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Business parks, office space attract corporate tenants
By Dennis Quick
Senior Staff Writer
When Myles Stempin became Mount Pleasant’s economic development coordinator six years ago, the mission was to bring to the town white-collar companies—a few corporate headquarters, for instance—that paid upscale wages.
However, the town had little corporate real estate available.
That scenario has changed. In addition to Carolina Park, the massive mixed-used development providing some 400 acres for business parks and separate office space, and the roughly 250,000 square feet set aside for corporate offices in Oakland Plantation—two big properties Stempin already has been marketing—the town has other corporate real estate in the works.
River Oaks Business Park, a 16-acre development on Wando Park Boulevard, is zoned for corporate offices, research and development firms, light industrial companies, and broadcasting companies. The groundbreaking is scheduled for this summer. Greenhill Properties is marketing the business park.
The Beach Co.’s new Watermark mixed-use development near Bowman and Rifle Range roads includes a 9.7-acre site for corporate offices.
The Lowcountry’s economic development community wants to recruit more knowledge-based businesses that have 50 or more employees. When Stempin and his Charleston-area colleagues went to CoreNet Global’s summit April 23–26 in Philadelphia, they had more of the necessary class “A” real estate to present to the few thousand potential prospects who routinely attend the international corporate real estate association’s event.
Ashley Overlook, a 105,000-square-foot class “A” office building in North Charleston, is scheduled for completion in August. Developed by Atlanta-based Holder Properties, the $18 million, four-story building is being marketed by commercial real estate firm Colliers Keenan’s Charleston office.
“I believe without a doubt that this new office development will be important in our efforts,” Steve Dykes, Charleston County economic development director, said of Ashley Overlook. “This new class ‘A’ space is welcome and timely with very little vacancy in an already tight market here in the area.”
In Berkeley County, The Daniel Island Co.’s forthcoming 2,300-acre mixed-used development at the intersection of Highway 17A and Highway 176 will include class “A” corporate offices. The development’s construction could begin in 2007.
This fall, employee benefits software provider Benefitfocus.com will move from its Mount Pleasant facility to a new 145,000-square-foot, $20 million class “A” headquarters on Daniel Island. The new building will house about 250 employees.
By the close of 2005, the Lowcountry’s class “A” office space inventory totaled nearly 3.6 million square feet, with the average rental rate of about $25.30 per square foot, according to a Colliers Keenan report.
An additional 2.2 million square feet of class “A” space has been proposed.
Lowcountry economic developers and commercial real estate professionals are out to attract more knowledge-based employers such as electronic
stock-trading company Automated Trading Desk and Benefitfocus.
What is needed is more sizeable space, Stempin pointed out.
“If we’re going to achieve significant business development in this town, we need property that meets the quality standards of the businesses we want,” he said.
Dennis Quick covers commercial real estate for the Business Journal. E-mail him at dquick@charlestonbusiness.com.
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