Photo by John Temple Ligon His company, his property, his deal, his home

By John Temple Ligon

Take Woodrow south of Rosewood, turn left on Holt, right on Adeline, and drive a city block or so to 1014 Adeline Drive, which is the address of The Hangars at Owens Field. Farther down Adeline at Commerce is Allied Van Lines. The Hangars has eight apartments, each with loft storage and private outdoor deck and ample parking.

Location, location, location, as the industry sales staffs say, is Dick’s first description of The Hangars. Less than a mile are the Rosewood services, merchants, and amenities, and in about another mile sit Five Points and USC.

Joab Dick in front of The Hangars on Adeline Street Due for completion and full occupancy before the end of the year, The Hangars has been the brainchild and the vocation of construction company head Joab Dick. Dick lives in the front unit facing Adeline, and he operates his business there as well. The units, one bedroom apartments, average about 1,200 square feet, which is adequate for both home and office.

Joab Dick stands on the unfinished private decks, each with painted steel fencing. The eight apartments are in staggered stages of upfit inside a former hangar with load–bearing masonry walls. Each unit is separately metered, and each is outfitted with posh Bosch appliances.

As a former hangar, the building’s dramatically high ceilings follow the curve of the roof with new wood planking below the over–sized insulation.

The monthly rents begin at $1,000. Prospective tenants can call Dick direct, 513-9354, and the website ApartmentGuide.com carries all the information and plenty of pictures.

High ceiling spaciousness encourages design creativity

Dick, born in 1965 in Milwaukee, graduated high school in Princeton, WV, where he was a varsity player in both football and tennis in a class of 800. He finished USC on the five–year plan in 1989 with a BS in finance. That finance background got a good workout by Dick, the stockbroker, for five years.

After a stint with a 131–foot–yacht crew – he was the “float guy,” the man who managed both engineering and entertainment – Dick moved into construction, specializing in historic preservation.

When the idea of adaptive reuse at The Hangars hit Dick, he had no track record as a developer. A man who did, Columbia’s Don Tomlin, mentored Dick and helped put the deal together with banker Beau Long at Carolina National Bank. City people Fred Delk (director, Columbia Development Corporation) and Gerry Lynn Hall (director, South Columbia Development) were a big help, as was city council member Anne Sinclair.

Dick has stuck his neck out and is personally on the line with this one, but both construction and leasing are moving forward ahead of schedule. He is already positioning himself for his second residential development once all eight units are rented and occupied. The next project appears to be coming in as a condominium building with all the units for sale.

Photo by John Temple Ligon

Photo by ApartmentGuide