Flex space buildings hope to fill business void

Two new commercial buildings will have something different to offer business owners interested in moving into the booming Indian Land area.

Atlanta-based REO Asset Strategies recently purchased more than 10 acres of land on Old Bailes Road. The firm plans to build two 50,000-square-foot buildings that will house smaller flex space in the 2,200- to 2,400-square-foot range.

Clearing and grading of the property is already underway with construction estimated to begin within the next three months, according to George Linville of Charlotte-based Linville Real Estate Services. He said he is heavily involved in the conception and design and is in charge of leasing the building.

The building is being built on spec, meaning there are no tenants lined up yet, but Linville said he doesn’t think it will take long to fill up.

“We think it fills a huge void.” Linville said, specifically mentioning the potential from the Ballantyne area of south Charlotte, just past the S.C.-N.C. border.

“Ballantyne is totally under-served. People who have any type of entrepreneur type business or want to be a manufacturer’s rep, or anything like that, there’s nowhere for them to go to be close to home. They have to go to southwest Charlotte,”

Linville said the buildings will have something else unique to offer as well. They won’t look like typical commercial buildings. In fact, Linville said they’ll look more like retail shops at first glance with brick fronts and sides and heavy landscaping.

“It’s really going to look nice,” he said.

“It’s going to be the only thing out there that if someone really wants to have a presence and have an A-class look to their business, there’s really nothing else like that out there.”

Linville said this project is desperately needed in the Indian Land area and will draw plenty of interest by offering smaller scale commercial space. He said even companies that just need an office presence on that side of Charlotte may be interested in moving in.

“It serves the purpose of people who need warehouse space, but they don’t need 10,000 feet or 20,000 feet.” he said, “They just need somewhere to put their product.”

Linville said the first tenants should be able to move in during the first quarter of 2017.

This story was originally published May 9, 2016 at 4:20 PM with the headline "Flex space buildings hope to fill business void."