3/28/22 South Carolina Mastermind Group Meeting

South Carolina March 2022- Key Take Aways

Mark Fletcher of Bohler continues to see an increase in cold storage, logistics and data centers. He reminded the group of the upcoming InterFace I-85 Industrial Corridor Conference in Charlotte this April. The focus remains on advanced manufacturing as many companies are reshoring their manufacturing. There were 40 projects in North and South Carolina last year. This year there are 700 projects. The skilled workforce and quality of life make South Carolina attractive. Russell Hughes of Hughes Realty Advisors is a middle market specialist based in Charlotte. He says that the market is complete insanity. Mike Fissette of Armada Analytics is an independent provider of commercial real estate finance services. He is noticing that assumable loans are becoming extremely attractive. Josh Workman of Tax Credit Marketplace shared a story of a small multi-asset building in West Greenville that was originally budgeted for 2.2 million and the final budget was 4.1 million. It continues to be a challenge to get deals done with the unpredictability of pricing. He also shared concern about a bill that has a cap of $15 million annually for housing credits. Thomas Young and Alita Webster of Young Office said that inflation continues to make price increases unpredictable. They are starting to see an improvement in lead times but not in labor shortages. Their k-12 market is extremely busy as the schools have money from the Cares Act. Will McCauley of Creative Builders, a 2nd generation construction company, said that this is the most stressful time to be in the business in his 30 years. They are a diversified general contracting firm that is licensed in 5 states and has a heavy presence in multifamily. Will stated that he believes the next shoe to drop will be wage increases for labor. Susan Donkers of Global Selection Strategies stated that their site selection firm based in Greenville is now officially 2 divisions – consulting and technology. They have created Lasso, a platform to streamline the RFI process and Site Shepard, a platform that lets you compare site locations. She also said that they are busier than ever and cannot keep up with demand. They are currently hiring for 2 consulting positions. Mark Cooter of Cherry Bekaert continues to see lots of activity. Rates are going up, but lenders are still lending. He does not see any big changes on the tax front. He says that there is a possibility that Biden will put the tax bill back on the table. David Lewis of Context Design Group remains extremely busy. Most of their projects are in the manufacturing industry. There continues to be a struggle with lead times on materials, especially roofing. Kyle Snipes of Harper General Contractors which is a general contracting firm that has been serving the Upstate for over 70 years. They are not hearing of any slow down on the design side. They are still seeing issues with lead times, especially roofing as well as issues with increasing diesel fuel costs. Tyson Smoak of Pintail Capital Partners continues to see pricing in Greenville that they never anticipated. They are seeing some projects struggle on account of the expense of the project. He believes that these times offer both opportunity and challenge. Laurens Nicholson of Windsor Aughtry focuses on hospitality development mainly with Hilton and Marriott. The new concern that they have noticed is the increase in shipping costs for FF&E. Josh Lonon of Wyche, P.A. is trying to remain positive. They are meeting revenue goals midyear. Clients are wanting to get deals done fast on account of the red-hot real estate market and the fear of the unknown. Josh is enjoying the work he is doing with the nature conservancy on a green space project in Greenville.