Putnam Smith, Esq.
Attorney At Law
Attorney Putnam C. Smith represents Main Street business owners and executives, professionals of all types and local, regional and national real estate investors, developers and operators, concentrating on business and commercial real estate transactions and tax and estate planning.
Common transactions include start-ups, acquisitions and sales of closely held business, tax-free mergers and reorganizations, asset purchases, leveraged buyouts and joint ventures and partnerships in a wide range of industries.
During his tenure with Lipscomb, Johnson, Sleister, Dailey & Smith, LLP, Mr. Smith has handled private equity investments in shopping centers and industrial and commercial property in several southeastern states, land assemblages requiring services ranging from quiet title actions to road closures and a $116 million buyout to resolve a shareholder's dispute involving a closely held technology business.
Maxwell Baker
Senior Director, Lee & Associates
Maxwell R. Baker is a commercial real estate broker that specializes in purchasing and selling mobile home communities in the Southeast. His family has been involved with mobile home parks for more than 10 years and he has been a part of management, rehabilitation, and disposing mobile home parks since his family purchased their first park more than a decade ago.
Last year he completed approximately 80% of all the Georgia transactions and is currently expanding into other states in the Southeast. Max’s core competencies include structuring complicated transactions, owner financing, research and outsourcing, and his “deal-making” capabilities.
A team of Virtual Assistants in Guatemala, Philippines, and India do all of Max’s rent comparables, sales comparables, and research in Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama, North Carolina, and South Carolina. He plans to expand in to Mississippi, West Virginia, and Virginia in the future.
Hal Grayson, CCIM
President, Grayson Properties
Hal Grayson, CCIM has 32 years of commercial real estate experience including brokerage, management, consulting, development and institutional services. This multi-disciplined background includes land, retail, multifamily, senior housing, hotels, office and industrial with sales and development totaling over $1.5 billion.
Grayson has served as Regional Development Partner in the development or ownership of 27 multifamily apartment projects in 7 states. This includes 5 projects in Charleston. For 10 years, Grayson served as Regional Development Partner for RealtiCorp, a private equity land fund based in Greenville, SC. Significant developments include Brookside- a 207 acre office and mixed use project in Alpharetta, GA, Satellite Place – a 60 acre automotive and retail development in Norcross, GA, and Interstate West, a 120 acre retail, hotel and industrial park, a well as many others.
Grayson has managed numerous properties including for 5 years the Atlanta Realtor Center office and executive office space building, numerous owners associations, apartments and asset management for 2 hotels. Grayson has leased, sold or managed over 2 million square feet of Medical Office space including projects in Charleston and later in Atlanta for Richmond Development company.
Grayson is originally from Greenville, SC and graduated from the College of Charleston in 1982. He worked part time for an appraiser and property manager and then worked for the Charleston Chamber of Commerce for 2 years in membership and advertising sales. Grayson joined First Charleston Associates in 1984 as a commercial sales association where he worked for 9 years before moving to Atlanta. Notable Charleston transactions include the sale of South Windmere Shopping Center, development and sales of over 200,000 sq ft of medical and retail office condos.
In 1990, Grayson earned the prestigious CCIM designation (Certified Commercial Investment Member). Grayson is a member of the Atlanta Commercial Board of Realtors, Commercial investment Real Estate Institute (CIREA) and a veteran of many ICSC conventions (international Council of Shopping Centers).
Grayson currently lives in the Buckhead community of Atlanta. Grayson served four years on the Board of Directors and as VP of Parks for the Peachtree Heights East Neighborhood Association in the city of Atlanta. Grayson currently serves on the board of directors of the College of Charleston School of Business Club. He is married, has two grown children and is a member of the St. Philip Episcopal Church where he serves on the Usher Committee and is active in Sunday School and a weekly Men’s Bible Study. Favorite activities include golf and bicycling. Hal Grayson is an Eagle Scout and the father of an Eagle Scout.