SeamonWhiteside buys Mount Pleasant HQ for $4.5M

SeamonWhiteside, a Charleston-based engineering and design firm, has purchased a 30,000-square-foot Class A office building in Mount Pleasant. 

Avison Young, a global real estate advisory firm, arranged the $4.5 million sale for the seller, Long Point Center LLC. According to a news release, Chris Fraser, Avison Young principal and Charleston managing director, and Leslie Fellabom, Avison Young senior vice president, represented Long Point Center. 

This represents a full-circle moment for SWA as it was part of the design team for the larger business park, Long Point Center, and has been an anchor tenant in the park for over 25 years, according to the release.

“SeamonWhiteside’s purchase of 501 Wando Park Blvd. represents the influx of tenants acquiring their office buildings to avoid a lengthy and expensive design and development process amidst today’s challenging financing and construction environment,” Fraser said in the release. “The firm’s long history as part of the design team for Long Point Center and as anchor tenant for over 25 years made it a natural choice to purchase this building.” 

SeamonWhiteside will continue to occupy about 20,000 square feet of the multi-tenant building located at 501 Wando Park Blvd., according to the release. The purchased building is one of two buildings on the Long Point Center campus. 

The other building, located at 503 Wando Park Blvd., can be leased through Avison Young, the release said.  

“We are truly excited by this opportunity to own the building that hosts our company headquarters, to further invest in the amazing Charleston market, and to have a little more control over our destiny as we set our sights on the sustained growth associated with our vision to be the premier site design firm in the Southeast,” Russ Seamon, president of SeamonWhiteside, said in the release. 

Charleston’s office market continues to display green shoots across the board according to Avison Young’s Q1 Charleston office market report, the release stated. Asking rents continue to rise, averaging $33.69 FS as of Q1, direct availability is declining since the peak in 2021 to 11.3%, which is significantly below the national average of 20% and absorption has recorded positive for the past three quarters.