Mars landing: Where a new headquarters could go — and surprisingly, where it might not
October 20, 2016
Nashville Business Journal
by Adam Sichko
A company the size of Mars Petcare U.S. Inc., which we reported Oct. 19 as being on the hunt for a new headquarters, holds the potential to kickstart one of a few high-profile developments in Williamson County.
The pet brand’s decision-making also will be a revealing barometer on whether the future is now for Thompson’s Station, a town of a few thousand residents located 15 miles south of Mars Petcare’s current Franklin headquarters. Two years ago, Mars Petcare opened a $110 million research and development center in the town.
Though it remains to be seen where the company will land, several real estate sources said the likeliest prospects are all within Williamson County, where Mars Petcare is currently headquartered. There’s a historic shortage of available office space there, which means Mars Petcare would spur construction of a new building and give the company’s chosen developer a signature brand name to help market their project to lenders and other tenants. According to sources, Mars Petcare is seeking about 200,000 square feet of space; the company already employs 1,000 people in the county, making it one of the largest employers there.
Read on (and check out the gallery with this story) for several sites to keep an eye on — and for one line of thought on why the company may not double-down on Thompson’s Station just yet:
• The highest-profile development site needing office tenants is Ovation, a nearly $1 billion proposed mixed-use development covering about 90 acres at a corner of Carothers Parkway and East McEwen Drive. That crossroads is the epicenter of Williamson County’s construction boom (as seen on our handy development map). The largest office landlord in Middle Tennessee, Highwoods Properties Inc. (NYSE: HIW), owns half of the Ovation site and plans up to 1.4 million square feet of office buildings. This summer, the top regional executive for Highwoods signaled that he’s ready to push ahead with its part of the project. (Highwoods does not own the other half of the site, which is designed for almost 1,000 residential units, two hotels and almost 500,000 square feet of retail, restaurant and entertainment space.)
While Highwoods hasn’t been afraid to build offices on a speculative basis, without tenants in-hand, having someone like Mars Petcare in the fold would be a more comfortable position for any developer to be in (even with the limited competition in Cool Springs today, given the commercial hub’s robust job growth and record-low supply of competing office space available to rent).
• Just on the other side of Interstate 65, another undeveloped piece of land has gained traction this year, after a few purchase contracts fell through. In January, Charlotte-based Northwood Ravin paid $27 million for the 45-acre Northside at McEwen property, across from the Whole Foods in Franklin. Two months ago, Northwood Ravin announced that the Nashville office of Boyle Investment Co. has joined them to develop a $270 million project. The project is already approved for up to 750,000 square feet of office space.
• Also worth considering is an 18-acre site on Mallory Lane which Cincinnati-based developer Al. Neyer LLC is under contract to purchase. The company has said it could build up to 350,000 square feet of office space on the site.
What about Thompson’s Station, four exits south on Interstate 65 from Mars Petcare’s current headquarters? The company paid $11.67 million to buy 93 acres of land in 2012, located at the southeast corner of State Route 840 and Columbia Pike. At the time, executives said the company’s headquarters would eventually be moved there from Franklin.
“We searched high and low, we looked all over the place, and found the future home of Mars Petcare in Thompson’s Station,” said William Hastings of Nashville’s Hastings Architecture Associates, as quoted in 2012 in the Williamson Herald.
Whether it’s fair or not, a prevailing theory among real estate brokers is that Thompson’s Station isn’t ready yet for a major corporate headquarters. Put another way, this line of thinking says that from the perspective of attracting and retaining talent, Mars Petcare may be wiser to wait for more growth (including amenities such as restaurants and shopping and apartments) to arise around their research and development hub in Thompson’s Station before moving hundreds of more jobs there. Another test case is a Dallas developer’s ongoing work toward a 900-home residential development that would feature golf courses designed by Tiger Woods.
To be sure, it remains to be seen where Mars Petcare will wind up. Stay tuned.