The thing with real estate is that it might be the ultimate entrepreneurial business. I know a number of these folks who have launched the Greenville, SC brokerage for Trinity Partners. Trinity Partners is established in Charlotte, Raleigh, Columbia, Atlanta and now Greenville, SC.
It’s hard to go wrong with brokers here in the Upstate of South Carolina. There are many of them. The folks who started this brokerage under the umbrella of Trinity Partners were successful young brokers at a couple of other brokerages here in the Upstate. They now offer a full service brokerage firm including property management services.
I wish them all well as they launch out on their own to build their own opportunity in commercial real estate brokerage. The Upstate Business Journal has a good article about Trinity Partners Greenville and how they continue to grow this real estate brokerage.
Photo Credit: John Murphy, Cost Seg Building – Fontaine Business Park, Columbia, SC
Greenville-based Pintail and Dunean Capital Management are the new owners of the 25 acre Fontaine Business Park in Columbia. SC. It’s a massive property with 4 office buildings and about 250,000 SF.
I had the opportunity to walk the property last week as I’ve been engaged to do the cost segregation study for the new owners. It took us about 4 hours and 12,000 steps but we got through the whole property. I had a chance to walk the property with the new property managers, Reedy Property Management, as well as one of the representatives from Dunean Capital Management.
The new owners plan to make a number of investments and of course bring on new tenants. One of the big names that is public is they have inked a deal to create a new child care for Prisma Health’s Bright Horizons. It will be an child care exclusively for local Prisma employees. I’m always amazed walking commercial buildings to see how they currently exist and then to hear what the plans are for the renovations. The Prisma Health Bright Horizon’s day care is going to be in a great spot at this complex.
There’s a lot of creative real estate pros, managers, developers and investors who are now running Fontaine Business Center. There’s a lot of space here for these guys to get very creative. I have no doubt they will turn this challenged property into a thriving business park in Columbia, SC.
The much anticipated Spinx Market & Eatery has opened in downtown Greenville’s West End. What a delight it is!
Ever since I saw the initial renderings for this I was very interested in seeing it in person. It really is fabulous. The retro design is a wonderful throwback and innovative all at the same time. It is a much needed business in this area of Greenville. It’s in the former space for Cook’s Station which moved to brand new space at 515 Buncombe Rd.
Spinx of course is one of South Carolina’s largest developers and are known for gas stations and C-stores throughout South Carolina. This is a new concept for them and one that I believe they could use to expand certainly across South Carolina, but I would think this could do really well in other towns and cities that are like Greenville where you have a very walkable downtown area.
They do serve limited hot food but you can show up for a hot breakfast sandwich or buy their Spinx chicken of course. They also serve drinks believe it or not so if you need something late in the day or after work, they have you covered.
There is lots of outside seating. At the front of the building is a covered patio. That’s shaded in the morning. If you want sunshine, head out back to the patio there where the sun is plentiful.
Steve Spinx has said that with many of the goods that they are selling in the store, that they have tried to use local providers where possible. It’s a nice touch.
When I was there this morning, I asked several people what they thought both as they were coming into the store and leaving. To a person they all said it was great and they had this genuine smile on their faces – like the smile I had as well. The really like it. The response was instinctual in a way. It’s why I am saying that what Spinx has done with their new Spinx Market & Eatery is make commercial real estate fun again with these beautiful new design and concept.
Congratulations to the entire team at Spinx and their design and construction partners who pulled this off!
At a time when it’s incredibly challenging for owners of office space to keep their vacancy rates low, many owners are making improvements to their properties to continue to keep and attract new tenants.
A new ownership group purchased the office complex known as Park 37 in Greenville for $53,250,000 back in January of 2022. It’s a significant office park for Greenville and has 9 buildings. Recently they have completed some gorgeous improvements to Park 37 Building 300. DP3 Architects did the design and it looks amazing! Congrats to the ownership group, DP3 Architects and the tenants who get to benefit from this significant improvement to the building!
I have not made contact with the new owner yet but this would likely benefit from doing a partial asset dispostion on this property given the significant improvements that have been made.
Renderings by Johnston Design Group and NR Investments.
The city of Greenville’s Design Review Board has given the green light to new site plans for Gracie Plaza, which will be a transformative project for the City of Greenville and will set the tone for Greenville’s Gateway corridor.
The developer for this project is Miami’s NR Investments which is a major player in south Florida so it exciting to see them bring their work here to Greenville. Johnston Design Group out of Greenville is the architect for this remarkable building and project.
This building while being the tallest in the city, will be really the first thing one sees I believe when they enter the city from 385. Right now this part of the city is very uninspiring. Bon Secours Wellness Area in located right there and there are a number of other smaller, generally older buildings. There’s a lot of traffic that passes through this area.
The Upstate Business Journal has been doing a great job of covering the various iterations of Gracie Plaza. Be sure to check out there stories.
Some key points about Gracie Plaza:
Two towers – 24 and 29 floors
342 apartments
363 space parking garage
12,000 SF of commercial space for restaurants and creative studio spaces
The building will be located on the Greenville Memorial Auditorium site.
There is still more work to do with the permitting process before NR Investments fully has the green light to move forward but it’s looking good for them and for the City of Greenville.
I happen to have been driving by this one regularly as I saw the parcel being developed along Butler Road in Mauldin / Greenville area. So it was nice to get the call from one of the brokers involved in selling the building to see if I could run some numbers for the new owner for cost segregation study.
These buildings are very nice. I enjoy working with brand new buildings – who doesn’t, right?
This one is just getting underway so I don’t have any ballpark results to share but I do expect that it will perform quite well. Medical offices generally do very well with studies. There is often lots of specialty plumbing, electrical, lighting etc. that get identified as 5 year class life property. Whereas most “offices” seem to produce maybe 8-12% for 5 year class life property, most of the medical offices I’ve been working on are seeing 18-20% for the 5 year. 15 year will do fine of course as there is a decent parking lot that surrounds this building.
Image Credit: Franklin Real Estate Development and the Upstate Business Journal
Franklin Real Estate Development has just opened these gorgeous newly renovated executive offices in downtown Greenville. Developer Kurt Wallenborn has done an outstanding job it appears on the renovation and restoration of this historic property. Upstate Business Journal has a story about the renovation.
Check out the office spaces offered at The Franklin.
Renderings by Johnston Design Group and SeamonWhiteside – Upstate Business Journal
The area in and around Bon Secours Wellness Arena has been lacking for years. Now there are a couple of projects that are in the works that will transform the area into an entertainment destination and will be a great complement to Bon Secours.
Miami-based NR Investments looked at the difficult to development triangle location of the former Greenville Memorial Auditorium site. This is not an easy project. What they are proposing looks terrific and I believe will be a great addition to Greenville, SC and will help revitalize this area.
The project has not been fully approved yet. The Design Review Board has asked for a few changes and pushed this out to the June timeframe. It seems like this will get approved once those accommodations have been made.
Below is a short video from the NR Investments partner discussing the site.
Recently we completed a cost segregation study for the owner of this retail strip center. I thought it might be helpful for you to see the kinds of results with this kind of asset. (Please note that every building is different and will see a different result…some will perform better than others depending on items like finishings and land improvements like parking lots and landscaping). The owner acquired the building in April 2022. For cost segregation, we deduct the value of the land to come up with the basis or the cost of the building. The basis was $1,125,000. The owner had also spent $125,000 on tenant improvements (TI) which were all interior improvements. Because he had purchased the building in April 2022, he would have had a depreciation expense of $18,750. That is straight line depreciation at 39 years. He also could have taken the $125,000 as a depreciation expense without our help as those tenant improvements are considered Qualified Improvement Property (QIP) which has a 15 year class life. Remember in 2022, we had 100% bonus depreciation for any class life under 20 years so the TI’s could be take at 100% depreciation expense. So he could have potentially had a total depreciation expense in 2022 of $143,750. But he ended up with a significantly larger depreciation expense since he did a cost segregation study. The results were as follows:
Basis: $1,125,000
5 Year: $62,247.71 / 5.5%
15 Year: $124,021.77 / 11.0%
39 Year: $938,730.52 / 83.5%
In 2022, any class life under 20 years can be taken as 100% bonus depreciation meaning you can depreciate the entire asset in year one rather than waiting 5 or 15 years. (Starting in 2023, bonus depreciation goes to 80% and then drops 20% each of the following years until it’s zeroed out in 2027 unless Congress changes the law). In this owner’s case, he was able to accelerate or fully depreciate $186,269.48 in year one because of the cost segregation. That combined with the QIP provides a depreciation expense of $311,555.14 in year one. At a 32% tax rate this would equate to a potential tax savings of $100,000. A study like this generally costs less than $5,500-$6,000. It takes 6-8 weeks to complete and the owner and his/her CPA get a complete breakdown in an easy to use format to apply to the owner’ taxes.
Below is the cost detail on this retail strip center.
The Upstate of South Carolina continues to be a top area in the U.S. for site selection for companies not only in the U.S. but around the world. Greenville, Mauldin, Anderson and Spartanburg continue to be at the top of the list for many companies. It’s a great area to live and do business and the location in between Charlotte (1.5 hours) and Atlanta ( about 2.5 hours) away make it a great location especially for transportation. On top of that, it’s a beautiful area. Check out what the Upstate SC Alliance had to say on LinkedIn.
