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Amazing race

Virginia is reaping thousands of jobs and huge tax revenues as Amazon.com revamps its U.S. delivery network. The e-commerce giant is opening major distribution centers and sorting facilities across the commonwealth as part of its nationwide strategy to get goods to consumers faster and stay one step ahead of competitors like Walmart and Target that have seen a surge in online orders, as well as newer online upstarts Shein and Temu.

Already the largest industrial tenant in North America, Amazon has leased, purchased or announced plans for more than 16 million square feet of new warehouse space across the nation this year as part of its distribution network upgrade. Traditionally relying on a centralized network, the Seattle-based company with its East Coast headquarters in Arlington County is developing nine regional distribution networks across the country to ensure customers can obtain products quickly from nearby fulfillment centers. Doing so necessitates placing inventory in more warehouses nationwide.

“Amazon’s network is continually optimized to position products close to the demand location, requiring additional investments when activity in a region reaches certain thresholds,” explains Jason El Koubi, president and CEO of the Virginia Economic Development Partnership.

Across Virginia, more than 30 warehouses, 11 fulfillment and sortation centers and 16 delivery stations bear the Amazon brand. The online retailer opened its first Virginia fulfillment facility in Sterling in 2006 and continues to expand across the state, investing more than $109 billion and creating more than 36,000 jobs since 2010. Additionally, Amazon has contributed more than $72 billion to the state’s gross domestic product. Those investments have helped solidify Virginia’s position as one of North America’s prime supply chain hubs.

“We have a very strong and positive relationship with Amazon,” says El Koubi. “Amazon plays a very important role in the ecosystem of distribution and supply chain operations in Virginia and is one of the core providers of logistics-related job growth. It has a very sophisticated network that continues to be optimized to position products close to demand centers.”

Big presence

In 2021, Amazon chose Stafford County as one of its East Coast hubs where items from third-party vendors are sorted, repacked and sent to other distribution centers. The 630,000-square-foot cross-dock fulfillment center in the Northern Virginia Gateway industrial park opened in 2022, bringing 500 jobs to the Fredericksburg and Stafford region.

Virginia’s newest Amazon facilities — a 650,000-square-foot robotics fulfillment center in Henrico County that created more than 1,000 full-time jobs and a 1 million-square-foot non-sortable fulfillment center in Augusta County with 500 jobs — opened in 2023. A last-mile distribution center in Roanoke is expected to be up and running by late this year.

Also set to open in time for the holiday season is a 219,000-square-foot Virginia Beach delivery station, with an adjacent 650,000-square-foot robotics fulfillment center coming online in 2025. Combined, Amazon is investing $350 million in the facilities, which are expected to bring more than 1,000 jobs to Hampton Roads. They join other Amazon sites in Hampton Roads, including the company’s first robotics fulfillment center in Virginia, a $230 million, 3.8 million-square-foot, five-story robotics behemoth in Suffolk that lays claim as the state’s second largest building behind the Pentagon, and a $50 million, 650,000-square-foot fulfillment center and career center in Chesapeake. Amazon’s Suffolk facility employs about 1,500 workers, while the Chesapeake center has about 1,000 employees.

The Hampton Roads Alliance, the regional economic development organization, has worked with Amazon since 2020, when the Fortune Global 500 online retailer and tech company announced it would build the distribution centers in Suffolk and Chesapeake.

“In just a few short years, Amazon has become one of Hampton Roads’ major employers,” says Alliance President and CEO Doug Smith. “The company has proven to be a strong corporate partner and an ally in recruiting and retaining the next generation of talent.”

In addition, Amazon operates three Prime Now fulfillment centers in Virginia Beach, Springfield and Richmond, which offer one- and two-hour deliveries for Amazon Prime customers in Virginia. Amazon also has 16 Whole Foods Markets and five Amazon Fresh outlets across the commonwealth.

Most notable about the company’s Virginia presence is its $2.5 billion East Coast headquarters, HQ2, which it opened in Arlington in 2023.

Last year, Amazon also announced that it will double its investment in data centers so far across Virginia, spending another $35 billion by 2040 and adding at least 1,000 jobs.

In all, Amazon has 39,000 full- and part-time employees in Virginia. The retailer also works with more than 11,000 Virginia-based independent sellers — mostly small and medium-sized businesses.

‘Huge impact’

Virginia’s pro-business environment drew Amazon to the commonwealth.

“Strong local, state and regional support have made Virginia attractive to Amazon,” says Amazon spokesperson Sam Fisher, adding that the company is constantly exploring new locations when deciding where to develop sites to best serve customers.

“Virginia is a great state to do business, and the support we’ve received from day one has been key to our ability to invest, grow, hire and innovate on behalf of our customers.”

Amazon is investing $350 million to construct a fulfillment center and a delivery station in Virginia Beach. Photo by Mark Rhodes

Amazon’s Henrico Fulfillment Center, built on 199 acres adjacent to Richmond International Raceway, brought more than 1,000 jobs to Central Virginia.

“This has had a huge impact for us,” says Henrico Economic Development Authority Executive Director Anthony Romanello. “Amazon has done everything they said they would do in terms of investments and hiring.”

The largest building in Central Virginia, the fulfillment center spans 2.7 million square feet and is Amazon’s second robotics center in Virginia. The company worked with Texas-based Hillwood Development to secure the property, which was purchased for $7.7 million. Hillwood frequently joins Amazon in warehouse development projects nationwide.

A pandemic-fueled increase in e-commerce propelled much of Amazon’s expansion, with the company snatching up 40% of U.S. warehouse space in 2020.

In Northern Virginia, Amazon’s growth has helped keep industrial sector vacancy rates in the low- to mid-single digits, says Nate Edwards, Cushman and Wakefield’s senior director of Washington, D.C., metro research. By contrast, more than 20% of office space in the D.C. region sits vacant as significant numbers of employees have shifted to remote and hybrid work.

“COVID was an excellent thing for Amazon and industrial brokers,” says Cushman & Wakefield Executive Director Jon Lawrence, who notes that skyrocketing demand for industrial space has led to double and triple rental rate increases. “Amazon has eaten up a lot of warehouse space in Northern Virginia. I’ve been doing this for 37 years and have never seen anything like the last four years.”

As the largest industrial tenant in Northern Virginia, Amazon has inventory in about a dozen 60,000-, 80,000- and 100,000-square-foot buildings in Northern Virginia. “There’s not 1 million square feet in one building but broken into a bunch of buildings in Ashburn, Chantilly and Manassas,” Lawrence says. “There’s no zoned land left in Northern Virginia to build warehouses, and supply is incredibly limited.”

Competitors have been watching Amazon’s growth and trying to emulate it. For example, online furniture and home décor retailer Wayfair has a large distribution center in Manassas. “Everyone sees what they’re doing and figures out how to do it as well,” Lawrence says, “but it’s safe to say no one is close to being as successful as Amazon.”

However, he believes that Amazon will eventually put the brakes on its warehouse growth. “Nobody can keep doubling or tripling their business forever. There will be a pause. At some point in time, they have to have enough warehouses to distribute products in the next 24 hours.”

‘Success begets success’

More than 4,600 companies, spanning warehousing and storage, road, rail, air and maritime freight transport make up Virginia’s diverse logistics ecosystem for distribution and supply chain operations, notes El Koubi. Other leading logistics companies, such as FedEx, UPS, DHL, Patton Logistics, InterChange Group, and Lineage Logistics, have also made significant investments in storage and distribution facilities in Virginia.

Those investments are the upshot of Virginia assets such as the Port of Virginia and Dulles International Airport, as
well as the state’s strategic mid-Atlantic location. “Companies can get to 75% of the U.S. population in two days or less by road,” El Koubi notes. “As the nation’s mean center of population has shifted to the South over the past decade, that
gives Virginia an advantage.”

Hampton Roads has always been a hub for logistics companies, says Smith. “The region’s labor force has plentiful talent for companies looking to distribute their goods both domestically and internationally.” He adds that much of the region’s current industrial development has focused on western Hampton Roads, where Amazon, Target and Ace Hardware have opened distribution centers.

Demand for industrial and distribution space has spiked in the region. CoStar Group, a major provider of commercial real estate data and analytics, noted in February that less than 4% of industrial space is available in Hampton Roads, one of the tightest availability rates nationally. Demand has led to multiple speculative projects, with industrial construction seeing a 63% jump in the market’s pipeline during the first quarter of 2024.

Currently, 4.2 million square feet of industrial space are under construction, including Amazon’s Virginia Beach fulfillment center. According to CoStar, this is only the third time in a decade that more than 2 million square feet of distribution space has broken ground in a single quarter.

“In this case, success begets success as industrial developers have stepped up to meet the ever-increasing demand,” Smith says.

As e-commerce mushroomed over the past few years, record absorption followed, says Geoff Poston, a Cushman & Wakefield | Thalhimer senior vice president who leads the company’s Hampton Roads industrial group. “The industry has been on a crazy run the past four or five years,” Poston says. “E-commerce is a large part of what has driven leasing and absorption activity. Developers were racing to build more space.”

Poston adds that the industry is still doing very well but not at the same historic rates as over the past three years, a byproduct of what he calls a COVID hangover effect. “All that demand came at one time,” he says. “Retailers sold two to three years of inventory in one year. Leasing rates rose dramatically, and properties were being leased. All of a sudden, demand among tenants cooled off.”

Still, logistics companies like Amazon are continuing to invest and expand in Virginia.

“We see a lot of potential for growth,” El Koubi says, noting that VEDP has made logistics one of its target economic growth sectors.

“Logistics is one of the most rapidly growing sectors in Virginia and a sector in which Virginia is at an advantage,” he adds. “One of Virginia’s great strengths is our economic landscape is very diverse. Almost any kind of business operation can excel here.”  

2024 Virginia CFO Awards: Small Business: Joel Flax, Cohen Investment Group

Joel Flax hadn’t planned on serving as a chief financial officer after retiring from a full-fledged career as an accountant and tax advisor. But it also wasn’t the first time he made an unexpected career shift.

In college, he had wanted to be a sportswriter. But shortly after graduating from William & Mary with a psychology degree and getting his first job in writing, he decided to find something better suited to his talents.

“I discovered that I couldn’t write,” he remembers. “I would write something and read it afterwards, and go, ‘Eh, it’s horrible.’”

He was good with numbers and intrigued by real estate, though, so Flax got his real estate license and trained as an accountant.

In 1978, he joined assurance, tax and advisory services firm Dixon Hughes Goodman (now Forvis Mazars). He stayed there for almost 40 years, becoming a partner and Virginia real estate leader for the firm, serving as a firmwide resource on real estate and related taxes.

A member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and the Virginia Society of Certified Public Accountants, Flax served as chairman of the AICPAC Real Estate Conference Committee for eight years and as a board member of the Hampton Roads Association for Commercial Real Estate.

After he retired from Dixon Hughes Goodman, Flax recalls, “My wife said, ‘You need to find something to do. You’re not going to sit around the house.’” One of his contacts, the founder of Cohen Investment Group, a commercial real estate investment firm in Virginia Beach, happened to be looking for an acting CFO.

Flax joined the firm in 2016, going on to become executive vice president and chief financial officer. He has relished the new challenges and opportunities that have come with this unexpected chapter of his long career. His role involves analyzing properties, conducting cost-segregation studies, working with third-party property management on accounting and collaborating with Cohen’s internal accounting team on year-end accounting procedures and Schedule K-1 tax documents for investment clients.

Flax has found it satisfying to be involved in the process of improving assets to generate good returns for investors, which frees him from the time pressures inherent in accounting work. He has also found that moving into a CFO role from a CPA role has sparked his appreciation for the importance of collegial relationships in the work of investing.

“The CFO is not the person behind the curtain working on numbers with your head down,” he says. “You’re also working with people, and you’ve got to be able to do both to be successful.”

Transitioning into a more people-oriented position as an older employee has its particular benefits: “Most satisfying is meeting and working with younger people. They keep you vibrant and relevant. And at the same time I’m able to give them knowledge, and we’re able to work as peers. It’s been very rewarding.”

Flax’s colleagues appreciate the wealth of experience and the positive attitude he brings to the firm. Cohen’s office and corporate accounts manager, Rhendi Ross, describes Flax as “a remarkable person who genuinely deserves this recognition” as a 2024 Virginia CFO Award winner.

“I felt strongly that Joel deserved this award because of his exceptional leadership, extensive knowledge in finance and real estate-related transactions and his genuine care and commitment to all of us here at Cohen Investment Group,” she says. “His dedication to maintaining and sharing his expertise in finance is truly admirable.”

Also admirable is Flex’s dedication to his family and community. He is proud of always having been present at his son’s and daughter’s sports games and ballet recitals, and of serving as president of Beth El Temple Foundation.

“I just think it’s everyone’s responsibility to leave a positive mark,” he says. 

DataBank to add leased data center to Ashburn campus

DataBank, a Texas provider of data center, cloud, and interconnection services, has signed a lease on a data center currently under construction on Red Rum Drive in Ashburn by GI Partners, the California investment firm announced Thursday. 

Two other data center buildings are already located on Red Rum Drive. One is owned by DataBank and the other other is owned by GI Partners, which invests in private equity, real estate and data infrastructure, and leased by DataBank, according to a spokesperson for DataBank. 

During construction of the new building, GI Partners will add an additional 29 megawatts of power to the site, according to an announcement.

“GI has a proven track record in strategically adding value to existing and newly acquired data center assets and this project adds to that long list,” Tony Lin, the firm’s managing director, stated in the release.

Construction should be completed by the second quarter of 2025, according to GI Partners. The data center is expected to be ready by the first quarter in 2026, according to a news release distributed by DataBank on Thursday.  

A spokesperson for DataBank did not comment on financial terms of the deal.

All three data center properties will be combined into a new data center campus encompassing 18 acres and 375,000 square feet of data center space, according to DataBank.

“This new site demonstrates DataBank’s ability to creatively source additional space and power in extremely constrained markets,” Raul K. Martynek, DataBank’s CEO, stated in the release. “By expanding this Ashburn campus, DataBank is responding to the Northern [Virginia] market’s surging need for colocation space and power that can support the [AI] applications of the future.”

In 2023, DataBank bought 85 acres in Culpeper, where the company plans to build three two-story facilities totaling 1.4 million square feet of data center space with 192 megawatts of power, the company stated. That campus is less than 50 miles away from the Ashburn campus, according to DataBank. 

GI Partners data infrastructure team primarily invests in “hard asset infrastructure businesses underpinning the digital economy,” according to the firm’s news release. It owns six data center buildings in Northern Virginia.

QTS finishes $137M purchase of rezoned Henrico tech park land

QTS Data Centers has secured ownership of all 622 acres of the recently rezoned site for the White Oak Technology Park II project in Henrico County’s Sandston area for approximately $137 million.

On June 28, a limited liability company belonging to QTS bought the remaining portion of the site that it hadn’t yet acquired — about 397 acres — for $118.8 million from a limited liability company belonging to Richmond development company Hourigan, county records show. Hourigan shepherded the land through its county rezoning process to light industrial.

The LLC owned by Hourigan purchased the land that day, buying about 223 acres for $38.05 million from Atlantic Crossing and 174 acres from Vienna Finance for $20.5 million.

“[QTS] came to us with a vision and a plan for eastern Henrico that allowed them to have complete control of that entire site,” said Hourigan founder and CEO Mark Hourigan, “and in evaluating all the options and ways that we might be able to consider moving forward with that, we thought that was the best long-term outcome for the county and for that site, is to have someone with a proven track record [and] the capital behind them to be able to make that kind of investment.”

QTS previously acquired the other approximately 225 acres of the site and some 4 outlying acres from Harmon Properties, Brenda H. Sargent and John C. Harmon in several December 2023 transactions totaling $18 million.

The Kansas-based company already has a data center campus in the original, adjacent White Oak Technology Park and announced in 2022 plans for a 1.5 million-square-foot expansion. Also in that park is QTS’ network access point, which connects, through Virginia Beach landing stations, to three subsea internet cables originating in Europe and South America.

A company spokesperson said QTS was unable to share details of its project plans at this time.

Hourigan said, “It is a fabulous opportunity for Henrico County and to drive this region forward, and allows QTS to continue their business plan, and I think a great solution for everyone that was involved.”

Project past and future

During the rezoning process, which began with initial filings in late 2023, county residents raised concerns about environmental impacts and losing part of a Civil War battlefield. Ultimately, the county planning commission recommended approving the rezoning in April.

The Henrico County Board of Supervisors voted to rezone the site on May 14. On May 16, the board announced the county was establishing a $60 million affordable housing trust fund that would be funded by unbudgeted local tax revenue from data centers.

“We are incredibly excited about the industrial development that is happening and that will be happening in eastern Henrico,” said Anthony Romanello, executive director of the Henrico Economic Development Authority. With the establishment of the affordable housing trust fund, “developments like what’s happening in White Oak, like what QTS is doing, are really helping to make Henrico an even greater community.”

Now that the site has been rezoned, Romanello said, next steps include installing infrastructure such as water, sewer and power lines at the site by 2026. According to county documents, Hourigan will install sewer infrastructure for the project, while the county will handle water infrastructure.

Dominion Energy had to apply to the State Corporation Commission for approval to install two 230-kilovolt power lines to the site and expand its existing White Oak substation. In October 2023 testimony, a Hourigan representative referred to the proposed project, then consisting of about 320 acres, as the VAH Data Center Campus, referring to the property owners at the time: Vienna Finance, Atlantic Crossing and Hourigan. The SCC approved Dominion Energy’s application in March.

“I think we’ve had a very strong industrial base in Henrico — and I’m including data centers in industrial — and it’s getting a whole lot stronger with the investment that Hourigan and QTS are making,” Romanello said.

Brent Godwin contributed to this article.

Reports: Novo Nordisk in talks to buy Petersburg Ampac plant

Two South Korean media outlets have reported that the South Korean owner of Ampac Fine Chemicals may sell its manufacturing plant in Petersburg to Novo Nordisk, the Danish global pharmaceutical company.

Sources told The Korea Economic Daily that the Seoul-based manufacturing conglomerate SK Group, which purchased Ampac in 2018 for a reported $576 million, is in “final-stage talks” to sell the 600,000-square-foot plant for $216 million to Novo Nordisk, with the deal possibly completed by the end of August, according to a June 25 article.

The Korea Herald reported June 26 that the potential sale could be part of a push on the Danish drugmaker’s part to increase production of its popular weight-loss drugs Wegovy and Ozempic. In late June, Novo Nordisk announced plans to invest $4.1 billion to build a second manufacturing facility in Clayton, North Carolina, adding 1,000 jobs.

A U.S. spokesperson for Novo Nordisk said Wednesday that the company has not yet announced any plans in Petersburg.

“SK Pharmteco does not discuss potential business transactions, whether rumored or confirmed,” Audrey Greenberg, the company’s chief marketing and communications officer, said in a statement Thursday. “However, we are constantly exploring strategic opportunities to strengthen our leading position as a CDMO. Our commitment lies in expanding our capabilities in small molecule APIs, cell and gene therapies, and analytical services. By doing so, we aim to offer our clients a broader range of solutions and, ultimately, improve patients’ lives worldwide.”

SK Pharmteco is SK Group’s contract drug-making subsidiary, with contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) plants in California, Texas and Virginia. In 2018, SK Holdings purchased California-based Ampac Fine Chemicals, then owned by H.I.G. Capital, a private equity firm. H.I.G. had owned the company since 2014 and was responsible for acquiring the Petersburg plant reportedly under consideration for sale to Novo Nordisk. In 2019, SK Group consolidated Ampac Fine Chemicals with its biotech divisions in South Korea and Ireland to form SK Pharmteco.

Ampac, founded in 1945, arrived in Petersburg in 2019, restarting a former pharmaceutical plant that had been closed for five years. Between 2020 and 2022, Ampac doubled production capacity and tripled its employee base to 150 workers. Currently, the company has three production buildings and 16 manufacturing lines making active pharmaceutical ingredients in Petersburg.

Ampac’s presence was a draw for other pharmaceutical companies — notably Phlow and Civica Rx — now with facilities in Petersburg. Civica, a Utah-based nonprofit generic drugmaker, is set to begin producing medications for general and local anesthesia, pain management and antibacterial therapies created with ingredients produced by Ampac and Phlow by late 2024. The three companies, along with Virginia Commonwealth University’s Medicines for All Institute, are partners on a federally funded $354 million contract to reduce U.S. dependence on foreign supply chains and promote domestic medication production. The contract, awarded in May 2020, finished its initial four-year phase in May, and is now in the first of six potential one-year renewal options.

In 2022, the 16-partner Alliance for Building Better Medicine, which includes the three pharma companies, won a $52.9 million Build Back Better Regional Challenge grant from the U.S. Commerce Department’s Economic Development Administration to address the national need for domestically produced drugs. In October 2023, the EDA designated the Richmond-Petersburg metropolitan statistical area an Advanced Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Tech Hub, qualifying it to apply for additional funding, but the region missed out on $502 million in federal grants announced in July.

Chesterfield County facility sells for $9.3M

An entity associated with Barefoot Spas, a hot tub and swim spa manufacturer, sold a five-acre property in Chesterfield County to an entity associated with Maguire Hayden Real Estate Company, a Pennsylvania commercial real estate investment firm, on July 1 for $9.3 million, Cushman & Wakefield | Thalhimer Capital Markets Group and Industrial Services announced last week. 

The 114,714-square-foot facility at 8401 Fort Darling Road sits on about 5.2 acres, and Barefoot Spas will lease the property from the new owner.

“It’s a highly functional industrial building, and it’s located right off of Interstate 95 right outside of Richmond,” Bo McKown, first vice president at Cushman & Wakefield | Thalhimer’s Capital Markets, said. “The Richmond industrial market continues to be really one of the one of the strongest on the East Coast.” 

For Richard French, CEO of Barefoot Spas, McKown said, the sale-leaseback was “an evolution of his business plan.” French did not immediately respond to a request for comment. 

“The tenant does some manufacturing in this facility. They do some assembly of products and they also use it as distribution as well,” McKown said. “So it’s a pretty flexible building, and all of those attributes kind of contributed to why it was pretty highly sought after in the investment community.”

 The sale-leaseback was a collaborative effort between Thalhimer’s Industrial Services Group and Capital Markets Group completed by Graham Stoneburner, McKown and Chrissy Chappell. 

In June, an industrial warehouse and about 11.6 adjoining acres in Chesterfield County sold for $9.85 million. Cushman & Wakefield | Thalhimer handled that sale on behalf of the seller.

 

Bowman announces executive promotions

Michael Bruen has been named Bowman Consulting Group’s president, the Reston-based engineering services firm announced last week.

Gary Bowman, who formerly was president, retains his roles as CEO and chairman. Dan Swayze, who served as executive vice president and division manager, will fill Bruen’s former role as chief operating officer and will become an executive officer of the company.

Additionally, Bowman Consulting’s executive vice president and chief financial officer, Bruce Labovitz, entered into a new four-year contract with the company. 

“These promotions and the extension of Bruce’s contract underscore our commitment to internal leadership development and to ensuring continuity and stability among our executive team,” Bowman stated in a news release. “With respect to Mike and Dan, this is a natural evolution in our leadership structure, and I remain fully committed to an active operational role as chief executive officer.”

Bruen has worked at Bowman for more than 25 years, spending the last 15 years as chief operating officer. He also serves on the company’s board. As president, Bruen’s responsibilities will include overseeing strategic planning and business development. 

Swayze came aboard in 2022 as executive vice president of energy services. In his new role, Swayze will be responsible for the oversight of all professional services operations. Previously, he was chief operating officer at New York’s Onyx Renewable Partners, a renewable energy developer and financier. Swayze led Onyx’s engineering, procurement, construction and asset management divisions. 

Labovitz has worked at Bowman since 2013 and aided Bowman’s transition to a public company in 2021.  He’s also overseen several acquisitions and led investor relations and corporate communications. In June, the Northern Virginia Technology Council recognized Labovitz as its 2024 Public Company CFO of the Year. 

Bowman has more than 2,200 employees across 92 offices nationwide and provides planning, engineering, geospatial, construction management, commissioning, environmental consulting, land procurement and other technical services. The company reported $346.3 million in 2023 revenue, up from $261.7 million in 2022 revenue, a 32% increase. 

Owens & Minor leases new HQ in Henrico

Henrico County is getting a fifth Fortune 500 company. Global health care logistics and supply company Owens & Minor is moving from Hanover County to a new headquarters in Henrico’s Innsbrook Corporate Center. 

The company is leasing the fourth floor of the Highwoods One building at 10900 Nuckols Road, according to Will Bradley, an executive managing director in Virginia for commercial real estate firm Newmark. Other tenants at the 130,803-square-foot Highwoods One building include LifeStance Health, a mental health care provider, and Primis Bank. 

“Like many companies, Owens & Minor re-evaluated its office footprint in light of new workplace trends and the preferences of our teammates,” an Owens & Minor spokesperson said in a July 12 statement. “We recently finalized long-term plans for relocating our headquarters to a location in Innsbrook just minutes away from our current one and look forward to welcoming Richmond area teammates at the end of this year.”

In April, Newmark announced it had secured the $33.5 million sale of Owens & Minor’s 160,000-square-foot, Mechanicsville headquarters at 9120 Lockwood Blvd. in Hanover County to the Virginia Department of Transportation. In May, a VDOT spokesperson  said the state agency’s central office will move to Hanover in summer 2025. 

Owens & Minor has more than 20,000 employees worldwide with “hundreds of teammates that call the Richmond area home,” according to a spokesperson.

Henrico’s other Fortune 500 companies are tobacco products manufacturer Altria Group, conglomerate Markel Group, insurer Genworth Financial and convenience store and wholesale fuel company Arko.

“It’s a win for our region that … they’re going to continue to keep their headquarters in the Richmond region,” said Henrico Economic Development Authority Executive Director Anthony J. Romanello of the move, describing Highwoods One as “trophy office space.” He added, “There’s certainly a significant demand for very high-quality office space right now, and Innsbrook has that.” 

Owens & Minor reported $10.3 billion in 2023 revenues, up from $9.9 billion in 2022.

 

 

Breeden promotes multifamily Richmond region director

The Breeden Co. has promoted Lindsay McMurrough to multifamily regional director of the Richmond market within the Virginia Beach-based real estate company’s residential property management division.

McMurrough was previously a community manager. In her new role, she will oversee strategic direction of Breeden’s multifamily assets in the Richmond market.

“Lindsay’s promotion is a testament to her unwavering dedication and exceptional leadership qualities,” Breeden Property Management President Bonnie Moore said in a statement. “Her goal to build top-performing teams aligns perfectly with our company’s mission to deliver outstanding service and results.”

McMurrough joined Breeden in 2013 from Virginia Beach-based Great Atlantic Management, where she started her property management career in 2006. She is a National Apartment Association Certified Apartment Manager.

Chesapeake shopping center sells for $20.05M

A community shopping center in Chesapeake sold for $20.05 million in early June, property records show.

Located at 4300 Portsmouth Blvd., adjacent to the Chesapeake Square mall, the roughly 180,000-square-foot shopping center sold for $18.847 million, and an associated 1.32-acre outparcel sold for $1.203 million.

The shopping center is 90% leased. Its tenants include Value City Furniture, PetSmart and Dollar Tree stores. A portion of the shopping center with a BigLots and a Gabe’s store was not part of the transaction.

RCC Chesapeake Center LLC, whose address is the same as Richmond-based Hackney Real Estate Partners’ address, purchased the properties from Chesapeake Center LLC and from Chesapeake Center Outparcel LLC, whose address matches that of Washington Prime Group’s Columbus, Ohio, headquarters. Newmark represented the seller in the transaction.