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Joe Griffith: A real estate developer with vision
By Kathleen Dayton
Staff Writer
If you’ve bought a home in Charleston any time during the past 50 years, you could be living in one of Joe Griffith’s subdivisions. But if the young Joe Griffith had stayed on his original career path, you might have been calling him Father Joe instead.
The longtime area real estate developer said as a youth he felt called to the priesthood. After graduating from Bishop England High School, he left Charleston for St. Bernard’s College in Cullman, Ala., where he realized his future lay elsewhere.
“The rector of the seminary was a man who was so holy, he was the most Christ-like guy I had ever met in my life,” Griffith said. “After four years of realizing I couldn’t be like him, I left.”
From farmland to ‘Fore!’
Griffith left St. Bernard’s with a degree in philosophy, a discipline which, he says, has helped him apply ethics to his lifelong career in real estate. Since founding his company in 1957, Griffith has seen the Charleston area grow by leaps and bounds.
He has turned Mount Pleasant farmland into golf resorts and transformed a dilapidated downtown warehouse into one of Charleston’s best-known inns. Among his business ventures are the Mount Pleasant Towne Centre, the Lodge Alley Inn, Charleston National Country Club, Snee Farm Country Club and 28 drugstores in the Carolinas and in Georgia.
Current projects include the mixed-use development of 50 acres in Summerville adjacent to Azalea Square and Target with plans for a hotel, and development of a 17-acre retail center on the outskirts of Orlando, Fla. His Charleston-based company, Joe Griffith Inc., recently sold property on James Island to First Baptist Church School for the site of a new campus.
Griffith got his start in real estate almost by accident. After two years in the Army, he landed a job in the mortgage loan department at C & S Bank in Columbia, and met a Charleston
real estate agent.
“Bob Fripp would come in and talk to me about coming home and selling real estate,” Griffith said. “I put him off for about six months, but one day he said, ‘We’ve got these lots ready and I need someone on the weekends.’ ”
Griffith, his wife Bette and his infant son Joe Jr. began traveling to Charleston on weekends so Griffith could sell lots in Charles Towne Estates off S.C. Highway 171 in West Ashley.
He later began working for the subdivision’s developers, Joe and William Ford.
In 1957, Griffith struck out on his own and began developing his first subdivision, Ashley Hall Plantation off S.C. Highway 61 in West Ashley. He later took on a partner, Mike Knapp.
“He was managing the business end, and I was looking for properties to buy and sell and develop,” Griffith said. The partnership lasted more than 40 years until Knapp’s death five years ago.
As they navigated the ups and downs of the local real estate climate, Griffith, Knapp and a number of investors became responsible for some of the area’s landmark communities, including Snee Farm, the first golf resort in Mount Pleasant.
“It was so far out people thought I made a mistake going out there,” Griffith said. “Now, it’s in the middle of the city.”
‘A gut instinct’
Griffith’s son, Louis Griffith, now president of Joe Griffith Inc., said his father has always had a good eye for real estate and said Snee Farm is a good example.
“Everyone thought he was nuts,” Louis Griffith said.
The younger Griffith said his father never pushed him into real estate, but after spending some time in banking, he saw his father’s company as a good opportunity. Brother Stephen Griffith is on board as vice president.
“A lot of guys can’t work with their dad, but we have a good relationship,” Louis Griffith said. “It’s like getting a Ph.D. or MBA from your father in real estate, because he’s had so much experience and knowledge over the years.”
Fellow real estate mogul Max Hill, who launched his own career at the same time as Joe Griffith, called him a master at overcoming adversity.
“Being in development back then was not easy,” Hill said. “He’d always bounce back. He’s a never-say-die person.”
Griffith said he has a gift that allows him to envision his developments.
“I really have a gut instinct,” Griffith said. “It’s easy for me to see a piece of land and see a subdivision or a retail store. That’s something you can’t buy and can’t learn. It’s a gift from God.”
Kathleen Dayton is a staff writer for the Business Journal. E-mail her at kdayton@setcommedia.com.
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