When Greenville County Square’s behemoth phase one opened July 17, it notched another win for SeamonWhiteside.
The Charleston-based civil engineering and landscape-architecture design firm has been splashed all over Upstate headlines. Landscape architect Kenny Seamon partnered with civil engineer Stuart Whiteside in the mid-’80s to form SeamonWhiteside and immediately stood apart as Charleston’s only landscape- and civil-engineering-solutions firm.
But it’s hard to capture SeamonWhiteside’s influence on the Upstate development scene in a single sentence or project, of late.
On a roll
There’s County Square, CU-ICAR’s Technology Neighborhood 1 Plaza, the Main + Stone multifamily, mixed-use site in the West End, and the Carilion single-family-residential project near Furman.
There is also the company’s work on tens of millions of square feet worth of industrial speculative projects dotting the Charlotte-Atlanta corridor in Cherokee, Spartanburg, Greenville and Anderson counties.
Upstate Business Development Director Rick Schroder said the industrial spec market is the big player right now, despite headwinds from rising interest rates and a tighter market for big-box industrial space as more inventory comes online.
“It’s been a hot three, four years,” said Schroder, who joined the company in 2018. “It’s been a combination of simple activity versus having the right team of experts on staff in place to execute and deliver at a high level.”
“We made some strategic hires early on who built a solid reputation that we’ve been able to leverage,” he said. “We were out ahead of the industrial spec wave.”
The ‘Charlanta effect’
Even Schroder admitted it can be a challenge to condense SeamonWhiteside into a simple concept.
“Picture us doing the turnkey work — the ‘horizontal’ (parking layout, utility layout and design), the storm water management design, and the landscape architecture according to local codes and standards,” he said.
It’s no surprise then, that the firm is sometimes lumped in with developers. But that’s inaccurate.
“We’re not a developer,” Schroder said. “Our clients are (a plethora) of developers.”
It’s difficult to pin down one specific force behind SeamonWhiteside’s explosive Upstate growth, Schroder said. Rather, it’s a variety of factors, including a sustained, robust flow of relocation to the Southeast.
“And then there’s the ‘Charlanta effect’ — being sandwiched between a booming Atlanta and a booming Charlotte market,” he said. “There’s also Inland Port Greer, and the fact that the Upstate is just a friendly place to do business.”
Meeting a need
Otherwise, it’s just business-as-usual for the firm with offices scattered across the Carolinas.
“We continue to have to hustle, build a brand and be responsive,” Schroder said.
The work includes investments in a growing demand for water-supply and water-treatment solutions coming from municipalities and private providers, alike.
“We’re looking primarily at linear development — working with cities and providers to enhance existing infrastructure or bring more online,” he said. “It’s about meeting a need.”
