LandLines: What’s your biggest project so far this year?

Development in the Charlotte area appears to have picked up in 2012 and continues to gain momentum. That got us thinking. So we asked five developers what is the biggest project they’ve worked on so far this year.

Jim Merrifield
managing partner,
Merrifield Patrick Vermillion

Merrifield

We’re working on the Park and Kingston Apartments, which is a 153-unit apartment complex on Park Avenue and Kingston in South End, behind Price’s Chicken Coop. It’s a great infill location in South End near the light rail. It’s an $18 million (project) … that’s a joint venture with Marsh Properties. We just started construction, and it’s expected to be completed next September.

Todd Williams
vice president of acquisitions and investments,
Grubb Properties

Williams

A property we purchased earlier this year, but I believe it would have been in the second quarter. The original name of the property was called Magnolia Station apartments. It’s down in the Steele Creek neighborhood, in southwest Charlotte. We’ve since renamed that property Sterling Steele Creek. I think it’s a 456-unit apartment community that we acquired. We’ve been doing some value-add improvements to the property, as well as changing the management team. (We spent) roughly $37 million.

Clifton Coble
president,
Bissell Development

Coble

My biggest project I’ve worked on this year is the Woodward Gragg — the two, 10-story buildings — here in Ballantyne Corporate Park. Unfortunately, we don’t disclose costs of projects*, but square footagewise we are at 560,000 square feet. We’re just finishing the buildings right now.

(*The Mecklenburg Times previously reported that project costs for the Woodward and Gragg office buildings totaled $60.9 million.)

Ken Beuley
chief financial officer,
The Keith Corp.

Beuley

The biggest project we’ve had is the development of the Britax child-safety-seat facility. It’s an office/warehouse facility just over the border in South Carolina, in York County, and it is 480,000 square feet. It’s the Britax North American office and distribution center. It’s right down near Carowinds. We started competing on it right around Christmastime, and we were awarded (it) in the spring. We will complete the project in February. The project is in excess of $20 million.

Gary Chesson
partner,
Trinity Partners

Chesson

We haven’t been working on many developments, but we’ve been acquiring lately. I think the acquisition of Torringdon Office Park (is Trinity’s biggest project so far this year). We’ve acquired two buildings. We’re about to acquire two more and hope to acquire the final two later this year. $60 million, maybe, (is what Trinity has spent on the project).

GUION can be reached at [email protected], (704) 817-1344 or on Twitter at @paytonguion.