Welcome To Bowen

Bowen, A Waterfront Village

Bowen, a waterfront village, is a vibrant mixed-use, multi-family master planned residential and commercial walkable community situated in Hanahan, South Carolina on nearly one half-mile of Cooper River deep waterfront. This picturesque purposeful development celebrates southern lifestyle and neighborhood connectivity.

Think of Bowen as an urban walkable campus and memorable destination where a lot of people live in a small area – much like a college campus. Our tight-knit community promotes socializing and engagement through community events, pools, walking trails, swings, park benches, neighborhood restaurants and shops, boat docks and the Bowen Waterside.

Bowen was strategically designed to enable residents to work and play within a five-minute walk or bike ride. It is a robust village-style neighborhood. People aren’t forced to get in their cars to drive to a eat at restaurant, get a haircut, or go shopping. Instead, Bowen is a mixed-use, pedestrian-friendly, free-standing village that provides experiential richness and interconnectivity between residents and businesses as opposed to urban sprawl and housing subdivisions that are exclusively residential. Since World War II, urban sprawl has continued to create a host of challenges including, but not limited to, an automobile dependent lifestyle that causes traffic congestion; stress on municipalities to create far reaching infrastructure and police patrols; isolation, separation, and segregation; and inefficient land development. Bowen is a direct result of thoughtful and mindful planning - prioritizing community connectivity, responsible land use, and walkability.

Bowen Site Plan

Let us guide you home and introduce you to a way of life.

Bowen History

The land surrounding Bowen was first inhabited by Etiwan, Seewee, and Wando Indians; nomadic Native Americans who migrated throughout the Lowcountry in search of the next harvest or game hunt.

Later, rice and indigo served as plantation staples and gave rise to the land gentry, which were bustling communities unto themselves. By 1785, landowner John Bowen (who himself owned 980 acres) was working with the House of Representatives to outline smart growth plans for the area that included designation of roads. According to oral history, a subsequent owner of Bowen’s land bequeathed 100 acres to a small group of freed slaves who named the plot Bowen’s Corner.

In the late 18th century, as plantations prospered in the rural areas of the Lowcountry, prominent Charleston businessmen (sur names included Deas, Smith, and Legare) erected homes on the hinterlands surrounding Bowen, while keeping residences in town.

Later, proprietors granted land to the St. James Goose Creek Parish and is among the H.A.M Smith collection with the South Carolina Historical Society in Charleston, SC. Small plots of land remained in the hands of families well into the modern era.

In 2004, through an entity called Foster Creek Village, LLC., founder C. Ray Wrenn began purchasing available smaller tracts in the area with the vision of building a walkable village in his home town of Hanahan, SC. In an effort to honor Bowen’s Corner’s long legacy as a refuge by the water’s edge, The Wrenn Group is committed to the preservation of the landscape and the historical nature of the project.