CASE STUDY [DECOSIMO AKA ELLIOTT DAVIS DECOSIMO, AKA ELLIOTT DAVIS]

629 Market Street, Chattanooga, TN

45,000 SF – Leasing Services Representing Tenant

THE CHALLENGE

Decosimo, founded in 1971 by Joseph Decosimo, is one of the most recognizable names in Chattanooga’s accounting sector. Decosimo’s consistent long-term growth over a more than 20-year term of lease, within its existing Chattanooga HQ facility, had created a challenge in terms of functionality, interdepartmental communications, and talent acquisition.

The Solution

Sim Wilson worked with Decosimo leadership following a robust lease acquisition process designed to consider all market opportunities in terms of net financial impact, increased functionality, cross selling and competitive workforce environment. RFP process attracted multiple bidders for the firm’s occupancy business, providing Decosimo corresponding financial analyses, site-visits, location scoring architectural analysis and selection.

Through this process savings and functionality enhancements were achieved. Decosimo’s completed transaction resulted in more than a $1 million in term savings and 12% reduction in footprint. The efficiency of moving from a multi-floor to single open floor occupancy produced significant enhancements to communications and cross selling opportunities. In addition, lease terms negotiations provided greater flexibility for space changes based on future requirements.

Since execution of the lease the accounting firms of Elliott Davis and Decosimo merged. The combined firm, Elliott Davis, is one of the top accounting, tax and consulting services firms in the U.S. with total annual revenues of $120 million and more than 800 professionals and specialists in 17 offices across seven states – Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina, Ohio, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia – and the Cayman Islands. Elliott Davis used the flexible terms originally negotiated to downsize and relocate to another property.

CASE STUDY [REGIONS BANK]

Multi-Martket – 18 States – Supervised from Chattanooga, TN

1.8M SF Disposed – Landlord Leasing – Leasing of Owned Assets

THE CHALLENGE

Regions Financial Corporation is a member of the S&P 500 Index and is one of the nation’s largest full-service providers of consumer and commercial banking, wealth management and mortgage products and services. Regions serves customers across the South, Midwest, and Texas. Regions Corporate Real Estate had accumulated a total space footprint of more than 18M SF. Regions had substantial vacancy across its owned and leased assets with no program in place to identify and monetize those assets to support expense offset and income.

THE SOLUTION

Sim Wilson worked with Regions Corporate Real Estate leadership to focus on identifying and standardizing lease opportunities across their portfolio. Standardized floor plans, demising schemes, marketing materials, national listing with CoStar and LoopNet listing services and a single-point-of-contact leasing hotline were all created to provide a seamless process for fielding interest and executing leases with a minimum IRR threshold.

Through this execution process, Regions was able to dispose of more than 1.8M SF of excess vacancy and achieve annual revenues of more than $15M from space that once sat vacant and overlooked.

CASE STUDY [INNOVATION CENTER]

130 Innovation Drive, McDonald, TN

130,000 SF Disposed – Landlord Leasing – Leasing of Owned Assets

THE CHALLENGE

Spring Branch LLC, developers from Knoxville had commenced a speculative industrial development located in the Spring Branch Industrial Park with direct access from I-75 and Exit 20 in Bradley County Tennessee. Spring Branch LLC was self-marketing the property but felt they were not generating sufficient activity to either sell or lease the property upon completions and engaged Wilson Steele for support.

THE SOLUTION

Wilson Steele’s, Sim Wilson worked directly with Spring Branch LLC to create a marketing process to generate interest from both users and investors. A detailed Offering Memorandum, professional photography, drone footage and a suite of associated marketing materials were created. Additionally, a Virtual Deal Room, custom URL website link and custom “Landing Page” were created to integrate all on-line marketing tools to a centralized platform of property subject matter data and construction plans. Technology platforms Lightbox RCM, CoStar, LoopNet, and direct custom e-marketing campaigns through Benchmark dramatically increased the lead generation and reach.

In July of 2023, Spring Branch LLC was able to dispose of an expanded full building footprint of 130,000 SF of Class A Industrial Space to advanced manufacturing company, Amaero International achieving a market leading 15-year lease valued in excess of $23M.