INNER STRENGTH: Focusing on red-hot neighborhoods near Charlotte s center city is the latest twist for a nimble development firm.

• Author: Since, Kerry

On a sunny, blue-skied fall day, Mike Harrell of Beacon Partners stands on the eighth floor of The RailYard Southend, a 330,000-square-foot mixed-use project under construction that he is overseeing. With a wave of his arm, he points and names other office buildings in the area: Southborough, 1616 Center, Park Avenue, the Boxer Building, Cedar Hill, Dunavant Corners and the Fowler Building, all owned by Beacon.

The RailYard, its newest project, is designed to have an older warehouse feel, built out of red and black brick and displaying steel beams and high ceilings. There are arches mimicking those seen on railway roundhouses, floor-to-ceiling glass and an outdoor plaza. Plans call for retail shops and restaurants and 400-squarefoot micro apartments to be built on-site.

It is the biggest office project to date for Beacon, one of North Carolina's most active developers and a big beneficiary in the soaring demand for office space in more dense, less suburban neighborhoods. The company often builds speculatively, meaning there are no guaranteed tenants, but its leaders believe in doing homework and intimately knowing their markets. The strategy paid off this summer with the $88.5 million sale of Beacon's 500 East Morehead office building about 18 months after it opened in Charlotte's Dilworth neighborhood. New York-based Zurich Alternative Asset Management paid nearly $500 per square foot, one of the highest multiples in Charlotte's history, according to the HHF Inc. commercial real-estate company.

The RailYard is also a testament to the vision and staying power of the two men who started the company three decades ago with a simple goal of "owning buildings." There have been bumps along the way thanks to the Great Recession and considerable fine-tuning of focus over the years. But Beacon hasn't wavered.

"We're creatures of habit. We love to do deals," says co-founder and managing partner Pete Lash. "We just go do deals."

Lash and Ed Weisiger Jr., scion of a prominent Charlotte family, founded Beacon nearly 30 years ago after working together in commercial real estate in Raleigh. Since that time, Beacon has steadily grown its portfolio of office and industrial buildings and is among the first to bring new, midrise office space to South End. The neighborhood adjoining downtown Charlotte has become an apartment and craft-brewery hot spot, with more than 75% of its 9,000-plus residents under 35, according to the Historic South End booster group. Last year, Beacon was the sixth-largest commercial real-estate developer in the region, ranked by local square feet developed in 2017, according to Charlotte Business Journal.

In 1989, Weisiger bought a piece of land in north Charlotte, and Lash visited for a look. He spent one day in town meeting with Weisiger's family, who own Caterpillar franchisee Carolina Tractor & Equipment Co., and quickly realized Charlotte and the Southeast offered opportunity. With a handshake, a good gut feeling and...