<< News

News - Pickering Grows Southaven Office in Effort to Gain More DeSoto Work Down the Road

Pickering, Inc. is moving its Southaven offices to about 5,500 square feet in the Pinnacle Building at 7900 Airways, another example of the growing DeSoto County office market.

The company was operating in a 3,500 square-foot space occupied by Smith Engineering Firm, which it acquired in 2005.

"We had outgrown that and instead of adding on and disrupting operations, we decided to relocate," says Pickering CEO Mike Pohlman.

Pickering will be the first tenant in the new space, which it will use for 18 employees.

Tracy Speake, managing partner at Paradigm Realty Advisors LLC, represented Pickering.

Mark Jenkins, senior vice president with Commercial Alliance Management, represented the landlord, a group of local investors.

Pinnacle consists of three office buildings with a total of 75,000 square feet. Its tenants include medical practices and insurance companies. Pickering's move brings it up to 72% occupancy.

"It's one of the best office properties in DeSoto County," Jenkins says. "It's a Class A property in a Class A location. It's right at the front door of the hospital, so you have a good tenant mix for medical use and for business owners."

Pickering operates an office in Memphis with 93 employees. Its other 77 employees are spread across Mississippi offices in Jackson, Hernando, Southaven, Brookhaven and Pearl, a suburb of Jackson.

Pickering has operated an office in Hernando for six years. The firm hopes to be in its new Southaven space in early December.

"Business is slower then and it will be a good time to shut down one operation and get the other one running," Pohlman says.

Pickering is looking for more municipal work in North Mississippi and the new office and its larger work force could help the company capture some of that.

The company has already provided transportation design services for the widening of Interstate 55, Church Road, the Nail Road bridge and the Star Landing underpass.

Pickering principal Tom Bryant will be relocating from the firm's Jackson, Miss., office to lead the Southaven operation.

"I think Southaven and North Mississippi is still a growing community," Pohlman says. "There is going to be a draw for office buildings and other types of industry and we want to be positioned to take advantage of that."

Pickering opened its initial DeSoto County office in Hernando's town square in May 2000. It relocated that office to 2170 Highway 51 South in March 2004.

DeSoto County has 116 office buildings with 1.2 million square feet and a 19.9% vacancy rate, according to the third quarter CoStar office report. The average quoted rate is $17.51 per square foot.

Southaven leads the way for office space in DeSoto County for a number of reasons, according to Chuck Roberts, owner of Southaven-based Chuck Roberts Commercial Real Estate.

First, Baptist Memorial Hospital-DeSoto, which opened with 339 beds in 1988, is a major source of office space because of its size and all the services it provides.

Second, Southaven is the largest city in DeSoto County with a population of 38,840 according to the U.S. Census 2005 estimate.

The DeSoto County office market has been driven by its residential and retail growth, according to Roberts.

"Office space tends to be a convenience-based decision," he says. "People like to have offices near where their homes are."

The city of Southaven was incorporated in 1980, so its office market is young.

"The real boom for office space is still to come because you haven't had much Class A space built," Roberts says.

The county has six Class A office buildings with 177,252 total square feet and 32.3% vacancy.

The majority of office space in DeSoto County is Class B, with 79 buildings accounting for 890,951 square feet and a vacancy rate of 15.2%.