FIELD WITH A VIEW:Upscale Summerville neighborhood reinvents itself by dropping prices while keeping style cues

A white picket fence fronts the Azalea model from Manorhouse Builders of SC at FieldView, a new community off Boundary Street in Summerville. The neighborhood will have 96 homes and space for 20 townhomes. The family room is near the entrance in the Azalea design at FieldView. The 1,916-square-foot floor plan starts at $252,900. The kitchen in the Azalea floor plan from Manorhouse Builders at FieldView comes with stainless steel appliances. Festive decorations mark one of the first houses built in FieldView. The upscale community is in lower Dorchester County. Across the street from ballfields in lower Dorchester County, FieldView was developed as an innovative community that brought together some top names in neo-traditional design and construction. Yet FieldView, unveiled less than two years ago, barely got off the ground when the once rousing real estate market changed. The developers, at first a bit bewildered, had to regroup. They kept the project’s finer points, such as upper end interiors, Lowcountry front porches and streets named for baseball parks, while aiming at a more moderate price target. And they brought in their own contractor, Manorhouse Builders of SC, to construct houses with lots of features to complement custom homes built for buyers. The first examples of their efforts are rising up. Three homes are in various stages of construction, including one completed dwelling. Manorhouse Builders and real estate partner The AgentOwned Realty, Park Circle are showing the 1,916-square-foot model home priced at $252,900. “We like to call ourselves semi-custom,” says Kimberly Byrd, sales and marketing manager with Manorhouse Builders of SC. “There’s a lot of things we will do, like bumping out a room.” At the same time, the floor plans come with attractive standards such as smooth ceilings and maple cabinets. The neighborhood will have 96 single-family homes when finished and has space set aside for another 20 townhomes. Byrd sees FieldView as “probably a move up neighborhood, a couple looking for quality more than quantity, young professionals, retired.” The dwellings will be EarthCraft certified homes, meeting the ecological and energy efficiency requirements set forth by an Atlanta-based energy consultant and the city’s chamber of commerce. As of now, Manorhouse has three floor plans. They are the Azalea, which is the model home; the 2,115-square-foot Camellia; and the 2,080-square foot Dogwood. The houses, all three bedroom, have base prices from $252,900 to $274,900. But the houses currently being built, which includes some extras, cost from $273,626 to $287,588. Interior features in the fiber-cement sided homes are ceramic tile baths and laundry, granite or Corian kitchen countertops, hardwood floors, 10 foot ceilings on the first floor and detached one-car garages. Manorhouse Builders of SC dates to 2003, set up by Maryland builder Hilton Smith and his sons. The company built townhomes in Mount Pleasant and a large townhouse village on James Island. In 2005, the business started building townhomes at Ashley Park near West Ashley High School. Then this year, it started constructing homes at FieldView. Smith’s group is also involved as a developer of FieldView. Byrd says the new homes in the neighborhood give home and lot owners choices of whether to buy an existing house, build with Manorhouse or custom build. “We’ve definitely had interest,” she says.