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Roquemore’s way: A penchant for land and making deals
By Dan McCue
Staff Writer
Jim Roquemore stood behind the large wooden desk in his office and pointed at the window that overlooked a small parking lot and a few long yellow trucks bearing the “Super-Sod” logo.
“You used to be able to see almost to the horizon,” he said with an apologetic smile. “But with the growth of our business, I had no choice but to put the warehouse in.”
Looking beyond the warehouse, the CEO and chairman of the board of both Super-Sod and the Patten Seed Co. expounded upon the view.
“When developers look at some parcels of land in this state, what they see is a lot of trees, a lot of brush and, all in all, something that looks a lot less than what it is,” he said. “So when developers can see the size of the parcel like the one that stretches out before him, they can also see what it could become.”
That ability to get developers to see the future potentialities of his land has in recent months made Jim Roquemore a major player in the economic development of the state.
Best known as chairman and CEO of Super-Sod, the world’s third-largest sod producer, and the Patten Seed Co., Roquemore became a key player in attracting one of the largest investments in South Carolina to Orangeburg County when he and a partner sold more than 800 acres to Jafza International. The land represented the largest tract in the 1,300 acres purchased by the international logistics company.
The Dubai-based company is in the process of planning a logistics and manufacturing park on the site at the intersection of Interstate 95 and U.S. Highway 301 that promises to bring 8,000 to 10,000 jobs to Orangeburg over 20 years.
Roquemore also has a handshake agreement with a partnership that hopes to create an even larger facility alongside Interstate 26. The investors have said they are intent on bringing more Chinese companies to the Palmetto State.
Roquemore’s having land holdings available at the right time and place didn’t happen by accident. It was the result of a deliberate decision to buy farmable land in the path of future development.
Sod farm begets land holding firm
After a lifetime in the family business and a decade at the helm of the company, Roquemore knows a lot about grass and presentation and land.
That’s why several years ago, during one of the many transitions that has fostered the company’s growth, the great-great grandson of its founder got the idea to massage it into a land holding company.
“This is a land-intensive business,” he said. “And so it occurred to me, ‘You need the land and you need to be close to your market anyway, why not buy land in the path of development?’”
The strategy was to invest in land for five to 10 years — farm it, and then sell it to the “right” project, investing the majority of the profits in other land that happens to be in the path of development someplace else.
For several years now, Roquemore’s product lines have been grown and prepared for sale on substantial acreage in South Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia and Virginia.
He has to think when asked how much land his company now owns.
“Well, there’s 1,500 acres of pecan trees, 4,000 to 5,000 acres in timber holdings, and outside here we have 60,000 to 70,000 nursery plants, trees and shrubs,” he said, leaning back in his chair in an office decorated with hunting and fishing photos, an autographed
NASCAR helmet and a coffeemaker.
Most of his land is dedicated to sod and seed production.
“We probably have about 22,000 acres, much of it in South Carolina, and most of it is approaching 1,300 acres each. We’ve probably got 3,400 acres in Georgia with our holdings in North Carolina and just over the Virginia border being smaller.”
No secret to the land game
Roquemore said there’s no big secret to the high-profile deals he’s been making.
“You don’t have to be real smart to recognize what a real estate developer is going to want,” he said. “Those guys are going to be looking for pretty big tracts of land, close to an interstate, and if not that, then at least close to other infrastructure like water and sewer connections.”
But Roquemore hastened to add that he’s never been interested in any deal that doesn’t help Orangeburg County and its surrounding communities.
“It’s one of the things that I think makes us a little bit different,” he said. “If there’s not some vision behind the offer, a vision that’s going to create jobs and increase the tax base and encourage people to come back to Orangeburg, then we won’t allow it to come to our property.
“Orangeburg is getting a lot of looks right now and the hype is good, but at the end of the day what’s important is the long term and what you’re going to have years and years down the road,” he said.
An investment in the future
Roquemore’s commitment to the long term was one of the reasons state Sens. John W. Matthews Jr. and Brad Hutto approached Roquemore several years ago and encouraged him to invest in the land that he would ultimately sell to Jafza International.
“It was probably 1990 or so, and Hal Johnson, who was then Orangeburg County’s economic director, began talking about developing the triangle formed by Interstate 95, Interstate 26 and U.S. Highway 301,” Hutto said.
As part of his vision, Johnson advocated that the state or county come up with a plan to buy or control large tracts of undeveloped land in the area that could be used for future economic development.
“We appreciated his sentiment, but the county did not have the money to buy the land, and frankly, it would have been a hard sell to the public that government needed to hold property for development,” Hutto said. “Still, we knew the future growth of Orangeburg depended on that land not being cut up and turned into mobile home sites.”
At that time, Hutto, Matthews and Johnson decided to approach Roquemore with their plan.
“We had a big map and pointed to areas in and around the triangle that we thought could be bought and would be suitable for future development,” Hutto said.
Rocquemore knew he could use the land on a short-term basis for sod farming and hold the property with no financial loss waiting for the right kind of growth that would benefit Orangeburg County, the senator said.
Roquemore said he was encouraged by the vision the officials laid out for him, so much so that he paid a premium for the land he acquired — $2,700 an acre, compared to the then-going rate of $700 to $1,200 per acre in the area.
“I got a fair return on my investment,” Roquemore said of the sale to Jafza. “But I wasn’t looking to make a killing. I wasn’t looking to flip a piece of dirt. I really wanted something special to come here. And I think it has.”
Helping a community
Despite his success and the headlines the Jafza deal has generated, Roquemore doesn’t hesitate to deliver a homily on the importance of friends and neighbors.
“A community is nothing but a lot of people living together, and you’re either helping or taking away from that,” he said.
“Where you live, whoever your neighbors are, you owe them a duty of care when you open your land to development. That’s why I always ask people who approach me, ‘Well, exactly what do you want to do with this land? What’s your vision of the future? Is this going to help this community?’”
Dan McCue is a staff writer for the Business Journal. E-mail him at dmccue@scbiznews.com.
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