Pictured from left: Garland Hughes, Brad Murr, Eric Nichols, Jim Merrifield, Bailey Patrick and Steve Vermillion
Merrifield Patrick and The Carolina Group, two of Charlotte’s leading real estate firms have announced they will merge operations into one company to be named Merrifield Patrick Vermillion. The combined company will continue to provide development, brokerage, property management and investment services for commercial real estate.
“This merger will allow both companies to expand their current operations” said Jim Merrifield, managing partner of Merrifield Patrick. “The Carolina Group will bring a retail capability to our group which, when combined with our land, office and industrial operation, will allow us to truly become a full service commercial real estate company.”
The partners of Merrifield Patrick, Jim Merrifield and Bailey Patrick, have long been associated with The Carolina Group partners, Steve Vermillion, Brad Murr, Eric Nichols and Garland Hughes. Steve Vermillion stated, “Garland and I spent several years associated with Jim while at Crosland. We have a great deal of respect for both Jim and Bailey and we are very excited about this opportunity. It will provide us with new opportunities for growth during a very difficult economy.”
This merger comes shortly after Merrifield merged operations with Patrick. “While challenging, we all feel that the next three to five years in our business will present tremendous opportunity” stated Bailey Patrick. “Adding a retail sector will be a strong compliment to our current focus on the land, industrial and office sectors.”
Over the past twenty years, the partners of the new firm have been associated with some of the area’s most well known developments including Whitehall in southwest Charlotte, StoneCrest in south Charlotte and Birkdale Village and NorthCross in Huntersville. In addition, Patrick has brokered sites for numerous properties including Sun City at Carolina Lakes by Pulte-Del Webb, Springfield in Fort Mill by Crescent Resources, McCullough in Pineville by John Wieland Homes and Stone Creek Ranch off Tom Short Road by Centex Homes, and has been recognized as one of the leading land brokers in the community for years. The combined firm will continue to represent AAA Carolinas, AAA Mid-Atlantic and AAA Auto Club South with their expansion program from New Jersey to Florida. Current retail properties under development include Mill Creek Village in Southern Pines and Merriman Avenue East in Asheville, both of which include Harris Teeter as the anchor tenant.
As a combined firm, the company will manage over 1.75 million square feet of commercial property and has some 200 properties currently listed.
The new firm will consist of thirty people including Mike Bilodeau, Ian Bruce, Ken Chapman, Catherine Craven, J.Q. Freeman, Justin Holofchak, Robby Kirby, Keely Lane, George Macon, Nolan Mills, Mark Newell, Des Roberts, Billy Thomas and Stephen Woodard.
