The Factory at Golden Flake Named 2025 Sale/Acquisition of the Year
CoStar Impact Award Winner Winners were selected by a panel of more than 630 esteemed industry professionals across 129 markets at the fourth annual commercial real estate awards
March 26, 2025 – [Birmingham, AL] – The Factory at Golden Flake today was named the 2025 Sale/Acquisition of the Year CoStar Impact Award winner in the Birmingham market. Winners—chosen for their growth, diversification, and ability to overcome unique challenges in their markets—were selected from a panel of more than 660 industry professionals drawn from each respective market.
The former Golden Flake potato chip factory was purchased by Utz Quality Foods in 2016. Seven years later, Utz shut down the factory permanently. This left the 36.7 acre property and its 283,310 square foot warehouse sitting empty. In early 2024, 2nds in Building Materials Inc., a Chattanooga investment group and corporate owner of Southeastern Salvage Home Emporium, purchased the building and surrounding property for $6 million. The property is being rebranded as a multi-use retail and warehouse facility called The Factory at Golden Flake, with Southeastern Salvage Home Emporium as its primary anchor store.
“We see the growth all around the Golden Flake site and are looking forward to the redevelopment and growth of the area,” said Scott LeRoy, VP of Southeastern Salvage. “We are excited about the opportunity to revitalize and occupy a building that has played such a big role in Birmingham and Alabama's History.”
The CoStar Impact Awards recognize exemplary commercial real estate transactions and projects completed in 2024 that have significantly influenced neighborhoods or submarkets across 129 major international markets in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. The awards honored over 340 winners for their CRE transactions across five categories: Lease of the Year, Sale/Acquisition of the Year, Commercial Development of the Year, Multifamily Development of the Year and Redevelopment of the Year.
“Each year, the CoStar Impact Awards celebrate commercial real estate professionals that are introducing innovative and transformative projects and transactions in the industry,” said Lisa Ruggles, Senior Vice President, Global Operations at CoStar Group. “We received an incredible number of submissions this year and enlisted a diverse panel of judges across each market to identify the most impactful projects shaping the commercial real estate landscape. Congratulations to all the winners for their efforts to transform the industry and the communities they serve.”
To learn more about the CoStar Impact Awards and review the full list of winners, visit www.CoStarImpactAwards.com/.
About 2nds in Building Materials Inc. and Southeastern Salvage Home Emporium
2nds in Building Materials Inc. is a Chattanooga investment group and corporate owner of retail stores doing business as Southeastern Salvage, Home Emporium, and Southeastern Salvage Home Emporium. Established in 1980, 2nds in Building Materials Inc. currently operates 11 stores in 6 states, selling discount building materials and unique home décor items.
The fifth store location, Southeastern Salvage Home Emporium, opened in Irondale, Alabama in 2005 and has moved to The Factory at Golden Flake in the North Titusville area of Birmingham, Alabama. It is scheduled to open in June 2025. Other store locations are Chattanooga, Knoxville, and Nashville, Tennessee; Huntsville and Mobile, Alabama; Chesapeake, Virginia; Shreveport, Louisiana; Springdale, Ohio, a suburb of Cincinnati; and Columbia and Greenville, South Carolina.
The stores pride themselves in being a place where you can buy almost anything…almost. Buying their products domestically and internationally, customers can shop the world in one stop. What sets them apart from other retailers is they commission artists and craftsmen from around the world to design handmade products, many from reclaimed materials, that are truly unique one-of-a-kind finds. To learn more about them, visit 2nds.biz, SoutheasternSalvage.com, or HomeEmporium.com.
About CoStar Group
CoStar Group (NASDAQ: CSGP) is the global leader in commercial real estate information, analytics, and online marketplaces. Founded in 1986, CoStar Group is dedicated to digitizing the world’s real estate, empowering all people to discover properties, insights, and connections that improve their businesses and lives.
CoStar Group’s major brands include CoStar, a leading global provider of commercial real estate data, analytics and news; LoopNet, the most trafficked commercial real estate marketplace; Apartments.com, the leading platform for apartment rentals; and Homes.com, the fastest-growing residential real estate marketplace. CoStar Group’s industry-leading brands include STR, a global leader in hospitality data and benchmarking, Ten-X, an online platform for commercial real estate auctions and negotiated bids and OnTheMarket, a leading residential property portal in the United Kingdom.
CoStar Group’s websites attracted over 134 million average monthly unique visitors in the fourth quarter of 2024, serving clients around the world. Headquartered in Arlington, Virginia, CoStar Group is committed to transforming the real estate industry through innovative technology and comprehensive market intelligence. From time to time, we plan to utilize our corporate website as a channel of distribution for material company information. For more information, visit CoStarGroup.com.
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