Profile: Building on Commerce: Pryor Bacon Jr.

Pryor Bacon Jr. began his career at age 13 working as a carpenter's helper building houses for his father, who was known as Big Pryor. By age 15, the younger Bacon was driving a dump truck on work sites.

As the son of a home builder, developer and Realtor, Pryor Bacon Jr. grew up in an industry he has never left. After attending the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, Bacon returned to Chattanooga to work in his father's business, which had begun in 1959 as a real estate agency and home building venture but evolved over time into primarily a commercial property developer.

"I didn't go to an office, just the job site," Bacon recalls of his early work in the family business. "Construction was my first love. But I've learned to adapt and take on other businesses through the years."

Bacon, who took over his father's business after Pryor Bacon Sr.'s death in 1985, now works with his son, Pryor Bacon III, managing a business enterprise that includes 28 commercial buildings leased to nearly 200 businesses, a couple of heating and air conditioning businesses, a duct supply company and two storage companies.

While in his 20s, Pryor Jr. managed several of his father's commercial properties and soon decided to venture on his own and buy a couple of buildings from his dad. But he kept building as a subcontractor, job superintendent and even an occasional bulldozer operator.

Bacon's construction background gives him a keen sense of what it will take to maintain or fix a property as he has moved on to commercial real estate development and leasing.

"That's one of the advantages we have," Bacon explains. "When we see a property we can ascertain fairly quickly what it is going to cost to build or repair."

Bacon's drive for hard work hasn't lessened even as he has shifted from builder to developer to landlord and businessman.

"When people ask me the secret to my success, I tell them, 'I don't quit at 40 hours (a week),'" the 64-year-old business owner says. "I'm really close to retirement, but I don't know what I'd do if I quit."

Although his father began as a home builder and developed such East Brainerd subdivisions as Twin Brooks and Bond Terrace, Bacon Jr. has focused most of his career building and later managing and leasing commercial properties in Chattanooga. He built nearly 300,000 square feet of offices, warehouses and stores, and now manages a total of 891,000 square feet of office, warehouse and retail space across Chattanooga.

The variety of holdings and related businesses helps Bacon meet changing tenant needs. As tenant space needs change, Bacon is usually able to find another property or adjust their current space to accommodate the change.

"Our flexibility is the fact that we have anything from 1,00o to 20,000 square feet so we can accommodate their growth, or minimize their space needs if they find they have more space than they need," Bacon says. "We tell our tenants they can always move into one of our spaces if you need more space. If growth is your concern, we'll find a way to take care of that."

Despite warnings from his father about the wisdom of buying and redeveloping another office and warehouse facility near Bacon's successful development on Cromwell Road near Highway 153, Pryor Bacon Jr. bought the former Wicks Lumber property in 1985 as a speculative investment. Before he had even closed on the deal, Pryor Jr. had landed several tenants and he soon had to expand the complex to accommodate all of the demand.

That success convinced Bacon he could do well buying some of the operating companies he had dealt with in his real estate ventures.

"I thought I could do the same thing with a business (at Carter Heating and Air), but I was greatly humbled," he said.

With so many buildings to heat and cool, Bacon thought Carter Heating and Air was a natural extension of his holdings and he bought the company in July 2003. Last year, he added Hiwassee Chase Air Systems in Cleveland to his portfolio. Chattanooga Duct Supply was acquired in 2008 to help supply equipment for the HVAC businesses and to sell to other companies and Bacon bought Pro Storage in 2012.

The purchase of operating companies, not just commercial properties, proved more challenging that Bacon expected, especially when the housing and building slump hit the market in 2008-2010.

"We got in the subcontracting business at the wrong time at the top of the market," Bacon says. "When the recession hit, we were doing deals for which we didn't get paid as developments fell a part."

"It was a learning experience," Bacon says, noting it took seven years to put Carter Heating and Air back in the black.

When Pryor Bacon III joined the family business after earning an accounting and finance degree from Auburn University, he was tasked with helping turn Carter Heating and Air around. The younger Bacon took on the challenge and soon moved on to property leasing when his sister Sally left the family business in 2011.

Pryor Bacon III, 31, is now the company president and handles the leasing for all of Bacon's properties.

The youngest Bacon, like his father, learned the business at a young age.

"I remember as a kid on the weekend having to go with my father to work sites while he was on a bulldozer making up time for work that got rained out that week. I would have a remote control car out there in the mud trying to keep myself occupied and would be incredibly bored."

After several construction jobs, the younger Bacon got his real estate license at age 18 after graduating from Baylor School and says his passion is on the financial side of the business.

Pryor Bacon Jr. says his son "is probably better able to run the business now than I am," although the elder Bacon remains active in both development and construction.

Bacon Jr., who has focused his career on commercial building and leasing, is even looking at a potential residential development in Hixson. He also began a speculative retail project in North Chattanooga earlier this year just north of the Publix store on North Market Street. He has already signed GNC as a retail client and is looking to fill another couple of retail spaces.

"We've suffered through the hard times, and have managed to maintain some prime properties and we want to continue to grow," Bacon says. "We're at the geographic center of the city (with most of its major properties) and are well positioned for the future."