Double R Flo-Town

Hotels, Hospitality, and Home w/ Grey Raines

• Robert Thomas & Reeves Cannon

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0:00 | 44:21

What does it take to grow from one hotel to 64 across 10 states—and still choose to call Florence home?

In this episode of Double R Flowtown, we sit down with Grey Raines to talk about entrepreneurship, hospitality, and what it really takes to build something that lasts.

From a fourth-generation family business to navigating cases like 2008 and COVID, Gray shares lessons on risk, leadership, and why Florence still has massive opportunity ahead.

We also get into:

  •  Why hospitality is harder than ever 
  •  The real impact of Airbnb on hotels 
  •  What Florence is getting right (and wrong) 
  •  Why infrastructure and safety matter more than anything 
  •  How mentorship and relationships shape success 

This one is about more than business—it’s about legacy, community, and building something that outlives you.

Welcome And Florence Roots

SPEAKER_02

Double R flow town, we have Mr. Grey Reigns with us today. Thank you so much for coming.

SPEAKER_00

I'm glad to be a part of it. Excited to talk Florence and growth and everything.

SPEAKER_02

I think we've already hammered everything. Yeah, before we started. I mean, but Izzy got it.

Reeves

This is the OG of entrepreneurship and development and especially you know hotel development. Uh born and raised in Florence. Florence's home.

SPEAKER_02

Florence's home.

SPEAKER_00

Other than my senior year of high school, I've been here. So I lived down in Florida, went to IMG Sports Academy's my senior year of high school, and uh that was a ton of golf? Okay. Golf, golf. Okay. Then came back, played golf at Francis Marion, and uh family business based here, headquartered here, and uh very unique opportunity to join our company.

SPEAKER_02

And I'm so glad you've kept the headquarters here. That's awesome.

From Truck Stops To Marriott

SPEAKER_00

We have, yeah, we we have offices in Charleston and Dallas, but headquartered in Florence. So it's uh it's important to stay close to home. We we love raising our family here. My wife's from here. We were actually in the second grade together. So she didn't like me as much as she does now. Well, some some days. So uh but but I wore her down and uh we we've got three kids here in Florence, and man, we love it. So it's crazy.

Reeves

How did your family get involved in hospitality?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, so you know, I'm I'm fourth generation. Uh, this was started with my great-grandmother in the 50s and uh truck stops, convenience stores, those type types of establishments. And then, you know, late 80s, early 90s, my father, we had three acres behind a Texaco gas station on 52.

SPEAKER_02

Okay.

A Father’s Comeback And Legacy

SPEAKER_00

And he decided, you know, that's a good spot for you. Yeah, had been reading the trade magazines and thought there was opportunity and hospitality, and called Marriott up and they they they basically laughed at him. You know, they're like, You don't have any experience doing this. We don't give our franchises to people who don't uh don't don't know what they're doing. And so he said, I'm gonna build something else. So he built the nicest Super Eight in America, all brick, still Super Eight, still out there. We we we don't own it any longer, but uh still rocking and rolling. And uh that that that just opened the doors. So we we did a few properties out at 52. Uh, my father and Dave Acock started RaoulDX Hospitality. Um, and so they were partners for a few years, along with my grandfather and my uncle. And uh then they went their separate ways in the mid-90s when we got our first Marriott franchise. So dad stayed in touch with Marriott, showed him what he was doing, shared the experiences of where we were growing and what we were learning in hospitality. And we were really fortunate. We got our first courtyard franchise in uh, I believe '96, opened in '97. Uh still a courtyard right next to the center, the civic center. Oh yeah. That was our first Marriott, man. It just uh that that's it. That was the gold standard. And my dad, once we got that, it was it was on. And uh he unfortunately got sick in 2000, right? When I was graduating high school, uh, rare form of pneumonia, uh, spent spent a fair amount of time in a coma down in Charleston, was given a less than one percent chance to live, man, and he found a way out of it. So uh we were fortunate to keep him with us for 15 years after that. And I mean, he was the greatest guy in the world, man. My best friend, business partner. I mean, my father. I just you know, if I I'd be mistaken if I didn't mention him and and and how I every day is a way to honor him. And he just he he's he's the man.

SPEAKER_02

And uh he didn't let that first hurdle stop him, did he?

SPEAKER_00

Never.

SPEAKER_02

You know, some people that first hurdle would have been, well, guess we can't do it. He didn't let that slow him down a bit.

SPEAKER_00

No, I mean, and I mean he learned uh he had to learn to walk, talk, read, write. Uh I mean, he I don't know that I could go through what he went through. I mean, when you you saw how hard he fought and uh to come back and be with his family and his kids. And uh my mom, my mom never left left his side. Uh, she's still in the business, still working with me every day. And my uncle David. And uh man, it just yeah, it's one of those things. You watched him go through it and then and just to battle back, he never gave up.

SPEAKER_02

I mean, when you see your dad again, you got a lot to tell him, don't you?

SPEAKER_00

Got a lot to tell him, yeah. I think uh, you know, when when I joined the company, we had one hotel. Wow, one hotel. And so now you have how many? Uh 64. 64 hotels, five under construction, and wow, yeah, it's spread out, I think, over 10 states now. Wow, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Reeves

That I mean, I didn't know that about you and your story and your dad. And I mean, I think that certainly resonates with me. I know, Robert, it resonates with you. Yeah, we've got we've been blessed to be encouraged and spurred on in our lives by our dads, and to hear that with you, Gray, is yeah, is really cool. And so you've built upon the legacy of your family and your dad's legacy and and business.

Scaling To 64 Hotels

SPEAKER_00

And so uh as I say all the time, I had a phenomenal foundation. I'm just adding a few floors while uh I'm a steward of the company for this period of time. I look at everything long-term, and that's how we approach all of our partnerships. Or I mean it's a long-term partnership. So we uh we work hard to build do the right things, and we we have the best partners. I mean, that that's the thing I just can't, you know, investors, partners. I I I brought in our first outside capital in 2008, built the residence in, three local Florence guys who and that was a tough period in that in the uh hospitality world. We we we financed that deal about a month before the world ended, yeah, and uh to the point that the bank was trying to pull that loan back. I mean, I think the loan was at 2.9 percent, and they were not happy. But uh, we built that residence in, you know, it was really it was it was fun. That one was a really fun project. We uh we did that with Jim Brown and Frank Chisholm and Alan Blaker here, who are still some of my closest friends. Uh, Jim and Frank are two unbelievable mentors to me. And uh I got a lot to thank them for. I mean, they they they believed in us, believed in me. And uh we we we did that deal in 08, and they said extended stay, you know, that's the difference. That's an extended stay product. And we were told that Florence just wasn't deep enough to have an extended stay hotel in the market, and we judge it by SOC, which is you know, room room nights over seven nights or stays over seven nights. And uh we ran at 74% SOC for about six years.

SPEAKER_02

That was probably one of the better ones.

SPEAKER_00

Oh, it was it was tremendous. It was an absolute home run. I mean, you you play the real estate game long enough, you know, you you're gonna taste your own blood, and that that certainly we've we've we've done that plenty of times too. But every now and then you get those home runs, and and that certainly was one that just changed the hospitality market in South uh in Florence.

Reeves

What I mean, born and raised in Florence, build upon the legacy of your families from Florence, but at this point, why not cash out and go to the coast, man, or go to the mountains, go to Colorado, go somewhere else.

SPEAKER_00

Why are you still in Florence? I mean, Florence is home, man. Florence is where I want to raise my family, Florence where my friends are. Um, I travel a lot for work. Uh I spend a lot of time all over the place looking at opportunities, meeting with our investors, and it is just good to get home to Florence. I mean, I wish we had a little bit better uh air, air, air situation. Okay. You know, I'm a little tired of driving to Charleston or Columbia or Charlotte. We gotta, we gotta get those flight times improved here, but I know they're working hard to get the airport improved. I think we got the right people leading the charge now. And uh, but yeah, it's just it's a good place to get back to, man. It's to take a little bit of a deep breath. And we've got a great office here, great people in the office. Uh, and I I'm not a work from home guy. I'm a I'm I'm a collaborative guy. I want to be around my team. I want to work, uh, work with them directly. I like to brainstorm, I like to figure out a different way to do things, and and that's just hard to do on Zoom or Teams or whatever video chat we're using.

Reeves

How have you, I mean, did you have a vision for 64 or maybe 200 or 500 hotels? Or is it just kind of little by little by little and knowing you're here?

Operators First Culture And Careers

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, little by little. I I mean, you know, we we've spent a lot of time here the last couple of months. We're we're kind of working through this exercise of, you know, re-establishing our purpose, right? I think that that we're not there yet. We're not, we're not, we know what we we know why we do the things we do, but we've gotten so big that so much of it was just naturally ingrained because we were all working together. And so we're working through that exercise now to redefine a simple purpose. But I mean, I've always been driven. I like to do fun projects and fun places with fun people. And and if we can do that, I want to keep doing it. If we're not having fun, I mean, you know, losing my father early, life is short.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

I mean, we just we don't like to be surrounded by people we don't want to be around.

Reeves

Yeah.

Food And Beverage Partnership Shift

SPEAKER_00

And and so that that's what drives us. I mean, we're not we're not driven by numbers. I mean, I'm not trying to get to a certain number of hotels. I'm not trying to, you know, be the largest management company or ownership group or any of those things. It's just taking it project by project. We've been fortunate to have some really good opportunities come our way. We are uh we are great hotel managers. I mean, at the end of the day, we are hardcore operators. I mean, we can that's not an easy job. It's not an easy job. And it gets harder every day. It gets harder every day. And and and to the point, I mean, with the way the way our management company is situated, really two companies, and and with with the core brands and with Woven. Uh, and with Woven, I mean, we uh my partner, president of our management company, Kerry Ranson, and I recently you were looking at really staffing up on the food and beverage side because we realized like that was an opportunity. You know, we have an amazing career path within the hospitality side of our company. I mean, we have folks that start with us on the front desk, they start with us in maintenance, who are now general managers, our regional managers. And we just feel like that's an amazing path. You could come and spend 20 or 30 years building a career with reigns. Yeah. But our food and beverage program didn't mirror that. We we just didn't feel like it was very transient. We didn't feel like we had that stickiness and that opportunity. And so, you know, how do you solve that problem? And we're looking at it, we're like, do we go add three, four, five people? Who are those people? How do we do that? We're very fortunate to be working on a project in uh Aiken, South Carolina with Vantage Capital and Unsequet Restaurant Group, Chris Hall, Ryan Turner. These guys get F better than anybody I've ever seen. I mean, they I mean, from ultra-high-end private steakhouses to amazing little neighborhood pizza joints. And we've been fortunate to strike a partnership with them, and they're they're now handling our executive food and beverage function. Wow. And and what they're bringing to the table, I mean now we have something on the food and beverage side that's gonna move us as a group to a whole different thing.

SPEAKER_02

That kind of rounds you out, doesn't it?

Investors Trust Tested By 2020

SPEAKER_00

It does, it does, it really rounds us out, and it takes you know, it takes a load off of me for sure. I mean, because it's something that I I mean, the food and beverage world's tough, the consistency's tough. You can have moments of brilliance, but the consistency is key. And that's what these guys are allowing us to the phenomenal partners. I mean, again, Chris Hall, the way he approaches the world, he's just an absolute mad scientist. Is that Hall's shop? No, that that's uh that that's Tommy, that's Tommy Hall and Billy Hall down in Charles. Those guys are good friends, but um, this is Unsequet out of Atlanta. So Chris Hall, unbelievable chef, talent, operator, his partner, Ryan Turner, unbelievable visionary, executioner, you know, culture. And uh they're helping making sure we mirror our food and beverage culture with our hospitality culture.

Reeves

So I'm kind of hearing you talk maybe three parts of what Rain's hospitality is. You've got your traditional, you know, Marriott hotels, you've got your the woven, yep, which is boutique hotels, and then food and beverage and how to incorporate food and beverage into all of that.

SPEAKER_00

Right. And that all of that falls under our management arm. Okay. So so really we're three different companies. So we have our development arm, and that's uh chief development officer and partner David Tart, one of my best friends in the whole world. Uh, he and I brought our organizations together in 2020. We said, hey, what's the next 20, 25 years look like? We knew that was together. Wow. It was better together. He we were already JVing projects and we were managing uh his properties, and we just brought all that together in 2020, rebranded under the Rains Company. We were Reigns Hospitality prior to that. And David is just one of the most talented developers I've ever been around. I there's times I think I'm pretty good at it, but he just his eyes, attention to detail. So uh David is over our development team, and we've got four folks on that team. Then we have the management arm uh with core brands and woven. That's about 56 people. So that's uh operations, sales, accounting, revenue management, uh, HR, uh legal, and uh so that about 56 folks in that. And then we have our investment arm.

SPEAKER_01

Okay.

SPEAKER_00

And we have about 70 individual investors, everything from ultra high net worth to you know guys working hard every day. And we like to bring those opportunities uh to them. We add two or three new investors a year. We're really not, we're not, we're not out pushing it on Instagram or anything like that. I mean, it is uh it's a word of mouth. We we we know every one of our investors. We know when their kids' birthdays are, we know their birthdays, we know we uh they like to play golf, they like to hunt, they like to fish. I mean, we spend a lot of time with those guys because it's not just about that investment. Uh, I mean, there's things you you look you really learn who people are when you go through tough times. And I mean, our industry got smashed in 2020. I mean, we had a lot of uncertainty. I mean, when you had markets that had run 96%, and all of a sudden they're running six percent.

SPEAKER_02

That test everything gets tested.

Airbnb Versus Hotels Reality Check

SPEAKER_00

And so, I mean, you know, that was a perfect time. I mean, we we exited relationships with investors, we bought investors out, we, you know, we just said, guys, this this at the end of the day is pop pop probably a blip on the radar, right? I mean, if you take a look at it, I mean, it's gonna hurt, it's it's gonna sting, but we're so fortunate being in the south. We are late to late to close, early to open. So we were able to bounce back faster than we thought. But but I just I remember one of our investors who is one of the most savvy, smartest guys I've ever met. I remember the phone, you know, phone ringing, and it had been a long day talking to banks and investors and ops folks. And and uh I was like, man, I don't want to take this call because I just knew it wasn't gonna be great. And and he picked up and I was like, hey, how's it going? And he's like, I'm not calling to talk about business, I'm just calling to check on you. Wow, and he said, he said, just know that this is you can be all right. He goes, just put your head down, dig in. He goes, you guys will do the right things. And uh that guy's still with us today. We bought two hotels for him last year. Uh still talk to him all the time, but that's a guy that you realize you're like, that's the best. That's somebody that's gonna be with us for a long time. And he's just one of the greatest people. And we've been so fortunate. I mean, our investor group is incredibly strong and just some of the greatest smart people doing a lot of really cool stuff in a lot of different areas.

Reeves

I I think it's just so cool to hear y'all's story, hear the expansion of the business, know that it's grown from Florence, you know, these are local guys doing this, you know. And I want to, I know we want to delve into Florence a little bit and talk a little bit about Florence and what you see as far as the vision for Florence and that type of thing. I've got one more question about hospitality. I'm just personally interested in. You've talked about COVID and how that wrecked you guys or the industry in 2020. What about Airbnb? What does a hospitality hotel guy think about Airbnb?

Boutique Hotels And Downtown Florence

SPEAKER_00

So I'm not a fan because they don't play on a they don't they don't play on a level playing ground. I mean, for me, yeah, have to follow all the fire and life safety, have to pay all the same taxes, have to make all the same decisions I do. I'm fine with it. It there is a place for it in our ecosystem of hospitality. There are offerings that Airbnb can can make that I will never be able to make through the hotel side of the world. My problem is that the it's not a level playing ground. I mean, you don't have to have the same security, you don't have to have the same fire, fire systems. I mean, all the things we spend millions of dollars on, you can bypass all of that. And I'm I'm probably it's probably less of an issue for me for an individual owner. It's when you've got a company that has 600 Airbnbs, and I'm going, you're you're scooting a lot of systems here that that I have to I have to follow. So, you know, in theory, it it doesn't impact us as much as we all thought it was. Okay. I mean, 10 years ago, we thought it was gonna be a significant disruptor, but I think folks have checked into Airbnbs, it's all the additional fees, all those things that come with it, you know, now they're asking people to clean, clean up after themselves and scrub the toilets and whatever else. And you know, we we're a home. I mean, you can't you come and stay at one of our properties, we're gonna take care of you from start to finish. And I think that that's something that people are realizing with the Airbnb that that consistency is not there.

SPEAKER_02

It's rebalance that market's kind of rebalancing now. Isn't it crazy? It's coming back to reality. It is. And the boutique side, I think, is what you know, people wanted a little bit more of a unique experience, but now you can offer that with some of the boutique woven properties.

SPEAKER_00

Absolutely. I mean, I mean, Hotel Florence was our first boutique property. So, you know, when we developed that with Tim Norwood and Chris Scott, uh, that was our first opportunity to really step outside. And and and that was a lot of fun.

SPEAKER_02

Kind of sparked something.

SPEAKER_00

I it did. Yeah, well, it just showed what you could build that that the citizens of Florence owned Hotel Florence in the sense that it was there. That's our hotel, you know, that's our downtown. And to be a catalyst, I mean, you only get so many opportunities to really make an impact in your hometown. And the three of us were able to do that. That's a big thing. I mean, it was it was tremendous. I mean, the building we're in right now, we did as part of Hotel Florence and the Waters Building and 100 West Evans. I mean, I mean, being able to redevelop these buildings has just been, you know, really, really amazing.

Reeves

And y'all are doing that as a company really throughout at least the Southeast right now.

The Lantern Mission In Columbia

SPEAKER_00

Absolutely. We've got multiple projects that you know similar to uh to Hotel Florence. We just opened one in Columbia, uh, a mission-driven. Uh I mean, this one, you talk about, you know, as you reach different points in your career and what drive you, uh, the lantern mission is one that is driving us every day. So we just opened the first lantern in downtown Columbia, right across diagonal from uh the state house, right there in the Vista, 60 rooms. It's the old fire station, historic building. Uh, but the real the real piece of this is the mission with uh the South Carolina life program and the School of Hospitality, school life, uh, the life program that the University of South Carolina works with students with special needs, yeah, intellectual disabilities. Okay. We open the hotel 40% of our workforce is from the special needs community. And the impact is uh the impact for these kids to leave the University of South Carolina and have an opportunity to build a career within hospitality. I mean, that is powerful. Yeah. When you see the impact for these families, for these parents, that's where you start to see what we can do. So First Lantern's open, it's rocking. It's great.

SPEAKER_02

How long has that one been open?

SPEAKER_00

About two months now.

SPEAKER_02

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. So phenomenal restaurant, ladder 13, named after the historic uh fire unit that was based there. Yeah, Kevin Johnson helped us with the food from Charleston, uh, who has he has the grocery in Lola Rose downtown. Oh, yeah. Like Kevin is just an amazing culinary talent. Uh, so yeah, I mean, we it's very different than Hall's Steakhouse in Columbia, which is our go-to. We love the Halls, guys, but this is pizza, pasta, all brick oven. I mean, it's a really neat place. All the we still have all the fire station doors. We're opening those when the weather's great. Yeah. And uh again, 60 rooms, best hotel in the world. I'm gonna go stay. Yeah, we need to go check out the weekend. It it's it's good. We better book a room now. Absolutely. Better get on that. So yeah, but no, we've we've we've been going up there, it's only an hour away. So we've driven up there with some couples here just recently to go go have dinner, and we drive home. We've stayed. Uh, my six year old, he and I, my youngest, we've got a guy's weekend this weekend, and on his list was go stay at Lantern. So we're we're going Friday. Nice.

Reeves

When you're looking at a project, I can't imagine the cost that goes into renovating an older building, all the safety standards and all the hurdles the governments and in you know put you through to house people. How do you look and say, okay, we can this thing's gonna make us money? How do you know that?

SPEAKER_00

Well, it's a great team of, I mean, we we we get in a room, we start putting pen to paper. I mean, we're fortunate, fortunate we're doing this enough that we understand kind of what's happening in the real world. Yeah. And then from there, I mean, we have so many trusted partners. I mean, that's what these projects require are the best teams. I mean, from you know, tax credit experts to the right architects, the right contractor, uh, tax credit syndicators. I mean, that's where these projects make sense.

SPEAKER_02

I mean, without it, they don't work.

SPEAKER_00

They don't work, right? Not most of the time. I mean, because the additional cost to rehab these buildings, but these are also the projects that are getting done. I mean, this is the hardest development time we've ever had in my career. Okay. I mean, interest rates, construction costs, absolute unknowns in the world. So traditional deals just don't pencil right now. I mean, when when a hotel room that used to cost$150,000 a door to build is now$350,000. That's not going to pencil very often.

Reeves

We're seeing that on the residential side. Absolutely. You know, so I only imagine what you're doing.

SPEAKER_00

And then there's only so much rate you can charge. Yeah. And so we back into that. I mean, we say no a lot more than we say yes. I mean, we're fortunate to look at a lot of deals, but you know, we we can kind of narrow down to three to five a year on a rolling basis that we're gonna find and really dig in on. I mean, that's the that's the thing. We're not trying to do 20. We we we find the ones that we really are passionate about, that we love the markets, we love the people we're working with, and we dig in.

SPEAKER_02

But no, the underwriting process is is so you know, the common theme throughout this whole podcast with business leaders is at a certain point, you just gotta take a risk.

SPEAKER_00

Oh, yeah. You just gotta take a look at the risk. You gotta be a risk taker.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, if you're not, you'd never do any of them.

SPEAKER_00

No, and and and we've seen that. I mean, we've seen very smart folks that want to mediate to zero.

SPEAKER_02

Right. Right?

Underwriting Old Buildings And Risk

SPEAKER_00

And and the second you do that, it's not gonna happen. It's not gonna happen because it's gonna take you seven or eight years to get to that point, and three or four people have already done it. Yeah, so I mean, you're right. You you try to bring it down the risk as much as possible, but at the end of the day, if you're gonna play this game, you gotta jump, you gotta roll the dice. You know, I mean, there's no way around it. And that's where you know our best partners are gunslingers. I mean, they're they're entrepreneurs, they're guys that understand, they're smart, they understand how to how to underwrite, they understand how to mediate risk just as we do, but no one ever got there by not taking a risk. I mean, they they caught us absolutely crazy when we did Hotel Florence. I mean, I I saw Tim's podcast a couple weeks ago. I remember him and JB, Jim Brown getting in an absolute drag out fight. I mean, they I mean, two best friends go in and blows each other over.

SPEAKER_02

I wouldn't have probably had the risk taking ability of that one. I mean, that one was early.

SPEAKER_00

I will I will say the night that the first night we were open, Tim and Chris Scott and I were standing on the street right down there, and the lights were on, and there wasn't another single light on. And I was like, the hell have we done here? We might be a little early, boy. Might be a little early, but you know, it it was just it was something that that lit a fuse, and I don't think downtown would would have happened without it.

SPEAKER_02

I mean, I that was kind of it that had to happen to spark anything else.

SPEAKER_00

It was a perfect storm. Yeah, I don't think it could happen today. You're right, it couldn't happen today. Okay, so it was an absolute perfect storm. Uh John Keith had been down here, Dr. Keith had been down here testing the waters with a couple different concepts. Um, Mayor Wukila can't say enough good things about that guy. I mean, he's sharp guy. Absolutely unbelievable. I mean, not having a mayor like him holds us back. Drew Griffin. Oh, I mean, Drew, yeah, Drew gave the mayor and council the tools needed to make magic happen.

SPEAKER_02

And people respected him. Everybody respected him. He was brilliant. Things happen.

SPEAKER_00

Oh, I mean, I mean, the deal was this deal was dead in the water, and and Drew was one month from taking over as city manager. I remember that. I mean, we were sitting in a meeting, Tim and Chris and city folks, and Drew was Drew was becoming city manager the next month. And Tim, in typical Tim fashion, was like, We're out of here. This is done. And I remember Drew raising his hand. He's like, I think, I think I can figure this out. Wow.

SPEAKER_02

And that it was that close to not happening.

SPEAKER_00

It was that close. And and and I mean that that's where it got perfect storm. I mean, Bruce and Lee Foundation, Hugh Leatherman, Fred Carter. I mean, there were so many people, Buddy Brand. I mean, that's that's the other piece of this. I mean, that council at that time, Drew gave them the tools. Yeah, Mary Wakila carried the left, Buddy carried the right. Yeah, and it was never about Democrats or Republicans, it was about what's best for Florence. And I think we've lost a little bit of that too. Yeah. And we've got to get back to, I mean, why we even have political parties and a local city council is beyond me. But but that that's a whole different setup. Yeah, that's a whole different thing.

SPEAKER_02

But it's a thing there, it's things we need to talk about.

Reeves

It is, it is, and and really that kind of leads to where I we'd like to talk. I mean, you've built this business, your your family, you you've grown it, you're still in Florence. Let's move away from your business specifically, and let's just talk about Florence. And what do you see? What does Florence need? Where are we defunct, and how do we address that so we can keep moving forward? Yeah. I mean, that's a loaded question.

SPEAKER_00

That is an absolute loaded question. I mean, I think we've got to understand elections have consequences.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

I mean, I think that that's it. We've got to come together. We've got to push our, especially our city council, to do better.

SPEAKER_02

Yes. Yeah.

Florence Infrastructure And Public Safety

SPEAKER_00

I mean, I love a lot of folks on there. We got a lot of good people, but the reality is they're not doing as much as what was done previously. And we need we need that challenge every year to be better than the pre any previous council. So I I challenge them. We got some great people on there. We've got some guy, we got some guys thinking outside the box. Councilman McCall. He, I mean, I really think the world of this guy, he has done some things here that will be coming out in the next few months that I think are going to be absolute game changers and uh really gonna you know make a major impact in Florence. But I think it's it we got, I mean, it's flip-flop since I started kind of working. I mean, our county was really kind of in a bit of a mess, and the city was on point. Now our can our county's button up. We got a lot of good things going on. Florence economic development, Mike Miller at the chamber. I mean, we've got that. I mean, the the the pieces are are kind of all circling there again, uh, but we got it, we gotta push them. The city's holding us back. We got it, we gotta, we gotta push them to keep doing better. Yeah. I mean, I think that we got good folks on there. We got people that are willing, we got to get them to work together. And and and there's there's got to be two major areas of focus.

SPEAKER_02

Okay.

SPEAKER_00

And that is infrastructure and that's safety and security.

SPEAKER_02

Yes.

SPEAKER_00

That's I mean, I mean, I mean, that is your responsibility.

SPEAKER_02

Without that, everything else doesn't matter, really.

SPEAKER_00

No, I I mean, I I mean, we we sat in a meeting, and that was that those are the number two number one and number two things. And and until you're nailing those, the other stuff doesn't matter.

SPEAKER_02

That's right.

Reeves

But the infrastructure piece, water, sewer, roads, that's we've got a disaster on our hands right now, and it's not gonna be a quick fix. But it can be quicker than what we're the pace we're going at. Is that what I'm hearing you say? I mean, I I think so.

SPEAKER_00

I mean, I think that they're I mean, I think that it require, but the problem is it's the problem is it started years ago. Yeah, and it's not all this council's fault. No, it's not all this council's fault, but but this council's got to understand what's important, they got to put everything else to the wayside.

Reeves

Yeah, go.

SPEAKER_00

Until we fix this, we can't we can't worry about something over here. And and I think that that and they've got to come together to work together to understand what the most important things are.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, the to fix those problems, I mean, that's no easy task, and you got to have the sharpest of the sharp heading those programs up. You know, to get the new sewer line running out of Jeffrey's Creek into second loop. I know those plans are in place, but to execute that, I mean, you know, you got to have the best the best of the best, the best of the best to do it, or it's gonna be another catastrophe.

SPEAKER_00

Absolutely. You can't miss. No, I mean, unfortunately, they've been bit into a corner, they can't miss. I know. And they got it, they've got to put all the pieces together, and we we've got to hold them accountable for it.

SPEAKER_02

That's right. That's right. And that's why we're here.

Reeves

But if we can get infrastructure and safety, and I think we've got a a pathway forward with safety.

SPEAKER_02

We've got the best sheriff you could ask for.

SPEAKER_00

Well, the well, we were having two different conversations. That sheriff of Florence County is one of the best of the best.

SPEAKER_02

Yes.

SPEAKER_00

He is a guy.

SPEAKER_02

And he's a busy man.

SPEAKER_00

He's a busy man. He gets it. Yeah, he gets it. He gets it. Yes, he gets it. And we got a lot of good, hardworking City of Florence police department with police officers. Yes. They need the right leader and they need a leader that is focused on the right things, and that is safety today.

SPEAKER_01

Yes, yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Safety and crime prevention today, whatever that takes. And I think TJ gets that. I'm hoping the new chief of police for Florence gets that. But I hope that the city council and the mayor, the city manager give them the tools to be successful.

SPEAKER_02

We have to, because when the citizens don't feel safe, when my family doesn't feel safe here anymore, guess what? We're out of here.

Reeves

Well, we get that question every day. I think I probably already mentioned it on the podcast, but family moving from Virginia to get out of the toxic political environment that's going on in Virginia right now. And their only question to me is tell me about the crime I'm seeing in Florence, and at least report it on the Yeah, but you chat GPT it, it doesn't look good.

SPEAKER_00

It doesn't look good at all. Doesn't look good at all. And and and unfortunately, there's truth to that. I know. Yeah, I mean, there's truth to that, and that's where we've got to give our officers the tools to be successful. We got to hire more officers, and I think they're working on that, but we gotta, again, it's accountability by the citizens.

Reeves

And we got to pay them, we gotta pay them. We gotta pay them. So people are motivated to go do the work. But if we can get those things fixed, we have phenomenal opportunity. We have 95 and 20. We have an airport that is severely underutilized, but has really good leadership.

SPEAKER_02

We've got Brad coming in. He's got some cool new announcements for Airport.

Building Community Through Places To Gather

SPEAKER_00

Oh, airport, that airport's got a lot of opportunity. Florence as a whole, there is so much opportunity here. I mean, there are there are pieces that are getting put together that you can come here, you can make a career, you can make a business. I mean, there's so much opportunity here in Florence. It's just you got to push the envelope, you got to look for something to do that that that hasn't been done. And I think that that's here, that's now. I mean, you're talking about getting out and exploring other cities and seeing what's getting done, what's being successful, and then bringing those uh those ideas back home. I mean, the culinary scene here's got so much opportunity. We've got great base culinary, we got people doing really cool things, but Lawrence could use two or three more restaurants, and I think we're gonna see them. I mean, we've we've got we have folks coming in from out of town, right? Uh, I mean, you know, my favorite place to eat, I'm gonna give them a uh shout out is Buddy's burgers. That's my favorite spot. I mean us too. I mean, those are uh, and I think what Catherine and Jeremy are doing, I mean, are really cool. I mean it's working. I mean it works. Oh, they're lined up out of the door. Yeah. Uh Martha's ice cream, I mean, all that. And then they've got some other stuff coming that I think will continue to push and elevate the culinary scene. But I just I I mean, we got Victor's, we got Town Hall, we got King Jefe guys. I mean, we got people doing really great things and Elliot's, I love good number to Elliot's. Yeah, I think Elliot's is a perfect example. I think that uh what the guys at Naturally Outdoors, I mean, that's what the folks in Florence need. That's what they want. It's not just a restaurant to walk into to sit down, but give us an environment, right? I mean, a guy with I'm I'm sitting here with three kids. I mean, we love going to buddies for the food, but we also love them to go play. Absolutely. They can see their friends, we see our friends. I mean, people want that sense of community. I mean, that's what brings Florence together. So, where do we create those areas that allow that sense of community?

Reeves

Well, and we were talking about it. I I think we may have been filming, but we hadn't officially started the podcast when we were talking about it, the area kind of across from Windsor Forest behind uh the pharmacy, you know, behind Target that's St. Anthony's. That's a phenomenal piece of property.

SPEAKER_00

We don't, you know, if we could develop that into Oh, I I think I think the right town center style I mean could just be tremendous. I mean, it it absolutely, I mean, people crave walkability, they crave sense of community, sense of space. Uh, we have we still have that opportunity downtown, I mean, to continue to build uh places for people to live, people to play. But yeah, I mean that that's just one area in Florence that could get redeveloped and you know, again, create that sense of space.

SPEAKER_02

We need that neighborhood. That neighborhood needs to happen here.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, we've got some mature neighborhoods that are that are great places to live, but I think that as people come in, and just as we've seen in the hotel space the shift to give me something unique, give me an experience, we're seeing we're gonna see the same thing in the residential side. You guys are already seeing you're already seeing it. I mean, people want, they want a park, they want a place to play, they want that sense of community. It is incredibly important that it feels local, not just the same house stacked up time and time again.

SPEAKER_02

I mean, because Windsor's Windsor is basically done. It is done. There's no more lots to build on. Yeah, and we need that next place for the for the upper end nice house to be built.

SPEAKER_00

And and again, create that opportunity that that's not just a neighborhood.

SPEAKER_02

Yes.

SPEAKER_00

How is how I mean think about a neighborhood that has, you know, I think Ion, right? Vince Graham was, I mean, so far ahead of his time when he did Ion in Mount Pleasant. But you know, they've got the bar, they've got the couple restaurants, they got the coffee shop, they've got the church, those things that allow them here that would be an absolute home run. It would I mean, I mean, that's where uh, you know, Catherine, your her credit, that's what we always hover. Like, our neighborhood needs a neighborhood restaurant.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00

You know, the place that you just walk to, that you know, you ride your bicycle to. I mean, that that doesn't exist in Florence.

SPEAKER_02

You know, F E Pops has kind of become that a little bit because you can't walk there really, you know. But it's a great spot and it's too interesting.

SPEAKER_00

It's a great spot. I love FE Pops. I mean, that we we we get to lunch there a fair amount. Uh, my daughter goes there for coffee brunch every Saturday with her friends. And I I I'm with you. I mean, that that that that element, those touches, it's we figure that out. We're figuring something out that that that I think the demand would just be tremendous.

SPEAKER_02

Yes, I we'll figure it out.

SPEAKER_00

Oh, I think so. I mean that that's the we got a lot of smart people in Florence who are willing to take some risk, and uh that's always exciting to see.

Reeves

Well, I think the thing that encourages me the most is there are young visionary leaders in Florence that that see they have vision, and it's just a matter of you know, taking the appropriate risk and executing and and not letting the traditional obstacles stand in our way and and not letting excuses stand in our way. We can be an absolutely phenomenal southeastern uh city. And uh let's go get it.

SPEAKER_02

We're the biggest city in South Carolina on I-95.

Reeves

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

I mean, that but we're losing a lot of young people to Greenville, Charleston.

SPEAKER_00

There, I just don't feel like we're retaining well, it's uh it's a hard place to be young and single. Yeah, it's a great place to raise a family. Yeah. And so, I mean, I think that's part of the gap that we have to fill is, you know, we had an element of that kind of just post-Hotel Florence, about three, four years where we had folks coming and moving back. Downtown was exciting, a lot of things. We've lost a little bit of that momentum, I think, but we can we can bring that right back. I I think you know, we we've got to encourage that next group of leaders. Uh, I mean, we've we we've we've we lost Senator Leatherman. I mean, all that he did for Florence, I mean, Dr. Floyd. Yeah, I mean, we're that that leadership is irreplaceable, but how are we encouraging that next group of leaders to step up and unite? I mean, that was the thing. I mean, that that was that's the one piece I I don't think everybody truly realizes is how much all of those folks work together. Well, I mean, that that period of time, that that started downtown redevelopment, but I mean, Joe King at economic development, uh, Mary Wakila, Drew Griffin, Eddie Floyd, all those guys, I mean, there was a lot of communication back and forth. And that was an absolute eye-opener for me getting involved in Hotel Florence. I mean, was that was the we got to go sit down with Senator Letherman, we got to go sit down with Dr. Floyd. I mean, all of that. And it was great. I mean, that those guys, they I mean, they helped make it happen.

SPEAKER_02

That's so good to hear. We got to keep that, we got to keep that communication and sticking together. It's gonna take us sticking together and and partnering, like you figured out how to do to make some of these projects happen.

SPEAKER_00

Oh, absolutely. I mean, I I think you know the best ones are collaborative efforts. They're they're they're the that that's how it does mediate some of the risks, but it also allows the most creative opportunity.

Mentors Networking And Final Advice

Reeves

So, so as we kind of wrap this whole thing up, and we really appreciate your time. Thanks for having me. This is great. This is awesome. You know, thinking about that that next crop of young leaders, I've got a 20-year-old son, sophomore at USC School of Business. That type of individual, what lesson or two that you've learned as a business guy, would you say you need to impart, or you you would give piece of advice to those types of guys just getting started?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, I mean, I think that the biggest piece of advice is never underestimate what someone's willing to share with you. Pick up that phone call, someone you admire, someone that you think of that that's doing it right, pick up the phone and call them. Ask them to go to call, go grab coffee. I think, I think, especially with our younger generation, they're building such a, you know, their network is is so much through the phone, through the computer, but but I think they're they're staying within their group, right? I think that that, which is great. You can do a lot of really cool things there, but I don't know that they're working hard enough to find their mentors, to find and look up. Oh, they're doing something really cool. I need to go learn. And I think they underestimate how willing people are to share things.

SPEAKER_02

I think they probably think Gray's way too busy to talk to me. But if the young guy wanted some advice, you'd love to send them.

SPEAKER_00

Absolutely. It's it's something fun. I mean, I the problem is I still think I'm the young guy someday. We don't think we're the young guys anymore, are we? We're not. We're not. But no, I mean, I I mean, I think of the guys that that I am so fortunate to consider my mentors and that I look up to not only in Florence, but in the industry. I mean, I've got a couple guys that that that every time I call, they pick up the phone and they are absolute gorillas, man. I mean, just they're the guys in our industry we look up to. I'm fortunate to manage for one of them now and doing some other cool stuff with them. But I I just I think that that that'd be my piece of advice is build that network. Yeah, but don't be scared to pick up the phone or you know, write a letter. You know, yeah, write a letter. Write a letter. Yeah. Yeah, you certainly noticed that. Uh we're we're on a trip earlier this week, and uh, we got to our room, and there's a handwritten letter from the manager, and they used our name and very specific details to our trip that I knew that they took the time and wrote that.

SPEAKER_02

It hits even different, it hits different now in this digital world we're in.

SPEAKER_00

It does, it really does. But I I think I think build that network, find those mentors, and and again, don't not that you're trying to build some long-term relationship, but don't be scared to ask that question of hey man, I'm I'm looking at this, I'm thinking about that. That is yeah, yeah. It's it's helped me my I've never been scared to ask.

SPEAKER_02

That's good. That's man, well, we let's keep the communication going. I think we might, I think, I think there's some opportunities. Maybe we can maybe we can circle you into the residential world, the single family here before too much longer.

SPEAKER_00

I don't know about that. I've done I don't know about that, but uh I'm just an old hotel guy, so trying to try to keep up with that industry. I bet. I bet.

SPEAKER_02

Well, let's let's keep the communication going. And you know, I love that you say Florence is home because that's what we say too. And that's what it's all about. Yep. Thanks, man. Awesome. Glad to be a part of it. Thank you, guys.

SPEAKER_01

Thank you.