Working successful deals in Mississippi, Tennessee, Louisiana, and Florida
In the past 20 years, commercial real estate broker Breck Hines and his partners at Concord Companies have been involved in some of the largest commercial property deals in the state and beyond. Hines, along with partners Ted Duckworth and John Michael Holtmann, have acquired or developed $300 million of commercial properties as one part of their full-service real estate firm.
Those projects include the mixed-use development The District at Eastover, and build-to-suit developments for users such as Bayer, PriorityOne Bank, APAC Paving and Guaranty Bank & Trust. Breck, representing clients, has closed $255 million in leasing and brokerage transactions. The regional commercial real estate firm does business in not just Mississippi, but Tennessee, Louisiana and Florida.
“Our business really consists of three different yet interconnected businesses: acquisition and development, property management, and leasing and brokerage,” said Hines. “Any of those can be done singly, but ours are interrelated. We get to control the quality of the work. We also provide services for third parties.”
Some commercial real estate firms develop property with the intent of immediately selling it. Hines said what makes Concord Companies different is taking the long view.
“Some folks in commercial real estate create value and immediately sell,” said Hines. “For instance, they fill up a shopping center, sell it, and move on to the next one. Most of what we do is hold for the long term. We look at things on a ten-year time horizon rather than two years. When you are investing for the next ten years, you are making different decisions than for two years. For example, in our projects, we use quality materials rather than looking for cheaper options that may have a shorter useful life. The long-term view allows us to be a little more conservative and patient.”
Hines said the partners who invest alongside Concord Companies appreciate that long-term view and somewhat conservative view, as well.
In some large cities in the country, the pandemic that led many people to work remotely ended up having a long-term negative impact on office occupancy, which impacted other commercial development in densely populated urban areas such as coffee shops and restaurants. But that trend has not been an issue in the areas where Concord Companies works.
“In cities like Chicago, Atlanta and Charlotte, there was some hangover from Covid, but we didn’t see that in smaller Southeast markets,” said Hines. “A lot has to do with drive times. In Ridgeland or Jackson, you can get from your home to just about anywhere in 15 to 20 minutes. When the commute is under a half hour, companies and their employees would prefer for their people to be together five days a week. When commutes become an hour-plus, you see a lot more work from home mentality—at least for a couple days of the week. Here with the short commute times, most people prefer to be in a professional office environment where they can share, collaborate, and provide mentorship for younger employees.”
From Lakeland Drive in Jackson through Ridgeland, the Class A office market is essentially full. Hines said with very little new supply being put on the market, because construction costs are so high, that trend has been a lift for existing Class A office buildings in many places around the country.
In his career, he has seen construction costs remain flat sometimes, but really never go down en masse. Rental rates would have to increase significantly to justify the costs for new construction. For example, he estimates rents would have to be $50 per square foot annually if you were going to build new office buildings in Ridgeland or Madison, whereas rents now average $30 to $35 per square foot.
Regarding management, issues will come up that are unexpected; that is the nature of the property management business. “That can be very interesting or challenging,” said Hines. “We do a good job of putting a property management team together that understands and appreciates our needs. My partner, Ted and I walk the properties regularly with the managers and help them understand our expectations. Elevators need to be spotless and shiny. A lobby needs to feel inviting. Some people spend more time at the office than the house, so we try to create environments people enjoy and feel pride in. One thing we do is regularly reinvest in the properties; every year we are upgrading something. We find it better to be constantly upgrading properties so there are never peaks and valleys of perceived value for tenants. When people see a property constantly reinvested in, it gives them a sense of confidence that this is a good place to be long term.”
Hines grew up in a family in the oil and gas business. When he was attending college, oil and gas was in one of its cyclical downturns. His father encouraged him to do something different and commercial real estate seemed attractive.
“I had some great professors at Ole Miss who were leaders in national commercial estate education,” said Hines. “They had a big positive influence on me. I enjoy what I do every day. Every day is different, and this is very much a relationship-driven business. I enjoy creating things. I also enjoy traveling, and looking at other people’s projects, noting what they have done well, and not so well, to learn from other people’s success and mistakes. It is half science and half art; that is why I enjoy it. It engages both sides of your brain.”
One of the firm’s biggest projects, The District at Eastover, came from several years of research and travel. They worked with an architect from Austin, Texas, and a general contractor from Birmingham, Ala.
“Both of those companies brought a lot of experience and new ideas and creativity to the table,” said Hines. “We also had a landscape architect out of Dallas. We were able to get some bigger picture, new world ideas from people doing projects literally across the country.”
Hines began his career with Parkway Properties, an NYSE-traded office REIT. He credits that first job with invaluable experience as an acquisition analyst and then as an asset manager.
A Summa Cum Laude graduate from the University of Mississippi with degrees in Banking & Finance and Real Estate, Hines also serves as a Director for PriorityOne Bank, a $1.1 billion community bank based in Mississippi. He and his wife, Lyn, have three children ages 12 to 18.
“I enjoy every minute with them,” he said. “I appreciate getting to watch them grow up. My oldest son recently got his pilot’s license. We spend a lot of time in and around airplanes. If not in the air, we spend a lot of time talking about flying. Our girls like to wake surf and water ski. We all enjoy traveling and the knowledge gained from new places and experiences.”