Red Rock in Business NC Magazine

April 25, 2016

CHARLOTTE, NC (April 25 2016) Red Rock has been highlighted in Business North Carolina magazine for the 201,450 square feet new Headquarters project for AvidXchange, as well as its other projects through out the SouthEast. Red Rock is a single tenant developer of office, industrial and retail properties based in Columbia, SC with offices in Charlotte NC.

From Business North Carolina magazine:

AvidXchange is one of the hottest, most promising tech companies in Charlotte, having raised $225 million from private-equity giant Bain Co. late last year. The company employs 530 people with plans to add 300 more this year to develop software to help businesses simplify the payments process — faster growth than projected when it announced its Charlotte expansion in September 2014.

But CEO Mike Praeger says his company’s expertise doesn’t extend to real estate. “When it comes to forecasting our space needs, we suck at it,” he said at a Charlotte entrepreneurs’ conference in January.

John Barker and Red Rock Developments is stepping in to fill the void, serving as office developer of a 200,000-square-foot, six-story building for AvidXchange near downtown Charlotte. The building is part of the N.C. Music Factory, the seven-year-old entertainment complex developed by father-son team Noah and Rick Lazes. Part of the deal involved AvidXchange gaining naming rights to the Music Factory, and the tech company’s headquarters will be across the street from the Bootlegger’s Saloon and Beer Hall and the VBGB Beer Hall and Garden. (Imagine how creative the coders will be after taking breaks!)

AvidXchange’s embrace of the Music Factory shows how differently tech executives look at real estate now compared to years ago when they opted for sedate suburban campuses such as Research Triangle Park.

The Music Factory is a 10-minute walk from downtown Charlotte, though it isn’t an easy hike because there is a grain elevator and railroad tracks blocking a direct path. But AvidXchange’s plans are prompting the city to improve access to the development, including a redesigned 12th street entrance that will include bike lanes and a tree-lined center divider.

Red Rock Developments’ team includes John Barker, president and chief development officer, CEO Bill Smith and Brandon Smith, CFO.
“It’s an incredible environment because it is a great place for entertainment, there’s lot of places to eat and it’s so close to the center city that it’s an easy walk or bike ride,” says Barker. “It’s special in that most cool-live-work-play atmospheres aren’t in the center city. Most are way out in the suburbs, so there is a uniqueness about this piece of property.” (Exceptions in North Carolina include the Citrix and Red Hatoffices in Raleigh, or Inmar Corp.’s digs in Winston-Salem.)

Brasfield & Gorrie is the contractor, LSP3 is the architect, Bloc Design PLLC oversees civil engineering, while the owner listed in county records is a New York investment group, Lex Charlotte AXC LP. Completion is expected next March.

A second, similar building is planned should AvidXchange hit its growth targets, part of a plan to develop as much as 650,000 square-feet of office space there. The company is receiving more than $8.5 million in state and local incentives, depending on how many jobs are created. It has committed to spend at least $20 million, with jobs paying an average $52,000 a year.

A measure of AvidXchange’s hotness: its $225 million in initial capital included money from Bain & Co., marking the first financial technology company to receive more than $100 million from the big private-equity firm Bain & Co., Praeger says.

For Barker and Red Rocks, the Music Factory raises the profile of a company that ranked second on the Charlotte Business Journal’s 2015 list of most active developers. The company, which only employs five people, mostly represents clients for specific projects rather than the spec building style of a Childress Klein, the region’s largest developer. “We think it’s important to keep our capital recycled,” says Barker, a Shelby native whose developer father, John Sr., has lined up industrial projects in North Carolina for decades.

“Where I’m different is that we’re going to work for a customer who has a request for a specific asset,” he says.

He cites as an example two buildings he developed for Techtronic Industries near Greenville, S.C. Techtronic’s brands include Dirt Devil, Homelite and Ryobi. Not quite as sexy as the Music Factory, maybe. But it is part of the 30 million square feet of projects that Barker and his partner, Bill Smith, have been involved with over a combined 45 years in the business, including the past 10 years at Red Rocks.