PeopLease Corp. to build $10 million corporate headquarters building near the Cooper River

MOUNT PLEASANT–PeopLease Corp., an employee leasing company headquartered in Mount Pleasant since 1994, announced Friday it will build a $10 million corporate headquarters building near the Cooper River.

The 30,000-square-foot building will be one of two in the Bridgeport Office Complex, located on 2.5 acres next to the Mount Pleasant Holiday Inn and near a ramp to the future Arthur Ravenel Jr. Bridge.

PeopLease supplies employees and related services, such as payroll, health insurance and retirement savings plans, to more than 200 companies. Those companies are primarily trucking companies in 36 states, said Charles R. Schellenger and D.W. Speer, the chief executive officers of PeopLease.

Only 2 percent of its client firms are based in South Carolina.

Last year, Speer said PeopLease had $250 million in revenues and expects that after expanding, revenues will reach $400 million a year. The company employs 35 people at its Mount Pleasant headquarters on Chuck Dawley Boulevard. Projections call for 110 employees within seven years.

Schellenger said the company considered a number of locations to expand, including Daniel Island and Indianapolis, where Peop-Lease has a regional office, but ultimately wanted to stay in Mount Pleasant.

“In the end, it was the quality of the region’s work force and the strong support we received from the town of Mount Pleasant and Mount Pleasant Waterworks that led to our decision to remain and grow in this beautiful community,” he said.

PeopLease has been working with Bridgeport developer Richard Coen and Mount Pleasant for a year to make the new office a reality.

“We thought this location was the key location,” said Speer, noting that the Ravenel bridge ramp will put PeopLease within five minutes of downtown Charleston.

Mayor Harry M. Hallman Jr. called keeping PeopLease a victory for the town’s economic development program, which seeks to lure companies that do not depend on the local economy to survive.

“This is an outstanding example of the type of economic development we are trying to attract and retain in Mount Pleasant,” Hallman said.

“Companies like Peop-Lease … can locate anywhere. Their business is national and international in scope,” he said. “They are not dependent on the Mount Pleasant marketplace.”

Hallman added that such economic development uses create less impact on traffic, infrastructure and town services than commercial, retail and residential development, as well as create more high quality jobs.

PeopLease will occupy between 10,000 and 13,000 square feet and sublease the remainder of the facility.