Ballantyne, uptown Charlotte race to land office tenants

The race to land office tenants is heating up in Charlotte, and two of the citys top office markets uptown and Ballantyne increasingly look like competitors, some say.

Ballantyne Corporate Park, which 15 years ago was pasture, is building the largest speculative office building in the country. In December it landed the corporate headquarters of Infinisource, an employee-benefits firm thats moving here from Michigan and is adding more than 160 jobs.

Uptown notched a big win in November when it landed the corporate headquarters for Chiquita Brands International, which Ballantyne had also been courting.

Most real estate brokers downplay the idea of competition between uptown and Ballantyne, saying the entire area benefits if new companies come or existing ones add space.

But the two markets, which once attracted different types of tenants, may find themselves wooing the same companies more often.

Heres why: As banks have shrunk their real estate footprint, uptown finds itself with more available space than five years ago. In Ballantyne, rents have recovered faster than elsewhere in the city, narrowing the price gap with uptown. Meanwhile, the pool of potential tenants relocating from elsewhere is still smaller than before the recession.

It used to be fairly easy for the Charlotte Chamber to direct inbound deals (to one market or another), said consultant and commercial real estate broker John Culbertson of Cardinal Real Estate Partners LLC. Now, there is more of a gentlemans tug-of-war that occurs when a large deal like Chiquita comes in.

Such competition can be good for the economy because it increases the chance that an outside company moves to Charlotte, experts say.

A healthy office market is important because it drives developers to build, which in turn fuels construction spending and creates jobs. Profitable commercial buildings are more valuable, boosting the commercial tax base.

In contrast, empty office towers weigh on an economy, scaring away prospective tenants. Low occupancy translates into fewer workers to support restaurants and other services. Property values fall.

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Ballantyne, uptown Charlotte race to land office tenants