The flex market in Spartanburg is different from Charlotte or Raleigh. In those cities, flex space gets filled by a mix of contractors, e-commerce companies, and random small businesses. In Spartanburg, the dominant tenants are small manufacturers and tier-two/tier-three suppliers. And that changes the whole dynamic.
That’s a really good thing for property owners, by the way. These tenants tend to stick. They’ve got equipment bolted to the floor. They’ve got relationships with customers nearby. Moving is expensive and disruptive. When a machining shop sets up in a 5,000 SF flex bay with three-phase power and a bridge crane, they’re not going anywhere for a while. I’ve seen tenants stay 10-15 years in the same bay. Try getting that kind of tenure from an e-commerce tenant in Charlotte.
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**Power Infrastructure**: Verify three-phase availability before acquiring. If you lack it, upgrade costs will compress your cap rate. -
**Tenant Profile**: Manufacturing and fabrication tenants are stickier than contractors. Price accordingly, assuming lower turnover than metro markets. -
**Location Within Spartanburg**: Highway 290, I-85 corridors, and areas near supplier clusters command premium pricing. Remote Spartanburg locations are harder to lease.
Who fills flex space in Spartanburg
BMW has over 40 suppliers in the Upstate. Not all of them need 100,000 SF buildings. A lot of the smaller ones — the companies making brackets, seals, small assemblies, specialty coatings — need 3,000-15,000 SF. That’s flex. An office up front for the sales and admin team, shop floor in the back with the CNC machines and assembly benches. These aren’t giant operations but they’re profitable and they’re essential to the supply chain.
What Supports Stronger Pricing
- Three-phase power ready and tested
- 18-20 foot ceiling height minimum
- Located near BMW supplier clusters or I-85 corridor
- Multi-tenant bays appealing to small manufacturers
- Good dock access and truck maneuvering space
What Gives Buyers Leverage
- Single-tenant buildings with limited user pool
- Buildings without three-phase or requiring costly upgrades
- Low ceiling heights (under 16 feet)
- Poor highway access or remote location
- Tenants on short-term leases with high turnover
Advanced Ceramic Coatings just committed $27.8 million and 72 jobs in Spartanburg County. FabLogix put $9.8 million in with 150 jobs. These are the kinds of companies that fill flex space. And for every one of them that makes the news, there are five or ten smaller operations that don’t. The ones making $2M-10M in revenue, employing 8-30 people, renting a couple of bays in a flex park. Collectively, they’re the backbone of Spartanburg’s commercial real estate market.
| Typical Spartanburg Flex Tenants | Size Needed | Key Requirements |
|---|---|---|
| Tier-two auto suppliers | 5,000-15,000 SF | Three-phase power, loading, crane |
| Small manufacturers | 3,000-10,000 SF | Power, ventilation, dock or grade |
| Specialty fabricators | 2,000-8,000 SF | High ceilings, roll-up doors |
| Service contractors | 1,500-4,000 SF | Bay door, small office, yard |
What makes Spartanburg flex different
Power. I keep coming back to this. Three-phase power is standard for flex in Spartanburg because the tenants actually need it. In Charlotte, maybe half the flex tenants are running anything that requires more than single-phase. Here, it’s closer to 80%. A building without three-phase is at a real disadvantage. You lose the manufacturer and supplier tenants entirely, and those are the best tenants in the market.
The other difference is ceiling height expectations. Spartanburg flex tenants tend to want a little more height than a typical contractor bay. Eighteen feet minimum for anyone doing manufacturing. Twenty to twenty-four feet preferred. They’re running overhead cranes, stacking materials, operating equipment that needs vertical clearance. A 12-foot clear flex building is fine for a landscaping company but it won’t work for a parts manufacturer. And in Spartanburg, parts manufacturers are the dominant tenant type.
Related: Growth Drivers of Greenville-Spartanburg
What I’m buying
Flex buildings in Spartanburg between 5,000 and 30,000 SF. Multi-tenant parks with small bays are great. Single-tenant flex where the user is a manufacturer or supplier — also great. The I-85 corridor from Duncan to the BMW plant is the sweet spot, but I’ll look at anything in the county that has decent access and the right building specs.
I bought a six-unit flex building near Highway 290 in Duncan a while back. Five of the six tenants were some type of manufacturing or fabrication operation. Average tenure was four years. That kind of stability is worth paying for, and it’s something you find in Spartanburg that you don’t always get in other markets. These tenants aren’t shopping around on Craigslist every 12 months. They’re focused on running their business.
For more on the broader manufacturing ecosystem here, check out my piece on top employers in Spartanburg County and the BMW effect.
Seller takeaway
If you own flex space in Spartanburg and want to understand your product’s real market position, call Roth Capital at 704-600-3839. We buy here regularly and know which locations and specs command premium values.
Thinking about selling your flex building? I’d love to take a look at it. 704-600-3839.
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