Watermark has always been described the same way in the neighborhood write-ups: tucked between Mount Pleasant Towne Centre on one side and Wando Crossing on the other, close enough to both that residents rarely have to leave Highway 17 for a full list of errands. That description hasn't changed. What's changed is the math. For years, the stretch worked because two shopping centers split the load between them. This year a third node on that same corridor stopped sitting empty and started pulling its weight, which means the errand run that used to split between two stops now splits between three.
That's not a small shift for anyone who actually drives this stretch weekly. It's the difference between planning a Saturday around Towne Centre or Wando Crossing and being able to treat the whole corridor as one continuous set of options.
Two Anchors, Then a Long Gap
Towne Centre, off U.S. Highway 17 near the Isle of Palms Connector, has been the more polished of Watermark's two bookends for years. The center runs to roughly 60 stores and restaurants, built around Belk, Barnes & Noble, lululemon, CAVA, P.F. Chang's, and the 16-screen Regal Palmetto Grande theater, along with a rotating cast of smaller shops. Wando Crossing, a few minutes up the road at the corner of Highway 17 and the 701 Bypass, has played the more utilitarian role since it opened in 1992. It's a smaller footprint than Towne Centre, around 34 stores across roughly 325,000 square feet, anchored by Walmart, Marshalls, HomeGoods, Michaels, Total Wine, and Five Below, with Tokyo Bistro handling the sit-down meal option.
Between those two, on the same Highway 17 corridor, sits Sweetgrass Corner. For years that center's anchor space was a shuttered Bi-Lo grocery store, dark since 2019 and doing nothing for anyone driving past it.
The Node That Sat Empty for Five Years
That changed this year, and it took longer to arrive than the storefront itself suggests. Continental Realty Corp, which owns Sweetgrass Corner, filed plans for a HomeSense store back in 2024, two years before the doors actually opened. Trader Joe's had already taken a piece of the lot, and Golf Galaxy Performance Center moved in next door. Then, on February 26, HomeSense held its grand opening, marking the first Charleston-area location for the chain.
Three TJX Banners, One Corridor
Here's the detail that's easy to miss if you only clock the ribbon-cutting: HomeSense isn't a new company to this stretch of Highway 17, it's a new banner from a company already operating two stores here. TJX Companies, the parent of T.J. Maxx, Marshalls, and HomeGoods, already runs the Marshalls and HomeGoods at Wando Crossing. HomeSense is a third format from the same corporate parent, and it isn't a copy of what Wando Crossing already stocks. HomeSense runs larger format, built around furniture, lighting, and rugs at a bigger scale than a typical HomeGoods carries. So a Watermark resident now has two TJX-owned home stores within a few minutes of each other, and the mistake to avoid is assuming they carry the same thing. One is a general home goods stop. The other is closer to a furniture showroom.
That furniture point matters because Towne Centre already had the higher end of that same category covered, with Ballard Designs and Arhaus both in its lineup. What Watermark didn't have until this year was a discount version of the same kind of shopping, at a bigger format than a typical HomeGoods, sitting a few minutes closer than either of those two stores. The corridor now runs from Arhaus prices down to HomeSense clearance racks without leaving Highway 17.
The Older Anchor Kept Adding, Too
Sweetgrass Corner filling in isn't the only reason this stretch reads differently than it did a couple of years ago. Towne Centre's own dining lineup has kept turning over as well. Condado Tacos, the build-your-own taco chain, now operates out of Space B-1 at 1712 Towne Centre Way, part of the same steady rotation that's brought newer restaurants into a center that could have coasted on its original tenant mix. The point isn't that one taco restaurant changes how Watermark residents plan a week. It's that the corridor's older, more established anchor hasn't gone stagnant while Sweetgrass Corner catches up. Both ends of the stretch are still adding, just at different paces.
Why a Third Node Changes the Weekly Math
Before this year, a Watermark resident running errands picked a direction. Towne Centre if the list leaned toward clothing, books, or a sit-down meal. Wando Crossing if it leaned toward Walmart, a wine run, or a Michaels project. Sweetgrass Corner didn't factor in, because there wasn't much there to route toward beyond Trader Joe's.
Now there's a third stop that holds its own weight: groceries at Trader Joe's, golf gear at Golf Galaxy, and home decor at HomeSense, all in the same lot that sat empty for five years. That doesn't replace Towne Centre or Wando Crossing. It means the corridor Watermark sits between isn't a two-stop system anymore. It's three, and the newest one filled a gap that had been sitting there since the Bi-Lo closed.
What This Looks Like on an Actual Saturday
If your errand list this weekend includes a grocery run, a stop for rugs or lighting, and something for the golf bag, that's now one trip to Sweetgrass Corner instead of a stop at Trader Joe's followed by a drive somewhere else for the rest. If it's clothing, books, or dinner out, Towne Centre still does that better than either of the other two. And if it's the Walmart-and-Total-Wine kind of list, Wando Crossing hasn't changed.
What's different is that all three are legitimate options now, on the same stretch of road, within a few minutes of each other and of Watermark itself. A corridor that ran on two anchors for years is running on three, and the shift happened quietly enough that it's easy to miss unless you're the one driving past the old Bi-Lo sign every week and noticing it isn't a Bi-Lo sign anymore.
None of this required a new road, a new intersection, or a new reason to leave Watermark. It just took five years for the right tenant to sign a lease on a building that was already sitting there.
If you're thinking about what it actually looks like to live along this stretch of Mount Pleasant, not just what a listing says about it, Katherine Cox and her team can walk you through it. Book an appointment when you're ready to talk specifics.
