Here’s a first look at dream home Tyler Perry is building for Hilton Head Gullah family

Tyler Perry has helped a Hilton Head family go from fearing they could lose their house and land, to becoming the soon-to-be owners of a five-bedroom dream home.

Josephine Wright — who turns 94 next week — was sued in February this year over a land dispute with Bailey Point Investment LLC, a development firm building a sprawling new neighborhood on Jonesville Road that envelops Wright’s property. The company claimed parts of the Wrights’ property, including a shed and the family home’s back porch, crossed the parcel’s boundary line. The family moved the shed and maintains, after several surveys, the porch does not encroach onto the developer’s property.

The lawsuit has since been ordered into mediation, and town officials have halted construction on Bailey Point’s neighborhood until the case is resolved. In the mean time, high-profile celebrities like Snoop Dogg, Kyrie Irving and Tyler Perry have stepped up to help the family pay legal fees — but no contribution is likely to outdo Perry’s.

The filmmaker has promised to build the family a brand new home, free of charge, on their long-time property.

Charise Graves, Wright’s granddaughter, said Perry’s estate manager has been in touch with the family to present potential floor plans for the new home. The blueprints include up to 5 bedrooms, a game room, a pool, a home office, a “serenity spa” master bathroom, and 2 other bathrooms.

Graves said Perry’s team is fully paying for the home’s construction. The build will be modular, meaning sections of the home will be built off-site and transported to the Wright family’s property for assembly. Perry hasn’t shared what the build could cost, Graves said.

The family’s land currently houses a primary home and a secondary mobile home, which will be moved off the property to make room for the new construction, Graves said.

The family’ current home is the only remaining encroachment that Bailey Point claims in its lawsuit against Wright. Graves said Perry’s team also plans to help the family deconstruct the screened back porch the company says is crossing the property line, and rebuild it smaller.

The gift is poised to benefit the family for generations to come, an uncommon positive outcome after years of dwindling Gullah Geechee land ownership on Hilton Head Island. The reversal of fortune has inspired the Wright family to help other land owners in danger of losing their property through the Josephine Wright Foundation, a nonprofit organization being launched with funds from the family’s successful GoFundMe campaign.

“(Early on in the process) it wasn’t all smiles,” Graves said, “But I guess Jesus saw fit.”