100 Corporate Drive, Suite L2
Spartanburg, SC 29303
(864) 599-9900 • Fax (864) 599-9300

Marketed By Dan Dunn/Orion Properties
(864) 641-0624 • (864) 590-5210 • Fax (864) 598-5258
www.orionproperties.biz
E-mail: orionproperties@bellsouth.net

Press Room …

Architect’s latest project helps companies fit in

By Chris Winston, Business Editor
Courtesy of the Spartanburg Herald-Journal
Published May 5, 2002

Peter Weisman knows you can’t always wait to be asked. So the owner and architect of Corporate Center, a 193-acre business park at the intersection of Business 85 and Bryant Road, is always working on the next project. He’s found that waiting until a company is ready to relocate or expand means losing a lot of business.

“When companies decide they want to move, they don’t want to wait until a building can be built,” Weisman said. “So when one building is between 60 percent and capacity, we start the next one.”

Weisman builds a totally enclosed shell with plumbing and other utilities and waits for the tenants to arrive. That’s when Weisman can alter the space to fit the needs of the tenant. And center officials do all of the designing themselves.

“Corporate Center is a flex park, and the architecture can accommodate a variety of different use groups,” Weisman said.

Sometimes, Weisman can figure out the tenants’ needs better than they can. He told one new tenant that they would need more space in the near future, so he saved the tenant extra room. Within days, the extra space was being used.

That flexibility and planning helped bring three new tenants to the business park in the past year. Lubrizol Corp., Armstrong Compressed Air Services and the U.S. Department of Agriculture recently leased space at Corporate Center. The new tenants were secured by Dan Dunn of Orion Properties.

Lubrizol, a NYSE company based in Cleveland, Ohio, leased 22,300 square feet for its Gateway Additives Division. A fluid technology company concentrating on high-performance chemicals, systems and services for industry and transportation, Gateway Additives employs 35 locally.

Butch Hicks, manager of human resources for Gateway Additives, said the new location is two or three times larger than its former location at Henry Place in Spartanburg. Gateway Additives, a 16-year-old company purchased by Lubrizol in 1997, operates its sales, administration, research and development and quality control from the Corporate Center location, Hicks said.

Armstrong Compressed Air Services, a division of Florida-based Armstrong International, leased 18,400 square feet for its 25 local employees. Armstrong Compressed Air Services was previously located at Hearon Circle. Armstrong International specializes in producing and marketing energy-related products.

The USDA moved its Upstate regional office from the Federal Building in downtown Spartanburg to 7,800 square feet at Corporate Center. The office employs 27.

Nancy Lawson, rural development specialist with the Spartanburg USDA office, said the office houses three agencies: Farm Service, Rural Development and Natural Resource Conservation.

“It’s one-stop shopping,” she said.

Weisman hopes Corporate Center will become a No. 1 stop for business ventures in the Upstate. The center currently has 12 tenants in six buildings that total 250,000 square feet. The largest tenant is Progress Lighting. He already has one building ready for leasing — a 48,000-square-foot spec building.

And he’s looking for bigger and better things from the future. Weisman hopes to eventually have 1.5 million square feet of space.

But that’s just Weisman looking ahead.

“That’s a 15-year project,” he said.