February 7 - February 20, 2022
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The Six Apartments, a 92-unit, three-story building in Mount Pleasant was sold to Baltimore-based Continental Realty Corp. for $28.25 million. (Photo/Provided)
CHARLESTON
Teri Errico Griffis, Charleston Regional Business Journal
Baltimore-based investors purchase Mount Pleasant apartments for $28M A Baltimore-based company has acquired its third Charleston-area property with the $28.25 million acquisition of The Six apartments in Mount Pleasant. Continental Realty Corp., owner of Mount Pleasant Towne Centre, purchased the three-story building located at 2170 Snyder Circle. Of the 92 units in the garden community, 97% were occupied at the time of the off-market transaction. “The Six offers a boutique-style residential living experience and is indicative of the institutional-quality asset we traditionally target in our acquisition strategy. The property’s differentiated location adjacent to Six Mile Marketplace, anchored by Harris Teeter and Hobby Lobby, allows for walkability to a variety of retail amenities,” Continental Realty Corp.’s Vice President of Acquisitions Ari Abramson said in a statement. CRC is a commercial real estate and investment company that focuses on acquiring and operating retail and multifamily properties. The Six was purchased on behalf of Continental Realty Fund V, L.P., a $210.8 million private equity fund focused on acquiring value-add retail and multifamily properties in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeast regions.
COLUMBIA
Get in touch +1 864 334 4145 avisonyoung.com
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Melinda Waldrop, Columbia Regional Business Report
Biotechnology company based in Irmo earns almost $1M grant for research Irmo-based biotechnology company Integrated Micro-Chromatography Systems Inc. has been awarded $1.8 million for the second phase of a research grant from the National Institutes of Health. In January 2021, the company received a $900,000 Fast-Track Small Business Innovation Research grant to fund research into the production of affordable gangliosides, biomolecules that contain sugars and a type of lipid called ceramides and play critical roles in various biological processes. IMCS is using the research grants to synthesize and modify gangliosides to increase researchers’ understanding of how the biomolecules affect neurological functions and can be used to diagnose and treat neurological diseases including Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s. IMCS was also awarded a four-year, $2.56 million Fast-Track Small Business Technology Transfer grant to build an array of sialoglycans, sugar-carrying glycans which are aberrantly expressed on many tumor cells. The sialoglycans advance glycobiology, which is the study of the biological impact of sugars.
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TAMMY CONNOR
With publications in the Upstate, Columbia and Charleston, as well as a statewide magazine, SC Biz News covers the pulse of business across South Carolina. Above are excerpts from our other publications.
Owner, Tammy Connor Interior Design
PAGE 4 VOLUME 15 NUMBER 1 ■ COLUMBIABUSINESSREPORT.COM
Part of the
network
JANUARY 24-FEBRUARY 13, 2022 ■ $2.25
VOLUME 28 NUMBER 2 ■ CHARLESTONBUSINESS.COM
Part of the
By Jenny Peterson
Lasting legacy
Refined taste
University of South Carolina names dorm for educator. Page 2
Reimagined commercial space opens on the peninsula. Page 13
Top chefs
Special delivery
Trio selected to serve as ambassadors for state. Page 4
Second location Popular Five Points spot to open BullStreet site. Page 9
Full speed ahead
S.C. Ports says it’s poised to navigate uncertain future. Page 11
INSIDE
SC Biz News Briefs ................ 3 In Focus: 2022: The Year Ahead .......................................... 13 List: Hospitals .................... 14 Bonus List: Urgent Care Centers ............................. 16 At Work.............................. 21
THE ROAD AHEAD
Members of the S.C. Legislature and the S.C. Chamber of Commerce say tax reform and workforce development are top priorities for 2022. (Photo/Melinda Waldrop)
Businesses, leaders set sights on post-pandemic priorities By Melinda Waldrop
T
mwaldrop@scbiznews.com
his time last year, Lance Brown was still getting his arms ahead his new career path. Now, that path has become a bustling thoroughfare. Brown, president and CEO of Columbia-based medical supply distributor Rhino Medical Supply, busily built relationships with customers and manufacturers after founding the company in May 2020. Now, he’s focused on selling products. “Anything under a hospital roof, we can get, and we’ve been selling,” Brown said. That includes crutches, in demand because
of a nationwide aluminum shortage, nitrile gloves and at-home COVID-19 tests coveted by retail customers and wholesale clients such as pharmacies. “We ship out all over the country, but we’ve gotten a heavy response from the state of South Carolina and local folks in the Columbia and Midlands area that are just doing pickups,” Brown said. “Literally, about every 10 minutes, we have somebody come and do a pickup. … There’s somebody coming in now.” Brown’s small business-success is what S.C. legislators and business leaders want to see more of as the state and the nation navigate a post-pandemic future. The S.C. Chamber of Commerce released
its 2022 Competitiveness Agenda earlier this month, calling for lawmakers to reduce both personal and property tax burdens and to inject investment into workforce development initiatives, among other priorities. “Our No. 1 priority is tax reform and tax cuts,” Bob Morgan, president and CEO of the chamber, said before the organization’s Business Speaks dinner Jan. 12 at the Pastides Alumni Center in Columbia. “The state is flush with a $3 billion surplus, and we’d like to see cuts in the personal income tax rate. We’d like to see commercial property tax rates addressed, and we’re hopeful that that will See LOOK AHEAD, Page 17
Back on track
Court decision greenlights Lexington beer garden. Page 6
ColumbiaBusinessReport.com
FEBRUARY 7-20, 2022 ■ $2.25
network
Retailer adds e-commerce distribution center
S.C. Ports Authority receives its first chassis for pool to help alleviate gridlock. Page 9
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Contributing Writer
ampden Clothing, a Charleston clothing boutique at 314 King St., has leased a 7,200-square-foot distribution center on north Meeting Street to keep up with demand from shoppers both in person and online. “In-store sales have increased at a pace of 107% over the past year while our e-commerce sales have increased 48% compared to last year.
Online sales have grown to be 30% of our current business,” said Stacy Smallwood, founder and owner of Hampden Clothing. “During the pandemic, many of our clients began to utilize our website for the first time and have not looked back.” Opening a 1,500-square-foot boutique in 2007, Hampden Clothing now occupies more than 10,000 square feet of retail space in adjoining buildings on King Street that includes its designer shoe store, James, along with 5,000 square feet of office space above its storefront
See E-COMMERCE, Page 10
hopes SEA ISLAND SALE Boeing 787 inventory The sale of 55-acre Hoopstick Island to developers serves as another push against lagging inventory and development opportunities across the region. Page 8
Capital investment
takes off soon By Teri Errico Griffis
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MUSC approves fundraising for a new academic building. Page 14
tgriffis@scbiznews.com
ast year was a rebuilding year for Boeing — there’s just not a whole lot of building new 787 jets here in South Carolina. Deliveries of the jet have been halted since May when the Federal Aviation Authority requested to look into further production quality issues regarding tiny gaps found between the sections of the fuselage. About the width of a human hair, the gaps were not a safety of flight issue for the in-service fleet, but the company has been working since to address the problem. Last year, Boeing only delivered a total of 14 jets manufactured in North Charleston, a far cry from the 53 recorded in 2020. Zero were delivered in the final quarter of last year. After months of delivery delays caused by Federal Aviation Authority and zero deliveries in the fourth quarter, Boeing now has 110 airplanes in inventory as of
Economic boost
Gov. Henry McMaster allocates $17 million for training state’s workforce. Page 11
INSIDE
Upfront ................................ 2 SC Biz News Briefs ................ 3 Small Business Spotlight ....... 4 In Focus: Architecture, Engineering and Construction ...................... 13 List: Engineering Companies ..... 15 Charleston Under Construction ...................... 18 At Work ..............................27 Viewpoint ........................... 31
For advertising information, contact Robert Reilly at (843) 849-3107 or rreilly@scbiznews.com
where an in-house e-commerce team works. Sarah Shelley, with NAI Charleston, represented Hampden Clothing in the lease of 747 Meeting St. Day-to-day life at the distribution center reveals the inner workings of how to keep a thriving boutique and e-commerce site going. It’s a long and tedious process that includes receiving and processing up to 40 boxes of new clothing every day, carefully photographing
Hoopstick Island can be accessed by a single road across Bohicket Creek. (Photo/Keen Eye Marketing)
See BOEING, Page 11
CHARLESTON UNDER CONSTRUCTION Who is building what in the Charleston area? Projects, companies, prices, projected timelines, photos and stories. Page 18
CharlestonBusiness.com
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