Most family businesses don’t survive their second generation of leadership. The Beach Company, Charleston, S. C., is proof that ancestral enterprises can prosper.
Led by President and CEO John C. L. Darby, grandson of founder John Charles “J. C.” Long, the 72-year-old firm has built an impressive legacy as a real estate broker, developer, and property manager throughout South Carolina. With 308 employees, The Beach Company has a growing presence in the Southeast U.S.
Long, who captained the football team at the University of South Carolina, was a prominent personal injury lawyer in Charleston (he brought the state’s first asbestos case) and political figure (he served as a state senator and city alderman). Long formed the company in 1945, shortly after purchasing 1,300 acres on what he later named the Isle of Palms, a barrier island on the South Carolina coast. Inspired by the scenic locale, he chose “The Beach Company” as the business entity’s name.
Long started out developing the island to house soldiers returning from World War II. He kept expanding his real estate holdings, eventually becoming the largest property owner in Charleston County.
John C. L. Darby and Charles S. Way, Jr., pore over blueprints, about 1990.
In the 1970s, illness prompted Long to pass the baton to his son-in-law, real estate lawyer Charles S. Way, Jr. Way led The Beach Company until 1999, when he tapped Darby as his successor. Way continues to be actively involved in the firm as Chairman of the Board.
Since taking the reins, Darby has restructured the company’s Board of Directors to where the majority are not family members. “We’re a family company, but we operate much like a public company—very disciplined and focused,” he says.
A few fourth-generation family members currently work at The Beach Company, but they’ve had to earn their positions like everyone else. “It’s probably more difficult for a family member to get hired than it is for a nonfamily member,” Darby says.
DOUBLING DOWN ON MULTIFAMILY
Over the years, The Beach Company built up a diverse portfolio that encompassed office, retail, mixed-use, and other commercial real estate endeavors. “I used to say, we own everything in real estate—from cemeteries to fishing piers,” says the 79-year-old Way. “Well, we sold the fishing pier, but we still own a few cemeteries.”
In the past decade, the company has tuned its focus to its core multifamily business, notably apartment communities and mixed-use developments. From this foundation, The Beach Company is charting a measured, steady expansion into other mid-size growth markets in the Southeast—Columbia and elsewhere in South Carolina, and Chattanooga and Nashville, Tenn.
In the Music City, two new Beach Company multifamily developments are under construction. In the booming SoBro neighborhood, the Sixth & Lea project will feature 250 rental units and 5,400 sf of commercial space. In West Nashville, the 402-unit Bells Bluff apartment complex is situated on the banks of the scenic Cumberland River.
Alberta Long serves coffee to her husband, J. C., in one of the early custom-made “mobile offices” the company used for site visits to remote projects.
The distinctive design of each property is a Beach Company hallmark. “We don’t repeat the same design from one project to the next,” says Daniel J. Doyle, Senior Vice President of Development. “Everything is customized to its site and community.”
This policy fits in with The Beach Company’s philosophy to take the long view of development. “Our attitude is that once a project is built, it’s a public asset,” says Darby. “People live there, work there, and shop there. That’s something we never lose sight of.”
OVERCOMING ITS SHARE OF OBSTACLES
It hasn’t always been smooth sailing for The Beach Company. In the course of seven decades, the company has had to struggle through numerous economic downturns and recessions. Yet the firm has never defaulted on a mortgage. Nor has it ever failed to deliver at least a reasonable return on investment to its joint venture partners. “Not many folks can say that,” says Darby.
The company has also had to negotiate with various contingents of Charleston citizens who, in their zeal to preserve the city’s charm and historic provenance, have opposed some of the firm’s plans.
For years, The Beach Company has faced opposition to its plan to redevelop the Sergeant Jasper apartment building—the company’s first mixed-use residential development, completed in 1950.
When Charleston’s Board of Architectural Review denied The Beach Company’s redevelopment proposal, in 2015, the company pursued—and ultimately won—a legal appeal that paved the way for The Jasper to finally get going later this year. Positioned on four acres at the entry to Charleston’s historic district, the new 12-story building will offer 218 residential units, 75,000 sf of Class AA A office space, and a mix of retail and dining options.
Doyle says the company remains committed to responsible development that preserves the city’s history while supporting Charleston’s explosive population growth—about 15,000 a year. Economists project that more than 20,000 new jobs will be created in the region over the next two years.
“People will continue to move here, and we need to accommodate that growth and make sure Charleston remains a livable city that will continue to prosper,” Doyle says.
EMBRACING THE COMMUNITY
The Beach Company’s positive impact on the community extends far beyond its real estate enterprises. Many of Charleston’s most treasured community assets were established by family members.
Darby’s father, pediatrician Charles P. Darby, Jr., MD, founded the Medical University of South Carolina Children’s Hospital. Darby’s sister, Ann Darby Parker, established the Children’s Museum of the Lowcountry. Way, who served as the Palmetto State’s Secretary of Commerce from 1999 to 2002, is Chairman of the Board of Trustees at South Carolina State University, a historically black college.
McMillan Pazdan Smith (architect) and Seamon Whiteside (CE, landscape architect) led the design of Main and Stone, in downtown Greenville, S. C., a mixed-use development of 292 apartment units and 20,800 sf of retail/commercial space. The new “urban epicenter” connects three of Greenville’s Historic District neighborhoods in the fashionable North Main area. Greenville, once known as the Textile Capital of the World, is home to the North American headquarters of Michelin.
“One of the things passed on from generation to generation is the idea of serving your community—whether it’s healthcare, education, the arts, or economic development,” says Darby. “We’re known as much for those activities as we are for our development work.”
Darby and his fellow third-generation family members (known as “the G3s”) are committed to ensuring that the family’s history and legacy are embraced by all staff members. It’s a responsibility he believes is crucial to The Beach Company’s enduring success—and a fitting tribute to founder J. C. Long, who died in 1984.
“I think J. C. would be very pleased that family members are so proud of their affiliation with the company,” Darby says.
Related Stories
| Mar 22, 2011
Mayor Bloomberg unveils plans for New York City’s largest new affordable housing complex since the ’70s
Plans for Hunter’s Point South, the largest new affordable housing complex to be built in New York City since the 1970s, include new residences for 5,000 families, with more than 900 in this first phase. A development team consisting of Phipps Houses, Related Companies, and Monadnock Construction has been selected to build the residential portion of the first phase of the Queens waterfront complex, which includes two mixed-use buildings comprising more than 900 housing units and roughly 20,000 square feet of new retail space.
| Mar 17, 2011
Perkins Eastman launches The Green House prototype design package
Design and architecture firm Perkins Eastman is pleased to join The Green House project and NCB Capital Impact in announcing the launch of The Green House Prototype Design Package. The Prototype will help providers develop small home senior living communities with greater efficiency and cost savings—all to the standards of care developed by The Green House project.
| Mar 11, 2011
Renovation energizes retirement community in Massachusetts
The 12-year-old Edgewood Retirement Community in Andover, Mass., underwent a major 40,000-sf expansion and renovation that added 60 patient care beds in the long-term care unit, a new 17,000-sf, 40-bed cognitive impairment unit, and an 80-seat informal dining bistro.
| Mar 11, 2011
Mixed-income retirement community in Maryland based on holistic care
The Green House Residences at Stadium Place in Waverly, Md., is a five-story, 40,600-sf, mixed-income retirement community based on a holistic continuum of care concept developed by Dr. Bill Thomas. Each of the four residential floors houses a self-contained home for 12 residents that includes 12 bedrooms/baths organized around a common living/social area called the “hearth,” which includes a kitchen, living room with fireplace, and dining area.
| Mar 11, 2011
Texas A&M mixed-use community will focus on green living
HOK, Realty Appreciation, and Texas A&M University are working on the Urban Living Laboratory, a 1.2-million-sf mixed-use project owned by the university. The five-phase, live-work-play project will include offices, retail, multifamily apartments, and two hotels.
| Mar 1, 2011
How to make rentals more attractive as the American dream evolves, adapts
Roger K. Lewis, architect and professor emeritus of architecture at the University of Maryland, writes in the Washington Post about the rising market demand for rental housing and how Building Teams can make these properties a desirable choice for consumer, not just an economically prudent and necessary one.
| Feb 15, 2011
New Orleans' rebuilt public housing architecture gets mixed reviews
The architecture of New Orleans’ new public housing is awash with optimism about how urban-design will improve residents' lives—but the changes are based on the idealism of an earlier era that’s being erased and revised.
| Feb 11, 2011
Chicago high-rise mixes condos with classrooms for Art Institute students
The Legacy at Millennium Park is a 72-story, mixed-use complex that rises high above Chicago’s Michigan Avenue. The glass tower, designed by Solomon Cordwell Buenz, is mostly residential, but also includes 41,000 sf of classroom space for the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and another 7,400 sf of retail space. The building’s 355 one-, two-, three-, and four-bedroom condominiums range from 875 sf to 9,300 sf, and there are seven levels of parking. Sky patios on the 15th, 42nd, and 60th floors give owners outdoor access and views of Lake Michigan.
| Feb 11, 2011
Sustainable community center to serve Angelinos in need
Harbor Interfaith Services, a nonprofit serving the homeless and working poor in the Harbor Area and South Bay communities of Los Angeles, engaged Withee Malcolm Architects to design a new 15,000-sf family resource center. The architects, who are working pro bono for the initial phase, created a family-centered design that consolidates all programs into a single building. The new three-story space will house a resource center, food pantry, nursery and pre-school, and administrative offices, plus indoor and outdoor play spaces and underground parking. The building’s scale and setbacks will help it blend with its residential neighbors, while its low-flow fixtures, low-VOC and recycled materials, and energy-efficient mechanical equipment and appliances will help it earn LEED certification.
| Feb 11, 2011
Apartment complex caters to University of Minnesota students
Twin Cities firm Elness Swenson Graham Architects designed the new Stadium Village Flats, in the University of Minnesota’s East Bank Campus, with students in mind. The $30 million, six-story residential/retail complex will include 120 furnished apartments with fitness rooms and lounges on each floor. More than 5,000 sf of first-floor retail space and two levels of below-ground parking will complete the complex. Opus AE Group Inc., based in Minneapolis, will provide structural engineering services.
