CREW Charlotte October 2016 Luncheon – Recent Developments in Charlotte
Submitted by Kathleen Chambers
Who You Missed:
Chris Daly, Childress Klein
Kristy Venning, Beacon Partners
Brendan Pierce, Keith Corp
Moderator: Allen Clark, Charlotte Business Journal
What You Missed:
Program focused on recent significant commercial real estate developments in Charlotte:
Industrial space – Childress Klein:
• Examples
Jordan Food Service. 360,000 sq ft distribution center with 150,000 sq ft of refrigerated storage
Afton Ridge. Started as 125,000 sq ft but is now 300,000 sq ft.
• Changes in industrial warehouse development. The facilities are much larger now to allow for larger trucks, significant need for onsite storage. Facilities require lots of land and lots of paving.
• Incentives for industrial are different between NC and SC. In SC, the tax rate is higher and so incentives are needed to build on that side of the border. Challenge in NC is lack of space in the Greater Charlotte area.
• Daly has seen the turn towards larger spaces and longer term leases and so they develop to meet the need
Office Space in NC – Beacon Partners
• Example – 1616 Camden, South End
• Big changes in demographics going forward brought big changes in needs
• The millennial work force favors the urban infill experience
• Less square footage per person required
• Explosive demand for open office with exposed structural elements: less me, more we
• More interest in creating the customer experience
• Venning predicts that they will not do spec building in the near future
Office Space in SC – Keith Corporation
• Example: Mortgage Company in Lancaster County. Aided in consolidating the company to one space requiring development of a 100,000 sq ft facility that was augmented during the consolidation
• Spaces are now amenity driven. Their experience is that the amenities can come to the employees when you build them in to the facility.
• Benefits to building in SC because land is available.
• Lower square footage per employee with new construction.
• Noted that rates in SouthPark have increased and new construction is finally underway.
• Pierce noted that NC has a problem with incentives. There is no cohesiveness to attracting companies to NC. Our competitor states are much better at attracting business through economic incentives.