Meet the investor who helped bring 450 Bridgestone jobs to Antioch
Apr 5, 2017, 2:10pm CDT
When a real estate broker first cold-called Tom Corcoran about buying a former Sears store in Antioch, Corcoran said his reaction was something along the lines of, "How quickly can I politely get him off the phone?"
When the same broker made the same call one month later, Corcoran decided he might as well take a look. He was sold. He moved fast, sensing a chance to convert the department store into as much as 175,000 square feet of office space. By the time he purchased the building in March 2016, not only was Corcoran negotiating with Bridgestone Americas, which wanted to locate some 450 workers there, he also had gone under contract to buy the former Macy's at the old Hickory Hollow Mall.
Corcoran, founder and managing partner of Brentwood-based Crestview Funds, expects to invest $40 million to $45 million combined on the two buildings. Bridgestone will move in next month, taking half of the former Sears (yes, the escalators are staying and will be operational). As we spoke on Wednesday morning, Corcoran said a prospective tenant was touring the other half of that building. Corcoran said he's also negotiating with a company that might lease all of the ex-Macy's.
Corcoran is among the growing pack of real estate investors shedding their perception of Antioch — "prejudice," as Corcoran called it. The speed at which Corcoran changed his thinking underscores how quickly Antioch's revitalization has taken off. Major employers see Antioch in a new light, too. Bridgestone is joining hospital giants HCA Holdings Inc. (NYSE: HCA) and Community Health Systems Inc. (NYSE: CYH), as well as cell-phone insurer Asurion and auto-parts distributor LKQ Corp. (Nasdaq: LKQ) among the roster of companies invigorating the community southeast of downtown Nashville.
"The data showed me that it made sense. There's a large, educated labor pool along the I-24 corridor from Harding Place all the way to Murfreesboro. Housing is available and affordable," Corcoran said.
"A company needing a lot of office space with heavy parking has very few choices. That's why I bought the Sears and the Macy's," Corcoran added. "You know, I may not get every one of the deals out there, but I will certainly see every one of them, because there are so few options."
The Sears building offers roughly 1,250 parking spaces, Corcoran said. The ratio of parking spaces per 1,000 square feet of office space — a common yardstick used in real estate — is easily double the amount of parking many downtown buildings can offer tenants.
The immediate response to the Sears building encouraged Corcoran to buy the former Macy's. "We were already getting enough attention from the market that I thought, well shoot, I should go ahead and get the other one," he said. Corcoran said the work converting the Macy's building into office space won't begin until there's a tenant in hand.
Corcoran said the former department stores will offer open floor plans, many windows and high ceilings. He believes those are among the attributes companies increasingly seek as they strive to attract and retain millennial talent. Tenants might also like the cost — 25 percent to 30 percent cheaper than a new building in Cool Springs, according to Corcoran. "That's significant when you're signing a 10-year lease," he said.
After graduating from Vanderbilt University, Corcoran moved to Dallas and got into the real estate business. He returned in the early 1980s and has since built a portfolio that includes, among other things, the Brentwood office buildings home to the headquarters for Brookdale Senior Living Inc. (NYSE: BKD) and AAC Holdings Inc. (NYSE: AAC), which is the parent of American Addiction Centers.
Typically, Corcoran's Crestview Funds targets assets in the $25 million to $60 million range, according to the company's website. Corcoran said he's now doing Antioch-type deals in other parts of the country as well. It's safe to say he wouldn't have believed anyone who would have told him three years ago that he would be investing tens of millions of dollars in Antioch.
"Antioch's progression has been in high gear," Corcoran said. "It just makes a lot of sense."