Gulf Stream Construction (an affiliate of The Beach Company) completed the third phase of the Murray Blvd. seawall in downtown Charleston, SC. Constructed in 1909, The Battery is a landmark defensive seawall and promenade. It stretches along the lower shores of the Charleston peninsula, bordered by the Ashley and Cooper Rivers, which converge here to form Charleston Harbor. The concrete wall of the Low Battery was built on a timber deck supported by timber pilings. Gulf Stream is leading the charge on the Low Battery seawall repair and restoration efforts. The overall seawall repair project aims to address structural issues, improve accessibility, and account for anticipated sea level rise. Today, the Battery remains one of downtown Charleston’s most visited spots, offering picturesque views of the harbor, historic mansions, and lush gardens. It stands as a testament to the city’s rich history and resilience.
Welcome Letter
The Big Picture Goals
Conserve
Reduce our environmental impact
Construction and operation of buildings account for 39% of global energy-related emissions. Given The Beach Company’s core strength in real estate development, we are in a distinctive position to play a significant role in creating healthy environments for everyone.
Impact
Contribute to the communities in which we operate
As we expand across the Southeast, we continue to discover new opportunities to give back to the communities where we do business. Our goals are to support, serve and improve quality of life, health, housing, arts and education through nonprofit and economic development organizations.
Revitalize
Improve resident and employee health and wellbeing
The Beach Company understands the importance of mental and physical wellbeing and maintaining a healthy work-life balance. We strive to create enriching environments with particular emphasis on health-conscious design and operations in both passive and active ways within our communites and workspaces.
Sustain
Maintain a resilient business infrastructure
To provide long-term shareholder value, The Beach Company must ensure it can achieve meaningful impacts in an ever-changing world. We continually assess and adapt our strategic plan and business practices to meet evolving requirements.
Big Picture Committee
The Beach Company is proud to introduce our Big Picture Committee. This select group is comprised of representatives from all divisions and organizations of The Beach Company and includes top executives as co-chairs. The team is tasked with setting goals, identifying and executing new initiatives, developing policies and procedures and producing the annual Big Picture report. The group will meet quarterly to prioritize initiatives, report on progress for all areas of focus and lead The Beach Company in the pursuit of its goals, ensuring excellence in all pillars.
Our Committee Members
Karen Brewerton
Vice President of Marketing,
The Beach Company
Annika Damstra
Leasing Manager, The Jasper
John Darby
CEO, The Beach Company
Dan Doyle
COO, The Beach Company
Shere Hills
Director of Office Operations,
Gulf Stream Construction
Mackenzie Howe
Development Associate, Kiawah River
Tyler Levy
Finance Associate, The Beach Company
Ward McCarthy
Director of Portfolio Management,
Beach Real Estate Funds
Mike Myjak
Construction Manager, The Beach Company
Marina Rosenstrom
Senior Development Accountant, The Beach Company
Korey Smith
Manager, Special Projects, The Beach Company
Jeff Snyder
Chief Environmental Office, Kiawah River
Louie Soffner
Director of Investor Relations, The Beach Company
2023 Big Picture Award
Jan Nolen
Jan Nolen has been an instrumental part in The Beach Company’s sustainability efforts throughout the past few years. The Sustainability Committee interviewed Jan to get her insights on many of the initiatives that she has helped to implement in our office to help our employees become more conscious of our impact to the environment and our own personal health and wellness.
Conserve
River Rock – A Brownfield Voluntary Clean Up
The River Rock development is comprised of two parcels totaling 2.8 acres in downtown Chattanooga. Since the 1880’s the land has been occupied by single and multifamily residences, a medicine company, a manufacturer of acetylene gas generators, and automotive repair facilities. The land has been a paved asphalt parking lot since 1983 for paid public use. Once The Beach Company purchased the lots, it employed S&ME Environmental to perform Phase I & Phase II Environmental Site Assessments.the ESA’s identified elevated concentrations of volatile organic compounds (VOC’s), polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and extractable petroleum hydrocarbons (EPH) in the soil, VOCs and PAHs in the groundwater and VOCs in the soil gas. The site entered into a Brownfield Voluntary Agreement (BVA) with the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation in May of 2019.
years the site sat as a contaminated parking lot before entering its Brownfield Voluntary Clean Up
Construction: The Beach Company worked with EMJ Construction and McMillan Pazdan Smith Architects to transform the 2.8 acres of asphalt parking lot into two new city blocks comprising 151 high end apartments across four buildings, 12 townhomes, a new parking deck with private and public parking, along with 8 ground floor retail bays, totaling 16,954 square feet. In accordance with the Brownfield Agreement and Soil Management Plan, over 28,565 tons of contaminated material was removed from the site and disposed as special waste at the appropriate landfill. In addition, a 4,500 gallon abandoned underground storage tank was properly removed from the property and the adjacent soils were properly disposed. Further, a vapor mitigation system was installed below the slab-on-grade of every building footprint onsite, two feet of clean cap dirt was placed in all landscaped areas, and all other remaining areas were covered with hardscaped impervious surfaces to further protect the public and residents
Post Construction: The River Rock project seamlessly integrated into the Chattanooga city footprint. The project has received high acclaim from ity residents and the architectural and design community of Chattanooga. The brick facades provide a timeless look that will age gracefully. River Rock is now two living, breathing city blocks that provide a unique city atmosphere, but allow tenants to feel at home in their little corner of Chattanooga. They also have access to an onsite fitness center, pool, and clubroom. The Tennessee River is a short walk away, where they can launch a canoe, kayak, or stand-up paddle board for aquatic adventures. River Rock has incredible walkability / biking opportunities to downtown restaurants, breweries, the aquarium, and the Walnut Street pedestrian bridge which allows access to both sides of the Tennessee River for shopping and dining.
Awards – EMJ was awarded The BRIC Award for Excellence in Commercial Construction by the Chattanooga based professional organization in architecture, construction, engineering, and design.
tons of contaminated material was removed from the site
Partnerships
This year we welcomed Brightworks Sustainability to our partnership team. One of the first sustainability consulting firms in the United States, they bring deep subject matter expertise, advanced technical resources, and creative solutions to our program. With their support, we will continue to refine our program to move towards our sustainability goals, reduce our environmental footprint, and improve our operational performance.
Energy Star Portfolio Manager (ESPM) is an interactive tool which allows property owners to track their buildings’ energy use and benchmark usage to other comparable buildings. By tracking energy use, we can identify outstanding energy efficiency performers in our portfolio to make smart energy-reduction and capital improvement decisions. The Beach Company is currently in the integration phase with over 30 properties across our various portfolios. We look forward to announcing our included properties in next year’s Big Picture Report. You can learn more about ESPM here.
Gulf Stream Construction
Gulf Stream Construction, an affiliate of The Beach Company, is a full service general site contractor serving South Carolina and Coastal Georgia maintaining a roster of over 350 employees.
Gulf Stream Concrete Recycling 44 tons in 2023
The video above shows how Gulf Stream recycles concrete through the following process:
1. Construction concrete debris is stockpiled.
2. The debris is later loaded in a concrete crusher.
3. The crusher separates out steel and dirt.
4. The concrete is crushed until it reaches an approved DOT gradation
5. The crushed concrete is stockpiled and or/ delivered to a job for use as base.
Gulf Environmental
The vac truck of Gulf Environmental are used to hydro-excavate, jett, or clean sewer lines in a efficient manner
Environmentally Friendly Transportation
EV stations operational throughout our development portfolio
percent of our new developments include bike stations
Kiawah River Farms
Kiawah River is a master planned community set in the lowcountry’s sea islands planned by The Beach Company. Kiawah River Farms has been a leader in promoting regenerative measures and farming. Promotion of these measures can be seen in many projects currently being utilized or explored to reduce our environmental impacts to the region:
Impact
Volunteer Programs
Beach Cleanup
In honor of the very same beach where the Beach Company was founded in 1945, we had 32 volunteers go out to the Isle of Palms beach. In one hour, our team successfully picked up over 600 items and pieces of trash off of the beach, totaling over 44 lbs. of waste.
Red Cross Blood Drives
The Jasper hosted three Blood Drives in 2023 in hopes of adding even a small amount of blood to the quickly diminishing national supply. Two of the blood drives were held with The American Red Cross and one was held with The Blood Connection. As a result of the three blood drives, The Beach Company had 51 employee donations totaling 47 units of blood which could potentially help impact or save the lives of nearly 105 individuals.
Operation Home
Operation home has been serving the Tricounty Charleston community for 27 years, serving more than 1,000 families annually by providing critical home repair services, wheelchair ramp installations, and heating and cooling relief programs. In April of 2023, 15 total Beach Co. employees spent a total of 90 volunteer hours to build wheelchair ramps at the homes of two different families.
Colonial Lake Cleanup
In October of 2023, 23 Beach Co. employees joined the Charleston Parks Conservancy team at Colonial Lake, a tidal pond in The Jasper’s community backyard. Our team donated nearly 50 volunteer hours helping to dig up invasive plants that were growing in the flower beds, allowing for the natural beauty of the lake’s landscaping to continue to thrive.
Windwood Farm
Windwood Farm is a property in Awendaw, SC that serves boys ages 6-16 who have or are experiencing abuse, neglect, or have behavioral issues, and the family services team strives to help provide help, hope and healing for those children. Our 16 Beach Co. employees offered some physical labor for property upkeep, providing 48 total volunteer hours to help keep the Farm in its best physical condition.
Big Brother Big Sister
Food Bank
Habitat For Humanity
Meals On Wheels
Ronald McDonald House
Charitable Contributions Committee
HABITAT FOR HUMANITY
team members
hours worked on building a home in North Charleston
LOWCOUNTRY FOOD BANK
team members
hours worked to package potatoes for delivery
FALL FOOD DRIVE
pounds of turkey donated
As we expand across the Southeast, we continue to discover new opportunities to give back to the communities where we conduct business. Through nonprofit and economic development organizations, employee-driven company funding and supporting the arts, our goals are to support, serve and improve quality of life, health, education and housing.
Featured Community Partners
The Arts
The Beach Company is committed to incorporating community art throughout its portfolio.
“The concept here was centered around the idea that herons are solitary creatures except where they choose to nest – they will nest in pairs and colonies. I wanted to exhibit the herons in a way that showed they were friendly towards each other, playfully lounging in the eddy currents of the river. Promoting a sense of happiness, joy, and home – “The Eddy” they are wading in becomes their home.” – Kyle Harrell aka Humble
The Emanuel Nine Memorial
The Beach Company, through its CEO, John Darby, helped create the Mother Emanuel Memorial Foundation after the church’s tragedy on June 17, 2015. John now serves as co-Chair of the Foundation along with the pastor of the Mother Emanuel AME church, Reverend Eric S.C. Manning. Tasked with building a Memorial to remember the nine victims and five survivors of the tragedy the Foundation broke ground on the Emanuel Nine Memorial on July 22, 2023 which marked a profound moment of remembrance and hope.
Standing together, family members of the Emanuel Nine expressed their heartfelt aspirations for the Memorial, envisioning a place that unites people to confront their differences, reverse hate, put an end to gun violence, and work toward justice with resolute love and compassion.
Malcolm Graham, brother of the late Cynthia Graham Hurd, said “As Cynthia would say, keep the faith, do the work.” Continue to follow @emanuel9memorial on Instagram for updates on the Memorial throughout the journey.
Kiawah River Community Activities
Kiawah River Farms provides access to several forms of agriculture to their community. Through events and agritourism, individuals and organizations can connect with both farms and the environment. This access will grow the next generation to support the environment and have a greater long-term social impact.
Fields to Family
Fields to Family is a non-profit organization that gleans produce from Rosebank Farm to feed individuals with food insecurity.
GOAT 5K
GOAT 5k provides families the opportunities to explore the beauty of Kiawah River and learn about local food sourcing.
Sweet Potato Festival
Sweet Potato Festival provides Kiawah River residents access to harvesting their own food and learning great recipes to enjoy with ALL.
Revitalize
% of employees said that they place a high level of importance on their health and wellness
% of employees have participated in one or more of the group volunteer programs offered in 2023.
% of employees walk to lunch or for leisure/breaks at least 1 day a week
% of employees use a fitness offering within The Jasper
AI Presentation Day
On November 13, The Beach Company hosted an artificial intelligence expert to learn about how this powerful technology works, its capabilities, and how we can use it to improve our business. Steve Schmidt, currently the Director of AI at Nike, spent the morning briefing a swath of employees on the interworking of the technology and helping answer our many questions around its potential in changing our company and the world.
First Aid Training
On November 29, The Beach Company had 14 employees received their American Red Cross First Aid / CPR / AED Certification through a program hosted at our headquarters.
employees certified
Kiawah River Sports Park
The Kiawah River Sports Park open in October 2023. The park includes a large and a small dog park, a playground and zipline, 6 pickleball courts, 1 tennis court, and a large playing field.
Sustain
On Nov. 30, Multi-Housing News held its 17th annual Excellence Awards ceremony, honoring some of the year’s most outstanding multifamily developments, business strategies and professionals.
During the event, hosted at Resource Furniture in New York City, MHN awarded a total of 87 gold, silver and bronze awards in 34 different categories.
Best Operations
Gold: Channel Club, The Bainbridge Companies
Silver: Minneola Hills, The Bainbridge Companies
Bronze: The Jasper, The Beach Company
Best ESG Program
Gold: Veris Residential
Silver: AIR Communities
Bronze: The Beach Company
2024 – 2028 Strategic Plan Highlight
In 2023, The Beach Company created its new 5 Year Strategic Plan to cover the years 2024 – 2028. This year long process made use of a variety of different Committees to spread out planning responsibilities across the entire organization. Each Committee was responsible for the future planning of a specific subject matter pertinent to the organization. Committee topics included everything from Financial Objectives, New Opportunities, Culture, and committees for individual business and operational units. We are proud to have completed the Strategic Plan exercise after receiving input from everyone across the organization.
The Beach Company Board of Directors
The Beach Company has been guided by an independent Board of Directors since the late 1990s and is comprised of prominent member sof the business community from across the country. The Board approves all major investments. This ensures each decision made by The Beach Company is vetted through a rigorous process of checks and balances. Throughout 2023, The Beach Company will focus on its Strategic Plan which will lead the company over the ensuing five years. The Board of Directors will oversee the Strategic Plan and confirm the strategies and performance expectations are met.
John C. L. Darby
President, CEO, Chairman
The Beach Company
25 Years
Shareholder
Willington Freeman
VP, Director of Beach Residential
Beach Company Residential
New Member
Shareholder
Michael L. Schwarz
Partner
Woodfield Investments
23 Years
William G. Taylor
President – Advisor
The Springs Company
14 Years
George E. Covucci – Retired
Real Estate Consulting
13 Years
Patricia L. “Tricia” Noble
Managing Director & Co-Founder
Ascentris
New Member
Hilary B. Provinse
Executive Vice President – Production and Capital Markets
Berkadia
New Member
J. Darryl Reyna – Retired
Advisor
former COO / CFO of The Beach Company
Gulf Stream Training
High tech: This year Gulf Stream installed a state-of-the-art equipment simulator at their facility. It can simulate 6 different types of heavy equipment, ranging from dump trucks to excavators. Incorporating this type of technology allows Gulf Stream to test new hires and cross-train veteran workers on new equipment. To date, 16 employees have used the simulator, logging over 160 cumulative hours.
employees
hours
Low tech: Gulf Stream uses the sandbox to optimize site logistic patterns which help ensure safe and efficient equipment and personnel movement across all their different job types
Steward
The Factory at GARCO
From Space Suits to Apartment Suites
Garco Park is a 41.6-acre site situated in North Charleston, South Carolina within the now burgeoning Park Circle community. Historically, the site was home to the General Asbestos and Rubber Company, a major employment center in the Charleston area in the early 1900s. At the time of operations, it supplied products to the American Space Program and the military during the World Wars. The company discontinued operations and was sold in the 1990s. Afterwards, several independent companies took tenancy in the industrial buildings. Eventually, the Beach company purchased the site out of a federal bankruptcy proceeding in 2002.
Environmental Remediation: Given prior uses, the land on which Garco Park was built was placed into South Carolina Department of Environmental Health and Control’s Voluntary Cleanup Program and The Beach Company entered a Voluntary Cleanup Contract (VCC). As part of the management plan, The Beach Company excavated old soil and backfilled with new soils in heavily contaminated areas. The Beach Company’s goal for Garco Park was to completely revitalize the site. The industrial Brownfield would be returned to productive use, enhancing the community’s health and welfare, encouraging further revitalization of the neighborhood at large, and attracting economically viable and sustainable land uses.
Construction: After the initial environmental remediation and demolition of the 45 industrial buildings, The Beach Company undertook site-wide infrastructure improvements and installation of new public roads, public utilities, and common storm water management systems. Soon after the infrastructure installation, vertical development, and rehabilitation of the Mill Building began. Between 2016 and 2021, several vertical construction projects were completed and Garco Park had been transformed from industrial Brownfield to a productive residential and commercial community. Further, two additional projects are eagerly awaited. The Assembly, a 210-unit apartment complex, is under construction now, and Basic Projects hospitality group plans to build a hospitality-focused mixed-use project on the remaining parcel just south of The Assembly.
Post-Construction: Now, Garco Park is home to several hundred apartment renters, local government offices, private company offices, and retail space. The former industrial site has been completely revitalized, while its roots have not been forgotten. All the new buildings were designed with architectural components reminiscent of the old plant, and the Mill Building was preserved and completely restored for new uses. As population and job growth in Charleston has boomed, residences, as well as professional spaces and government spaces like those in Garco Park have served growing demand. The newly realized Garco Park has integrated seamlessly with the Park Circle neighborhood and more immediate East Montague retail district. With two substantial projects left to go, Garco Park will only continue to develop into a central part of the growing Park Circle community.
Sustainable Development Goals
Aligning with the world
The Beach Company recognizes and aligns our Big Picture initiatives with the United Nations 17 Sustainable Development Goals. This globally recognized framework will help guide our approaches and communicate our goals in a shared language with a broad network of organizations who prioritize enhancing the world in which we live.
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