The world’s oldest ceiling fan company renewed a long-term lease for its headquarters, earning a 2023 CoStar Impact Award for lease of the year in the Memphis, Tennessee, market, as judged by a panel of local commercial real estate experts.
The company was founded in 1886 in New York, converting a shotgun factory into a ceiling fan operation. Hunter Fan moved its manufacturing plant to Memphis in 1946 to take advantage of industrial expansion in the South after World War II.
New York City-based management and holding company Griffon Corp. bought Hunter Fan last year for $845 million and kept the headquarters in the Memphis area.
The Goodlett Farms Business Campus in Cordova, a Memphis suburb, is located just one mile from Interstate 40, giving employees easy access to downtown Memphis and other parts of the area.
In the Memphis market, where office leasing is weaker compared to the overall U.S., this deal shows a positive trend for the city’s office market.
About the deal: Hunter Fan Co. signed a lease for 60,075 square feet for the third and fourth floors of the building.
What the judges said: “This submarket has lost some of its occupants in recent history to other submarkets,” said Brand Cook, a senior associate with CBRE. “Hunter Fan's recommitment is not only vital to this building but also strengthens the entire Goodlett Farms corridor.”
They made it happen: Ron Riley of Colliers Management Services and Larry Jensen of Cushman & Wakefield.