A deal facilitated by Pickett Sprouse Commercial Real Estate brokers Emilee Collins, CCIM and Mark O’Neal, CCIM is being recognized for CoStar’s Power Broker Award. Collins and O’Neal assisted global mechanical part designer and manufacturer Airspeed, LLC in expanding its corporate headquarters from Hillsborough to Mebane. The company is leasing 63,640 square feet of space in the Carolina Central Industrial Center at 1413-1417 South Third Street in Mebane. Its headquarters was previously located in Hillsborough.
The transaction is being recognized by CoStar as the top industrial leasing deal in the Southeast Alamance County submarket of the Greensboro/Winston-Salem market in the second quarter. CoStar is the premiere platform for commercial real estate information, analytics and news.
The Power Broker Award acknowledges the top deals in each market every quarter, based on price and square footage.
“This was not an easy transaction logistically, but Mark and Emilee made it happen,” said Bert Woodall, Broker and Co-Owner, Pickett Sprouse Commercial Real Estate. “We are pleased that they’re being recognized for the type of hard work and dedication that they put into every deal, no matter the size.”
Airspeed designs and manufactures cables and plastic and metal tooling and components. It has had its world office headquarters in Hillsborough for nearly 20 years but has manufacturing plants in China, Vietnam, and Mexico.
“Much of their management and engineering staff live in Alamance County and Mebane, so when a new product line opportunity presented itself with requirements to be manufactured in the United States, the site search began,” said Collins. “The 63,000 SF industrial building had been offered as a short-term sublease that soon became structured into a new five-year lease that makes room for future growth. In addition, the 4,000 SF of office space allows the headquarters to move back home to Mebane, just two buildings away from where the company had its original facility.”
Airspeed was founded in 1995 by Scott Clendenin (independent), Bud Meade (Mercury Aircraft) from the United States, and Mike Klincke (High Speed Production) from the United Kingdom. The partnership was created to provide a global manufacturing supply chain to major electronics original equipment manufacturers such as IBM and HP.
The new headquarters property was previously a textile mill and is owned by the Selim Family Partnership, which was represented by broker Rick Gunn with KW Commercial/Gunn & Associates.
“The most difficult aspect of the transaction involved coordinating a transition with the previous tenant and the timing of upfits to meet Airspeed’s accelerated schedule to receive equipment and begin manufacturing,” said O’Neal. “Timing and coordination allowed for the previous tenant to sublease a portion of the building while their new building upfits could be completed.”