Charleston Regional Development Alliance

Berkeley, Charleston & Dorchester Counties

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Local commercial real estate firm building knowledge-based incubator

Oct. 24, 2007
Noisette News Release
Lead Dog, LLC, a Lowcountry-based commercial real estate firm, has announced that it has purchased Building NH68SC for its new Lowcountry Innovation Center at the Navy Yard at Noisette from the Noisette Company, LLC. A former US Navy building, the 40,000 square foot structure will be transformed into an incubator space for knowledge-based companies and creative industry firms. First phase of the project includes a sustainable restoration of 20,000 square feet of the Navy Yard building near Noisette Boulevard, which will be completed for occupancy by Summer 2008.

“Most of the space will be devoted to knowledge-based companies,” says Alan R. St. Clair, principal for Lead Dog, LLC. “Our target tenants will be information technology, communications, engineering, architecture and life sciences companies that are part of the technology-based economy.”

St. Clair added, “Certainly, Noisette has created the vision for those of us investing in the Navy Yard, they have given us a place to start. There is a tremendous amount of interest in the Lowcountry from knowledge-based companies, and the central location of the incubator to downtown Charleston, Mt. Pleasant, and North Charleston, makes the Navy Yard a compelling choice for prospective tenants.”

The incubator space is tailored to the plans for the Navy Yard as the “Silicon Valley of the Restoration Economy,” a phrase first used in 2003 to describe Noisette by author and consultant Storm Cunningham of the Virginia-based Revitalization Institute. With the Clemson University Restoration Institute developing 86 acres as a new research campus, and a critical mass of companies that stress sustainability practices, the potential for the Navy Yard to evolve into a “research city” for knowledge-based companies could be realized within a decade.

“Clemson will certainly create new opportunities at the Navy Yard, but the market opportunities for research and knowledge based firms is growing, and already present, at Noisette,” injects St. Clair.

St. Clair added that Lead Dog, LLC expects to fill the available space before the first phase completion next summer. Spaces will be available from 3,200 to 800 square feet, with additional areas for drop-in space. Additionally, the Lowcountry Innovation Center’s project space will be available for video conferences, layout rooms, interview rooms and board meetings.

Other Lead Dog, LLC projects include properties in peninsular Charleston, such as 525 King Street, for upscale retailer Maine Cottage and Bill Huey & Associates, Inc., a local architectural firm; 392 – 394 Meeting Street, for the Charleston Digital Corridor, Charleston School of Law, KHAFRA Engineering Consultants, an Atlanta-based, multi-disciplinary firm, and Quick Farm, a web site design firm that specializes in the agricultural community nationwide.

Lead Dog, LLC Principal Alan R. St. Clair has more than 25 years experience working in human resources consulting. Prior to founding Lead Dog, LLC, St. Clair served as Senior Research Consultant with TNS Partners, a senior level retained executive search firm serving a select group of clients throughout the United States. His previous assignments included Cilcorp Corporation, PepsiCo, Inc. (PepsiCo, KFC, and Pepsi Bottling Group), THORN Americas and Armco Corporation. St. Clair currently serves on the boards of the Charleston Digital Corridor, and Chastain Construction Company.

The Navy Yard at Noisette is a 340-acre, mixed use sustainable urban redevelopment located in North Charleston. For more information on Lead Dog, LLC, contact Alan R. St. Clair at the above phone numbers and email, or access www.leaddog.info on the web. 		related information