 percent interests in six Summerton land parcels to Flo Fund Domestic LLC for $7,400,586.91.
The largest parcel lies south of Jack's Creek, west of Cantey Bay and is bordered by Interstate 95; all told, 3,303.414 acres fetched a total of $7,638,264.55, records show.
County Council Chairman Dwight Stewart recalled how The Beach Company had planned on creating a development similar to Daniel Island -- a planned community complemented by shopping and retail.
The Beach Company has not totally divested of its Clarendon County holdings, though, and still owns three parcels south of I-95 and adjacent to the land it just sold. Those three parcels encompass 1,048.93 acres valued at $1,709,400.
