Broughton Commercial Properties, located at 2015 OH-821 in Marietta, Ohio, is an expansive business park with 25 buildings divided into four different complexes. George Broughton, owner of the business park, selected Morton Buildings years ago to partner with for the construction of all the evergreen and white buildings on the property.
“We built our first building, a 3000 square-foot building, I liked it, and we’ve used it from day one. The clients like it and they associate this color scheme with me,” said Broughton. “We’ve added on and most of the buildings have basically been expanded, so the original building is now larger based on client requirements.”
“We found with Morton, we’ve added the large openings, big headers, a lot of natural light in my buildings. We put these windows that don’t open high up in the building so you can walk in and shop and don’t have to turn the lights on. It’s nice because you’re competing with older buildings and I’ve found I’m able to be competitive with shop-type settings in addition to office-type settings here on the complex.”
That attention to detail has paid off. Broughton runs at about an impressive 98% occupancy level, due to various construction projects occurring on the property.
“We generally do one or two buildings a year, including additions, changes, or modifications. The concept of a business park really lends itself to Morton because the consistency, a lot of business parks look maybe not as sharp as they could be, and people want to rent from me,” said Broughton. “Like Morton, they might not be the cheapest, but they allow me to get a better price from my product, which is what I’ve looking for and they’re good to work with. They do recognize that it’s important to take care of the customer, and even the truck driver delivering the building is very courteous and polite. And it’s been fun working with them.”
And how did the partnership begin between Broughton and Morton?
“The nice thing about Morton is they recognized that there was a business opportunity working with me, so they brought me out to Morton, Illinois, and met with the engineering department and kind of explained code issues,” said Broughton. “I worked with a local engineer here and between the two we could basically assure the client that we could do what we said we were going to do and make the timeline requested and that’s critical.”
The building process now for a new building or modifications has become efficient and smooth.
“When they come on the site, they are very respectful with their conduct and also I have an excellent salesman I work with from Morton. The Morton salesman tells me what’s available, different things I’ve never used before like fixtures, finishes I’ve never used, he’ll keep me informed on that,” said Broughton. “But we’ll basically go through a preplanning meeting, do a layout, the client signs off on the layout, then we build it, then we’ll give them a specific date they can move.”
Together, they have been able to accommodate requests that help to retain clients in the business park. Examples of some client-specific features that have been added to a building include an exercise facility, an event area for employees to have Christmas parties, a record storage area that had to be fireproof, and a large conference area with meetings for 50-60 people.
“Their (Morton) standardization is excellent, so that buildings do not vary so I can add on to buildings and it doesn’t look like I added on to a building and that’s really critical. They (the clients) know it’s a quality product. Morton’s been very good at adapting to the marketplace for me, and I can’t speak enough for the engineering.”
To see more photos and learn more about this business park, click here.
