Historic
Historic property development and sales are a niche specialty of Dowell Commercial Realty. Successful development of historic assets takes years. Most brokers and brokerage firms don’t have the heart or the time to commit to such an endeavor. Dowell Commercial is both 1) passionate about preservation of North Carolina’s history and 2) knowledgeable in the practical ways this can be achieved. If you have a historic asset and require brokerage assistance, Dowell Commercial is your best choice. Please contact us, if you are interested in working with a successful brokerage team on 1) listing your property or 2) buyer / tenant representation.
Outlined below are DCR historic real estate listings. For all of the below listings, Dowell Commercial is a seller or landlord agent. For questions about this agency role, please consult the Working With Real Estate Agents brochure (regarding a sale or lease).
Gibsonville Square in Minneola Mill @ 108 East Railroad Avenue, Gibsonville (Guilford County)
Varied industrial spaces available for lease or sale with up to 113K total SF available. Property is on the national register and can qualify for historic tax credits with additional entitlement work. Property has a new roof in 2024, which might qualify for QRE in a property sale. After review of the below flyers, contact listing broker for further details. Please note both flyers advertise the same building, but each has different info related to potential usage.
Gibsonville Square 45-73K SF Flyer Industrial Focused
Gibsonville Square 43-73K SF Flyer Retail Focused
Granite Mill Mixed Use Space For Sale or Lease @ 180 East Main Street, Haw River (Alamance County)
Off of the high traffic I-40 / I-85 corridor, this 25′ – 33′ industrial asset has great bones and is incentives driven. While built in 1968, this 61,516 SF property is a National Register asset (contributing structure). This asset is also in a tier II county, an opportunity zone, and is new market tax credit qualified as well. Property has a mixed use zoning and could be an excellent self storage location, brewery, etc. A dropbox with full site information is available upon request. Asking price is $35 SF.
Granite Mill @ 180 West Main Street, Haw River Flyer (1Q23)
Granite Mill Floor Plan (One Half of Available Space & Dock Area)
SUCCESS(ES)
SOLD 1Q23 (Seller Representation): Industrial (re)Development @ 200 North 13th Street, Erwin (Harnett County)
Turn of the century -1980’s mixed use campus of approx. 1,075,000 SF on 56 acres. In 2016, DCR received this listing after the site sat on the market for numerous years under another professional CRE firm. In 2017, Sean Dowell did a call for offers which resulted in 5+ unacceptable offers. The Erwin mill property had a non-performing test well and generated only cash buyers. The market had spoken. To overcome this issue, ownership embarked on a five year effort for brownsfields with a cost of approx. $4 million dollar. In the meanwhile, the property carried itself with income from 30+ tenants in its leasable 468K SF. This is while 56% and 606K SF of this campus sat vacant due to mixed condition issues. Being proactive in aligning a future redevelopment, DCR both a) leased up this property to full capacity, improving tenant quality where possible, and b) entitled it with the State Historic Preservation Office by getting this property on the NC Study List. In 3Q22, DCR performed a second call for offers highlight a pending 4Q22 brownsfield approval and an excessive amount of property details in an extensive due diligence package. With relevant question answered, this generated numerous acceptable buyer parties and offers. On February 1, 2023, this property sold for $9,500,000.
SOLD 4Q21 (Buyer Representation): Sale of Land and Historic Minneola Mill @ 106 Railroad Avenue, Gibsonville (Guilford County)
Dowell Commercial Realty represented developers Third Wave Housing, Core Properties, and their partners on a 381K SF historic purchase. This multi-tenant, turn of the century mill composes 59% of downtown Gibsonville and has 20+ tenants. While it has primarily industrial uses at the time of sale, this value add redevelopment will be repositioned for best and highest uses over multiple years. This purchase also included 17 acres of vacant land adjacent to Gibsonville’s downtown. All in all, this is a second and final purchase of Minneola Mill. In 2019, this group also purchased 58K SF of this mill through DCR. For details on this initial purchase, see its case study.
ENTITLEMENT 4Q21 (Seller Representation): State Grant for Minneola Mill @ 106 Railroad Avenue, Gibsonville (Guilford County)
Working with a proactive, diligent developer, DCR was an active team member on a group whom aligned a $750,000 state grant. These NC budget funds will unlock historical rehabilitation of Minneola Mill in Gibsonville, NC and were announced in later 2021. The developer and DCR had been working since 2016 to align historic rehabilitation but an extensive facade wall literally blocked the ability to receive historic tax credits. This issue is able to be resolved via this generous state assistance.
SOLD 2Q21 (Seller Representation): Industrial / Historic Sale @ 423 Lakeside Avenue, Burlington (Alamance County)
DCR sold a 28K SF national register mill for historic rehabilitation in June 2021. Property sold to an owner / user whom was unrepresented. For more on this asset see, Lakeside Mill, Burlington Flyer, Lakeside History, or this City of Burlington press release on the transaction. For context and more details, see the case study on this deal.
2Q20 – 3Q20: Covid-19 worldwide shut downs.
SOLD 3Q19 (Buyer Representation): Industrial / Historic Sale @ 106 Railroad Avenue, Gibsonville (Alamance County).
Three Floors of Vision LLC purchased the national register 58,770 SF Minneola Mill Cloth Warehouse in Sept 2019. Historic entitlement took three years of committed effort, proof this status is not given lightly. This industrial CBD asset will be a mixed use and/or multi-family conversion. DCR continues to represent this buyer and has this property on the market for lease as of 4Q19. For full details, see the case study on this deal.
SOLD 2Q19 (Buyer Representation): Land Sale @ 502 West Third Street, Siler City (Chatham County)
In August 2018, the North Carolina Housing Finance Agency (NCHFA) awarded financing for a 44 unit adaptive reuse project at the prior Henry Siler School. This dense infill development of 2.36 acres is near Siler City’s downtown and will include new construction around historic bones. Sean Dowell represented Third Wave Housing as purchaser and actively assisted with the donation of this declining asset to TWH. This transaction closed in 2Q19. For context and full details, see the case study on this deal.
SOLD 1Q19 (Buyer Representation): Historic Redevelopment of the Mountcastle Knitting Company / Dixie Furniture Company Showroom @ 313 South Railroad Street, Lexington (Davidson County).
In 1Q19, Sean Dowell represented a private investment group in the purchase of this approx. 60,000 SF historic redevelopment property. Entitlement of this asset will occur in 2019 with actual site developing to occur in late 1019 / 2020. This was an off market transaction in which DCR and purchaser worked with municipal ownership for purchase of this property. Asset is part of an over one million square foot, mixed use redevelopment of Lexington’s CBD “uptown” district. For more information, see March 2019 press. DCR continues its involvement with this asset into 2020 and is the listing agent for available space.
SOLD 4Q18 (Seller Representation): Historic Redevelopment of Granite Mill @ Haw River (Alamance County)
In December 2018, DCR sold this antebellum 260K+ SF historic mill for $1,200,000. This larger 500K SF project took eight years to subdivide, entitle, and reposition. These efforts resulted in ten+ commercial transactions. The loss of historic tax credits in NC delayed this related historic property sale by numerous years. For background information, see the initial Case Study (2011 – 2014), Triad Business Journal on Sept 12, 2017 press, and a later project update published July 10, 2018. Original flyer at Haw River Flyer (Historic). In this transaction DCR represented owners D.H. Griffin, Rosemarie Williams, and the Peeples family; the purchaser did not have brokerage representation. By 2021, this property is developed into the Lofts on the Haw River mixed use project.
4Q17: The Tax Cut & Jobs Act lowers the syndicated value of historic tax credits, making historic deals more difficult to complete.
SOLD 4Q17 (Seller Representation): Historic Redevelopment of the Gibsonville School @ 401 East Joyner Street, Gibsonville (Guilford County)
After six years and through the combined efforts of the Gibsonville Museum & Historical Society Inc and Preservation North Carolina, this property was sold to a preservationist. This 48,804 SF building was built in 1923 and was on the national register at time of sale. This building sale was hampered by NC’s removal of historic tax credits, the later uncertain tax credit syndication market (due to federal tax reform), and also by increasing construction costs. All the while, the asset simultaneous declined in condition due to roof collapse and water penetration. In true historic development form, a team with exceptional commitment pushed this boulder uphill until a solution was found.
SOLD 2Q17 (Seller Representation) Historic Redevelopment of Proximity Printworks Mill @ 1700 Fairview Street, Greensboro (Guilford County)
Historic rehabilitation of a National Register 1912 building composed of 420,000 SF on 21.18 acres. This Triad metro infill project took two years to contract and entitle via multiple buyer parties. This residential mixed use project will be another quality addition to Greensboro’s Revolution Mills campus. Construction is anticipated in 2018. For more information on this asset, see Printworks Mill Flyer V4 (Feb 2015) or the Printworks Mill website. Please note this flyer shows a subdivision of the Printworks property, which was wholly purchased by one party. This property sale was done in partnership with Born Commercial.
Press: Triad Business Journal Printworks Press (May 25, 2017)
SOLD 4Q16 (Buyer Representation): Historic Redevelopment of the Lambeth Furniture Mill @ 14 East Guilford Street, Thomasville (Davidson County)
Represented by Dowell Commercial Realty, Third Wave Housing purchased an approx. 150,000 SF historic 1913 mill for a multi-family project. Construction for this property starts in 2017 and takes 12-16 months. Asset is developed in Big Chair Lofts.
Press: The Dispatch of Davidson County Reporting (March 23, 2016)
SOLD 3Q16 (Buyer Representation): Historic Redevelopment of the Dr. Dick House @ 515 Church Street, Gibsonville (Guilford County)
Represented by Dowell Commercial Realty, local historian Jerry Nix purchased a 1910 historic property for rehabilitation. The 3,704 SF Dr. Dick house has prior been used as Barlett’s Funeral Home (approx. 1960 – 2000s) and has been vacant for the last decade. It’s future use is yet to be determined and the asset may develop into further commercial uses and/or back to a residential use as originally built for. In the past Mr. Nix has historically rehabilitated numerous area residences; his contributions to the salvation of local historic assets cannot be understated.
Property History: Gibsonville Museum & Historic Society Inc Newsletter
SOLD 1Q16 (Seller Representation): Historic Redevelopment of Scott Mebane Mill @ 220 West Harden Street, Graham (Alamance County)
In partnership with Born Commercial, Dowell Commercial participated in the sale of the 1898 National Register Scott Mebane Mill to its neighbor, a church user. Asset is to be developed into additional space for church uses. This 24K SF asset was sold with grandfathered, pre 2015 mill credits and most historic entitlements. For more information on this sold property, see the Born Commercial Flyer (May 2015)
SOLD 4Q15 (Buyer Representation): Historic Redevelopment of the Oneida Mill @ 219 West Harden Street, Graham (Alamance County)
Historic conversion of an 128,000 SF dilapidated mill to a multi-family use. This location was the first-steam powered cotton mill in Alamance County (built 1881). Asset took two year to entitle and finance. Please note this property had no historic entitlement work at initial contracting. Historic entitlement work by itself takes approximately a year. Deal was ultimately purchased in October 2015. Delivery of completed product is expected in 12-16 months following this close.
Press: Times News Development Article (Aug 9, 2015)
SOLD 2Q15 (Seller Representation): Revolution Millhouse @ 2004 Yanceyville Street, Greensboro (Guilford County)
Dowell Commercial Realty represented property ownership of this 180,000 SF national register mill in 2014. This asset was on the market as an investment sale of a 337 unit self storage complex for $1.8 million dollar (a sales price based on NOI from this business). DCR located a reputable, out of market self storage company who contracted this property for $1.6 million dollars in 2014. As this asset was impacted by a chapter 11 disposition case of ownership, this asset could convey to either 1) the note holder / lender (Self Help Credit Union) for satisfaction of debt or 2) be sold to the DCR located purchaser. Settlement of this case was concluded in 1Q/2Q15 and this asset conveyed to the note holder / lender.