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Tag: commercial real estate

Arlington apartment tower sells for $48.5M

A 162-unit high-rise apartment property in Arlington County has changed hands.

Fortis Cos., a Washington, D.C.-based real estate development and investment company, acquired Marlowe Apartments from Equity Residential for $48.5 million, according to Berkadia, a commercial real estate services and mortgage firm, and Arlington County property records.

The 162-unit property located at 400 15th St. S. is located across from Metropolitan Park, the first phase of Amazon.com’s East Coast headquarters, HQ2.

Marlowe Apartments, built in 1986, is connected to the Crystal City Metro station.

Patrick McGlohn, Brian Gould, Miles Drinkwalter and Pat Cunningham of Berkadia DC Metro secured $40.6 million in financing on behalf of the buyer. The financing closed on May 6 in conjunction with the sale of the property. Berkadia DC Metro Institutional Sales, led by Brian Crivella, Yalda Ghamarian and Bill Gribbin, facilitated the sale on behalf of the seller.

VDOT buys Owens & Minor’s Hanover HQ for $33.5M

The Virginia Department of Transportation has purchased the Mechanicsville headquarters of Owens & Minor for $33.5 million, with plans to move the state agency’s central office there in summer 2025.

Much of VDOT’s staff will move from the Annex building at 1401 E. Broad St. into the new building at 9120 Lockwood Blvd. in Hanover County, according to Jessica Cowardin, assistant director of communications for the state agency. The 160,000-square-foot campus in Atlee Station Business Park was built by Timmons Group in 2006. VDOT also purchased an additional 50 acres, according to Newmark Group, which brokered the deal.

Meanwhile, Owens & Minor expects to vacate the building by the end of this year. The Fortune 500 global health care logistics and supplies company plans to relocate its corporate headquarters somewhere in the Richmond region. While declining to specify where the company would move, a company spokesperson said the move “better reflects the current needs of our organization and our teammates.” Owens & Minor has 1,400 employees in Virginia and more than 20,000 worldwide, including hundreds of workers in the Richmond area.

The move will not impact the company’s operations and is a reflection of workplace trends and worker preference, according to the company.

Owens & Minor headquarters
Photo courtesy Newmark

In November 2020, Owens & Minor announced it was pulling the plug on its 90,000-square-foot downtown Richmond call center and would be seeking tenants to sublet the space after so many workers started working remotely.

“We’re proud that Owens & Minor has called Richmond, Virginia, home for more than 100 years, and look forward to our continued presence in the local community,” a statement from the company said.

Brandon Turner, director of Hanover County Economic Development, said Monday that he doesn’t expect Owens & Minor’s next headquarters to be located in the county. “It would be very difficult because we don’t have a lot of Class A office space,”  he said. “What we have is very small, and I think what they’re looking for is larger than what we have available on the market in Hanover.”

Owens & Minor moving to a new headquarters is a double-edged sword, Turner said. The company will be off the county’s tax roll and VDOT, as a Virginia state agency, will not pay taxes.

“That in and of itself is a bit of a hit,” Turner said. “On the flip side, the building is heavily underutilized right now by Owens & Minor due to their [work-from-home] policies. When VDOT comes up, they will bring significantly more individuals up here, and those people will be going out into the neighboring businesses [and] eating, buying groceries, whatever. So if you own a business in this corridor, it’s going to be a boon.”

Andrew Sandquist and Adam Faulk, JC Asensio and Adam Petrillo,  Briggs Goldberg, Will Bradley and Mark Williford, all of Newmark, represented the seller on the transaction.

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

This iconic, round office building in Richmond’s Museum District sold for $1.2M

One of Richmond’s most Instagram-worthy buildings has sold for $1.2 million.

Located on the corner of Thompson Street and Floyd Avenue in the Museum District,  the 1950s-era, circular building previously served as headquarters for Ellwood Thompson’s Local Market, a local organic grocer. The building sold on April 23 but Cushman & Wakefield | Thalhimer announced the sale last week.

Rick Hood, the grocery store’s former owner and an architect who previously practiced at Richmond’s Glavé Newman Anderson, bought the building in 2015 for $300,000.

In 2017, Hood went to work renovating the building. Partnering with a project team that included Richmond-based Walter Parks Architects, Dunlap & Partners Engineers, Four Winds Design, Sadler & Whitehead and J.A. Heisler Contracting, Hood’s restoration “kept the architectural integrity of the existing structure but also enhanced functionality and aesthetic details,” according to a news release issued last week about the sale from Cushman & Wakefield | Thalhimer Capital Markets Group.

The renovated building at 3540 Floyd Ave. won the 2021 American Institute of Architects Virginia Test of Time Award, which recognizes a structure that is 25 years old or older that still stands “as originally designed in appearance and in good condition.”

The western exterior courtyard of the building has been often used for community gatherings, such as events for Historic Richmond, according to Hood. “We can accommodate 125 people there,” he said.

After Hood sold his organic grocery store in 2023 to Florida-based Healthier Choices Management, he put the round office building up for sale.

It sold last month to an entity tied to real estate developer Dan Hargett, founder and CEO of Richmond-based Roka Partners, according to the release. Hargett did not immediately return a request for comment. Hood declined to comment about Hargett’s plans for the circular building.

After the extensive renovation, Hood said he didn’t make “much money” on the sale. “A little, but that was fine,” he said. “I wanted to do a nice job.”

A collage of shots of a round building built in the 1950s.
Photos courtesy Cushman & Wakefield | Thalhimer Capital Markets Group

This wasn’t a quick flip for Hood. “It was something that just gave me a lot of satisfaction to to bring back a special building that the community values and then to frankly … find someone that really wanted to continue to treat it in that way, and I think Dan Hargett is just the right person to do it.”

Dr. William Higgins Jr. was responsible for bringing the iconic building to the Museum District. When considering a new office in the 1950s, Higgins Jr., consulted with his friend Leslie Cheek Jr., an architect and director at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, according to the news release. He took Cheek’s advice and hired David Yerkes, a Washington, D.C.-based architect.

“It was done very, very well by Yerkes,” Hood said. “And you know the details and the quality of the materials. All the trim was redwood. And it’s old growth redwood, so all of it remains today in good shape.”

Dr. Jack Ashworth went on to practice for more than a half century — until 2016 — in the 2,750-square-foot office building. In the release, Ashworth praised the way the building’s floor-to-ceiling windows allow morning light to stream inside.

The transaction was handled by Catharine Spangler of Cushman & Wakefield | Thalhimer’s Capital Markets Group.

 

The Lake takes shape in Chesterfield

The first wave of commercial tenants is coming to The Lake, a long-planned, 105-acre mixed-use development that’s slated to bring a surf park to western Chesterfield County.

The Lake’s centerpiece will be a 13-acre artificial lake with a tow cable. It’s expected to be ready by summer 2025 for wakeboarding, kayaking, standup paddle boarding and other activities. It’ll be followed by an adjoining 6-acre surf park, one of a handful of such facilities nationwide that can generate waves large enough to surf.

“The anchor for our overall development is entertainment,” says project developer Brett Burkhart, founder of Lake Adventures and Flatwater Ventures. “We wanted to have restaurants and an amphitheater, and around that have some cool activities like surfing and wakeboarding on the lake.”

Burkhart lined up $323 million in financing for the development. Construction began in 2022 and is expected to take around five years to complete. Construction costs have increased, he says, though he declines to give a revised estimate.

In January, construction began on three buildings at The Lake’s entrance off Genito Road near State Route 288. A Chipotle and a Starbucks with a drive-thru will be the first tenants. The development’s initial phase also includes three retail and restaurant buildings by the lake. A Kilwins candy and ice cream shop has leased space in one.

Work should be completed by this fall, Burkhart says.

The Lake is also slated to include 150,000 square feet of retail and entertainment space, 100,000 square feet of office space, a 170-room hotel, an amphitheater, 830 apartments and 360 townhomes.

Chesterfield’s primary interest in the project is its commercial component, which is expected to help retain visitors to the county’s nearby River City Sportsplex who might otherwise head to Richmond for hotels, restaurants and shopping, says H. Garrett Hart III, the county’s economic development director. He also hopes The Lake will attract talent for businesses to Chesterfield.

Supervisors approved an agreement in 2022 to provide Lake Adventures with local tax rebates of up to 80% over the next 20 years for the development’s mixed-use and commercial portions. The funds will help defray the cost of building a parking deck instead of surface parking, leaving more space for commercial offerings.

“That’s the benefit of tourism, keeping those dollars in Chesterfield to be able to put back into our own infrastructure,” says J.C. Poma, Chesterfield’s executive director of sports, visitation and entertainment.  

Fredericksburg warehouse leased by food bank sells for $2.9M

A warehouse leased by the Fredericksburg Regional Food Bank has sold for nearly $3 million.

Nellis, a Maryland-based private investment company, purchased the 24,000-square-foot industrial warehouse on 2.89 acres from Fredericksburg-based entity MDC 480 Central for $2.925 million, according to an April 25 news release from Cushman & Wakefield | Thalhimer.

The Fredericksburg Regional Food Bank has leased the property since 2021 and uses it for additional office space, to store food supplies, operate a grocery pickup program and conduct volunteer assembly line activities, according to Dan Maher, the food bank’s president and CEO. The food bank’s lease on the property runs through the fall of 2026, he wrote in an e-mail.

The property, which is located at 480 Central Road, includes 19,700 square feet of open warehouse space, 4,300 square feet of finished office space and 4,300 square feet of mezzanine space, according to Fredericksburg-based Johnson Realty Advisors. Its offerings include six offices, one conference room, one large lunchroom and an elevator.

Previously, the property was owned by Rappahannock Goodwill Industries, which used it as a commercial laundry, according to Cushman & Wakefield | Thalhimer.

Jamie A. Scully of Cushman & Wakefield | Thalhimer handled sale negotiations on behalf of the purchaser.

 

Norfolk mayor says apartments, hotel could replace MacArthur Center

MacArthur Center mall in downtown Norfolk is expected to be replaced by a major mixed-use development, which could be called “The Anchorage,” featuring a 400-room, military-themed hotel and 518,000 square feet of high-rise residential space, Norfolk Mayor Kenny Alexander announced April 12 during his State of the City speech.

“MacArthur Mall demands a bold vision that celebrates our culture, reconnects our city, attracts tourists and ensures economic vitality,” Alexander told a crowd of 1,200 business leaders. “Let’s envision a vibrant mixed-used destination. … By optimizing existing assets, we aim to solidify Norfolk as a premier home for business, living, hospitality, tourism, elevating our city’s appeal to residents and visitors alike.”

The development would have a 518,000-square-foot high-rise residential tower — with possibly 400 to 600 units — with rental and ownership options, plus 47,000 square feet of “luxury amenities” and active ground-floor leases. There would also be a 2-acre pedestrian-oriented promenade with more than 170,000 square feet of retail space. The new development would completely replace the existing mall, except for the parking garages.

MacArthur Center mall was built in 1999. Photo courtesy Norfolk Convention & Visitors Bureau Offices

Last summer, Norfolk purchased the 23-acre struggling MacArthur Center mall for $18 million, including consulting and legal fees. At the time, Alexander said that buying the mall would enable the city to “play an active and strategic role” in the property’s future.

Earlier this year, Norfolk hired architectural consulting firm Gensler to conduct a study on the mall and what action the city should take with it. Norfolk asked Gensler to examine the feasibility of replacing the mall convention center, as well as other adaptive reuses of the mall and parking structures.

The resulting recommendation from Gensler’s study is the plan Alexander presented in his State of the City speech.

Sean Washington, the city’s economic development director, and a representative from Gensler met with each Norfolk City Council member individually to present the findings. The council had not seen the plan collectively until the SOTC event.

The development would be a public-private partnership, Alexander told Virginia Business, with most of the cost being paid through private investment, he noted.

“If an unsolicited proposal falls on my desk and it meets everything that the council is seeking, … I don’t see why that wouldn’t be considered,” Alexander said.

Washington told Virginia Business the next step is the financial side — looking at what the city is comfortable spending and determining the project’s budget.

“We really have to start with a master developer,” he said. “At that point, you’re identifying the best developer and the components of the project you want to see come to fruition.”

No timeline has yet been established for the project, he said.

 

Norfolk strip mall near NSU sells for $2M

University Shoppes, an 8,800-square-foot retail strip center in Norfolk, sold for $2 million, according to a news release from S.L. Nusbaum Realty.

An entity registered as University Shoppes LLC sold 1500 E. Brambleton Shoppes, which is located near Norfolk State University, to an entity registered as 1500 East Brambleton Shoppes LLC.

The shopping center has five tenants — Nails 20/20, A&B Hair Braiding, Kappatal Cuts, Sam’s Beauty Salon and a Boost Mobile store — and one vacancy, according to Doug Aronson, a senior managing director with SLN Capital Markets, a division of S.L. Nusbaum Realty, who represented the seller. 

 

 

Henrico trade school building sells for $1.27M

Ashland-based HSH Investments has purchased a building in Henrico County leased by long-term tenant Lotus Professional College from Ritesan Co. Inc. for $1.27 million.

SLN Capital Markets, a division of S.L. Nusbaum Realty, announced the sale of 8935 Patterson Ave. on April 2. Henrico County recorded the sale March 27. The 10,150-square-foot building sits on 1.29 acres.

Lotus Professional College, a trade school, trains students in acupuncture, massage therapy and esthetics.

Doug Aronson of SLN Capital Markets and Nathan Shor of S.L. Nusbaum Realty represented the seller.

Sheetz starts construction on $2.4M Chesterfield property

Sheetz is building a store on 2.66 acres in Chesterfield County that it purchased for $2.45 million.

The Altoona, Pennsylvania-based convenience store chain bought the property at 9420 Midlothian Turnpike from Gouldin Properties on March 18, according to county property records.

Sheetz has started construction of a store at the site, according to a Tuesday news release from Cushman & Wakefield | Thalhimer. The location is scheduled to open in the fall, according to a spokesperson for the chain.

The address for Gouldin Properties is also the address of the Short Pump location of Strange’s Florists, a garden center, nursery and florist business. Strange’s President Bill Gouldin did not immediately return a request for comment.

David M. Smith of Cushman & Wakefield | Thalhimer handled the sale negotiations on behalf of the seller.

Chesapeake strip mall goes for $3.15M

A 7,800-square-foot retail strip center in Chesapeake sold for $3.15 million, according to a March news release from S.L. Nusbaum Realty.

Located at 1508 Sam’s Circle, Battlefield Shops has five tenants. It is shadow anchored by Walmart, Sam’s Club, At Home and Dollar Tree stores.

Battlefield Freedom Wash sold the property to Grit Andrew LLC. Doug Aronson, a senior managing director, and Carter Wells, an associate, both with SLN Capital Markets, represented the seller.