South Carolina office is concentrated across Charleston, Greenville-Spartanburg, Columbia, and Myrtle Beach, with materially different lender appetite by submarket and tenant credit profile. Charleston is anchored by widebody aircraft final assembly in North Charleston, the Port of Charleston (one of the deepest container ports on the East Coast, South Carolina Ports Authority, 2024), Joint Base Charleston, the Medical University of South Carolina, and a deep tourism economy; Greenville-Spartanburg is anchored by the Spartanburg County automotive assembly plant (one of the largest in the world by output), a tire manufacturer's North American headquarters, and a deep automotive supplier base; Columbia is anchored by the University of South Carolina, state government, Fort Jackson, and Prisma Health . Charleston Class A office anchored by aerospace-supplier and MUSC tenancy and Greenville-Spartanburg Class A office anchored by automotive-supplier and tire-headquarters tenancy each have distinct lender pools; Columbia state-government and university office is steady.
Active capital sources
- Life Companies
- CMBS Lenders
- South Carolina Regional Banks
- National Debt Funds
Loan programs we place
- Stabilized Class A Perm Debt
- Credit-Tenant Office Financing
- Office Bridge / Repositioning Capital
- Refinance / Recapitalization
Source notes
- BLS QCEW, 2025
Frequently asked questions
What is the current LTV for Charleston office assets?
Long-WALT credit-tenant Class A office typically clears 55% to 65% LTV through life companies and CMBS, supported by tenant credit and weighted-average-lease-term sizing . Conventional speculative office is meaningfully more selective and frequently sizes to debt yields of 10.0% or higher rather than headline LTV.
Is non-recourse debt available for South Carolina office?
Yes for stabilized institutional executions. Life-company, CMBS, and most national debt-fund executions on long-WALT credit-tenant office are non-recourse with standard bad-boy carve-outs. Smaller-balance regional bank loans, most office bridge loans, and conversion / repositioning loans typically carry partial recourse, particularly for newer sponsors or during repositioning lease-up periods.
What is South Carolina's transfer tax structure for commercial office?
South Carolina imposes a state deed recording fee of $1.85 per $500 of consideration (0.37%) on commercial transactions. There is no statewide mortgage tax. Combined transfer tax burden of roughly 0.37% of consideration is moderate by Southeast standards. The state's commercial assessment ratio of 6.0% (versus 4.0% owner-occupied residential) is a more material ongoing-cost variable than the transfer tax.
Is conventional Charleston CBD office still financeable?
Yes for stabilized Class A with strong tenancy, capital-reserve adequacy, and credible long-term tenant retention assumptions, but the lender pool is meaningfully narrower than for life-sciences, GSA-leased, or single-credit-tenant net-leased product. Smaller deals (under $50M) frequently come down to a competitive process between in-state regional banks and a couple of life-company correspondent shops. Office-to-residential conversion bridge debt is available through a focused subset of debt funds active on South Carolina files for sponsors with experienced conversion track records.