Canal Insurance Co.'s corporate headquarters relocation to 101 N. Main St. in downtown Greenville, South Carolina, was emblematic of a broader shift in the calculus companies are using to determine where to locate and how building owners are responding to meet those needs, according to brokers involved in the transaction, which has been selected as the winner of a 2023 CoStar Impact Award for lease of the year in Greenville, as judged by real estate professionals within the market.
The 84-year-old transportation insurance company, which was founded in Greenville, had outgrown its previous headquarters building on East Stone Ave. and needed to upgrade its office space, according to President and CEO Paul Brocklebank. COVID and the ensuing shift to a hybrid work model underscored the vital importance of Canal’s employees to the firm’s success, Brocklebank said, and this understanding figured prominently in the company’s decisions regarding where and how their new space needed to be configured. The selection of 101 North Main St., renamed the Canal Building after the firm secured exclusive signage rights as part of the transaction, brought 250 jobs to downtown Greenville from its previous close-in suburban location. Other groups have followed Canal to bring the building to nearly 94% leased.
About the Project: Canal Insurance Co. occupies the fourth, 12th, 14th, 15th and top floors of the 16-story tower formerly known as the Bank of America Building. One of the tallest office buildings in Greenville, the RealOp Investments-owned office building overlooks One City Plaza, a pedestrian-only public square in Greenville's city center.
Judges' Comments: "The downtown office market has been in tremendous transition. This dated building has gone through many owners. Getting a company like Canal to reinvest in this space at ground zero and spend the funds to transition to this building created positive momentum and helped to better stabilize the upper end of Main for the whole downtown," noted Senior Brokerage Associate Richard Barrett of Colliers.
"As an anchor lease in the heart of downtown with a historic Greenville-founded company, this lease had a major impact on the Greenville office market," said Luke Lyons, Lyons Industrial Properties.
"The Canal lease had a huge impact on the CBD and the jobs impact for the CBD was very impressive," added Senior Associate Brian Hammond of NAI Earle Furman.
They Made It Happen: Senior Vice Presidents Blaine Hart and Charles Gouch with First Vice President Shelby Dodson of CBRE represented the building owner, locally based RealOp Investments. Colliers office brokerage team members Brantley Anderson CCIM, Taylor Allen SIOR, CCIM and Bailey Tollison represented Canal Insurance in the company’s relocation. Canal also hired Colliers | South Carolina’s project management affiliate LCK to manage the fit-out and relocation its office space.
