Swells Cottages.

Project brief

Swells Cottages is a rental community of 221 detached, cottage-style apartment homes at 1501 Flatwood Street in Murrells Inlet, near Garden City, South Carolina. The one- and two-story homes range from one to three bedrooms and from 672 to 1,293 square feet. Sands Companies developed and owns the community as an expansion of its build-to-rent model of detached horizontal apartments, a concept the firm says it developed in 2014. C3 Studio is credited as architect.

Instead of stacking units in a single block, the plan spreads the homes across a wooded site with three ponds, next to Tupelo Bay Golf Center and a short drive from the beaches and the MarshWalk. Each cottage has a front porch and an exterior in coastal colors, and some plans include attached garages. Inside are plank floors, open kitchens and walk-in showers. The clubhouse has a screened porch with a fireplace, a fitness center, a lounge with a bistro kitchen, and shuffleboard. Outside are a pool with a sun shelf and cabanas, an outdoor kitchen with gas grills, a fire pit and rentable storage units. Leasing began in late 2021 while construction was underway, and the community was completed in 2022.

In 2021, BOGZA produced exterior and interior renderings and a film for the community, working for Morrison Wilkes. The images include an aerial view that sets the cottages among the trees, with the beachfront towers and the ocean on the horizon.