Business Development

“Millport. Announced in the summer of 2017, Courtyard by Marriott made plans to build a new $18 million, 108-room hotel on 2.2 acres of land in Millport Circle, just off I-385 at Butler Road.

The announcement came several months after BB&T/Truist made plans to build a 140,000 square-foot Mortgage Center in Millport Circle and create 600 jobs.

And in late 2018, J. Peters Grill and bar opened in the same area as the hotel and the mortgage center.

And a key step to all three was a first-time meeting between Broad and Millport developer Shaw Resources, whose family business roots go back to 1958.

Upon entering their office, Broad noticed an article that mentioned the family’s journey of religious faith and how it intersects in business.

One conversation later, Broad and the Shaw family shook hands and took the next step to making Millport a prominent business destination with the addition of the hotel, the mortgage center, and the restaurant.

“Van was instrumental in all three of those things,” said Ronnie Shaw, partner/owner with Shaw Resources. “And he was very big in helping Millport develop as it has.”

“Van was instrumental in all three of those things,” said Ronnie Shaw, partner/owner with Shaw Resources. “And he was very big in helping Millport develop as it has.””

“City Center. Now 10-12 years in the making, Mauldin was close to having a City Center a few times, but nothing actually happened until a meeting took place between Broad and local developer Drew Parker.

“It began as a cold call to me from Van, who said with no pretenses that the site for the City Center would be a difficult build, and carry lots of challenges,” said Parker, founder and principal of the Parker Group. “But he also said it would be a great opportunity because so many people in Mauldin were all pulling together to make this Center happen. And once Van and I met and he showed me the site and I could see his passion for the project, I was on board all the way.”

Now, the $25 million project will be built out in three phases over much of 2022, and is expected to go a long way toward making Mauldin not only into a walkable urban center, but as the premier center of the Upstate.

“And it was Van’s efforts that really helped make this happen,” Parker said.”

BridgeWay Station. It started out as a small dream that, ironically, was spurred by a delay of more than three decades, and culminated with a conversation between two people who did not know each other. But when Van Broad first met local developer Phil Hughes to talk about how a piece of land known as Centerpointe could best be put to use for both Mauldin and the Upstate, Hughes saw that the potential for the long-stalled development had far exceeded what he had originally conceived. Now encompassing 170 acres, a total build-out price tag of more than $150 million, and progressing in multiple phases as the Upstate’s first-ever town center, BridgeWay Station has come together in ways that Phil Hughes said would not have happened without the support of Broad. “It took a long time to make the idea of BridgeWay Station happen, Hughes said. “But it was Van who sparked the fire for it and got the ball rolling.”