By Dennis Quick
Senior Staff Writer

Dennis D’Annunzio’s business is running out of space. And if he can’t find a facility with enough room to grow into, he may be forced to move the company out of state.

D’Annunzio owns Rotomotion, a two-year-old, seven-employee company in Mount Pleasant, which produces computer-controlled helicopters. The helicopters, the largest of which is about five feet long, are used for surveillance and aerial photography. The South Carolina State Ports Authority, law enforcement agencies and research universities are top customers.

Rotomotion occupies about 2,000 square feet in a small business park off Long Point Road. The company produces about two helicopters a day. If Rotomotion lands a military contract, something the company hopes to compete for in the future, production could jump to at least 10 helicopters a day, according to D’Annunzio.

The company also hopes someday to increase its staff to 50 employees.

“We can’t do that here,” D’Annunzio says of the company’s current, cramped space, where technicians barely have enough room to work on circuit boards. He estimates that Rotomotion can stay in its present facility for another six months before working conditions become too unbearable. At that point, if Rotomotion cannot find an appropriate Lowcountry facility, the company will consider moving to Florida, which has numerous technology parks with space suitable for Rotomotion, D’Annunzio says.

D’Annunzio wants to keep Rotomotion in the Lowcountry. Local real estate companies, developers, business leaders and economic development experts want the high tech company to remain here too. That’s why they are helping Rotomotion find the 4,000 square feet of space D’Annunzio says the company needs.

Commercial real estate giant The Beach Co., Charleston County’s economic development department, Charleston Digital Corridor director Ernest Andrade, business consultant Wayne Outlaw and others have come to Rotomotion’s aid.

D’Annunzio’s hunt for space began earlier this year when he contacted Mount Pleasant’s economic development office but was told the town had no facilities that met Rotomotion’s needs. D’Annunzio then “poked around” on his own, searching the Internet and driving through East Cooper eyeballing potential new locations. The facilities he viewed had the right square footage but the wrong width.

In March, D’Annunzio received a call from Outlaw, who had read a Post and Courier story about Rotomotion. Outlaw invited D’Annunzio to a business seminar, after which D’Annunzio informed Outlaw of Rotomotion’s space problems. Outlaw put D’Annunzio in touch with Charleston County’s economic development department.

The department sent D’Annunzio about a half-dozen flex space options in North Charleston and West Ashley, according to Sandi Padgett, the department’s assistant director. A flex building can house offices, manufacturing and warehousing space, all of which Rotomotion needs.

“We need a thousand square feet of office space, a thousand square feet for manufacturing, a thousand square feet for warehousing and a thousand square feet to grow into,” D’Annunzio explains.

“Flex space can accommodate him,” assures department director Steve Dykes. “We’ve got a fair amount of flex space in the region.”

Although the region’s flex space market is strongest in the 10,000-square-foot to 25,000-square-foot range, in which the inventory exceeds 3.1 million square feet, the amount of flex space ranging from 3,000 square feet to 5,000 square feet is growing, particularly in the Cainhoy area, says Terry Ansley, a broker with commercial real estate firm Colliers Keenan.

Word of Rotomotion’s space requirements reached the Digital Corridor’s Andrade, who met with D’Annunzio to discuss other facility options.

Andrade, whose Digital Corridor consists of technology companies and who is trying to enlarge the region’s technology sector, informed D’Annunzio of an East Cooper company that manufactures devices for biomedical research and is building a facility on Clements Ferry Road. It’s possible the company might consider building a facility for Rotomotion next to its new facility and then renting the space to Rotomotion, says Andrade.

Finding the right amount of real estate isn’t always enough, particularly for high tech companies, Andrade emphasizes. Finding the right location is equally important. Technology companies have a better chance of flourishing when they are located next to or near similar companies because they tend to help one another and a synergy evolves, he explains.

Andrade is working on additional space options for Rotomotion. “I’m absolutely convinced we can meet Rotomotion’s physical needs in Charleston,” he says.

D’Annunzio’s optimism has grown. Of the possible facilities Charleston County’s economic developers recommended, Rotomotion is considering a West Ashley building on Belgrade Road. An even stronger consideration is a facility The Beach Co. is marketing on Clements Ferry Road. D’Annunzio likes the facility and is now talking price with the real estate company.

“We could have a happy ending,” he says.

Dennis Quick covers commercial real estate for the Business Journal. E-mail him at dquick@crbj.com.

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