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byline: Paula C. Squires

Northpoint Realty Partners buys land in Alexandria for $5.6 million

Northpoint Realty Partners has acquired 6.3 acres of land in Alexandria for $5.6 million. The Bethesda, Md.-based real-estate development firm said it plans to invest another $2 million in the land at Huntington Crossing – adjacent to the Huntington Avenue Metro — so it can develop the tract into a mix of townhomes and a five-story condominium.

“Huntington Crossing provided Northpoint with the opportunity to purchase an attractive land investment with excellent demographics adjacent to the Huntington Avenue Metro with outstanding access to I-495, Hoffman Town Center with the new Wegmans and Old Town Alexandria,” Tim Riordan, acquisitions and investments partner, Northpoint Realty Partners, said in a statement.

Huntington Crossing represents Northpoint’s second transaction with the land’s seller, the Hoffman Co.   Northpoint said the project should be completed by the 4th quarter of 2019.

Newmark Knight Frank’s Brendan Owen, Dan Lockard and Mark Anstine represented the Hoffman Co. in the transaction.

Ashby’s Real Estate Investments buys industrial property in Richmond for $2.1 million

 

Ashby’s Real Estate Investments LLC has purchased a 90,827-square-foot industrial property in Richmond for $2.1 million from Grigg Partners LP.  The 6.7-acre property is located at 2320 Deepwater Terminal Rd. David Williams and Chip Louthan of Colliers International | Richmond represented the seller in the transaction.

In another deal for Colliers, Keystone Mountain Lakes Regional Council of Carpenters purchased a 13,500-square-foot flex property in Ashland for $1,095,000 from s&s Family Holdings LLC. The one-acre property is located at 10238 Sycamore Drive. Williams and Bill Mattox represented the seller in the transaction.

Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority seeks proposals for undeveloped land

Three prime land parcels — adjacent to Washington Dulles International Airport and representing the largest undeveloped industrial site in Northern Virginia — are on the market.
On behalf of the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority (MWAA), CBRE announced that it is marketing the property and soliciting proposals for its development. According to CBRE, the properties are suitable for data-center or warehouse projects.

“The parcels represent a rare opportunity in the tight data center and logistics market close to Dulles Airport, the new Silver Line Metro Stations and the fast-developing Virginia State Rt. 606-U.S. Route 50 interchange,” Bob Gibbs, executive vice president at CBRE, said in a statement.


The three properties include a 424-acre parcel known as Western Lands, a 68-acre parcel known as Metro 606 and a 160-acre tract known as 606 Frontage.
Western Lands is bounded by Dulles Airport, Beaver Meadow Road, State Route 606 and Carters School Road. Metro 606 is adjacent to the east side of the future Loudoun Gateway Metro station while 606 Frontage is bounded by State Route 606 immediately north of U.S. 50.

“Developing these lands near Dulles International serves two of the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority’s key missions: keeping Dulles competitive so airlines can better serve the traveling public, and promoting economic growth in the National Capital Region,” Airports Authority Executive Vice President and Chief Revenue Officer Jerome L. Davis, said in a statement.  “Having airport-compatible development in this area makes Dulles a more attractive area for business, which helps the airport and our passengers as well as the broader community.”


Dulles served nearly 22 million passengers and handled more 31 million pounds of cargo in 2016.

Thalhimer promotes Cliff Hamner to director, property services

 

Cushman & Wakefield | Thalhimer has promoted Cliff Hamner to director, property services.  Previously, Hamner served as the firm’s portfolio manager and team lead. 

In his new position, he will be responsible for managing several key accounts in the Richmond market, while also leading strategic objectives for Thalhimer’s Fredericksburg Commercial Property Management Group.

 

Hamner has more than 25 years of management experience with institutional-grade clients in all property types and has been with Thalhimer for more than five years. His leadership experience also includes service in the U.S. Marine Corps as a captain and president of the Raleigh-Durham IREM Chapter 105.

 

 

Jeff Parker joins CBRE | Hampton Roads as a senior vice president


Jeff Parker has joined CBRE|Hampton Roads as a senior vice president for the retail brokerage group. He previously worked for CBRE Hampton Roads from 2000 to 2009.

Following his first stint with CBRE, Parker worked for a Fortune 500 company where he managed a leasing portfolio of more than 1,200 locations. Most recently, Parker held the position of director of leasing for a local REIT headquartered in Virginia Beach. There, he oversaw a retail portfolio of about 5.5 million square feet, including 73 retail shopping centers.

Parker graduated from Hampden-Sydney College, is a licensed Virginia and North Carolina real estate broker as well as a member of the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC).

AvalonBay Communities Inc. will move headquarters

JLL announced Thursday that AvalonBay Communities Inc. will move from its headquarters in Arlington to a 73,000-square-foot space in the 4040 Wilson Blvd. development in Ballston. Avalon, an equity REIT that specializes in multifamily projects, will take more than three floors of the The Shooshan Co.  and Brandywine Realty Trust’s final phase of their Liberty Center mixed-use development.


According to JLL, the AvalonBay lease — plus the existing lease with VIDA Fitness —  brings the commercial component of the building to 50 percent pre-leased. Avalon plans to move from its current location in the Ballston Tower on Glebe Road, which is right around the corner, during the second quarter of 2020. “We look forward to remaining in Ballston and designing a workplace where our more than 300 headquarters associates will be inspired to do their best every day,” said Kurt Conway, Avalon's senior vice president of brand strategy and marketing.

Situated across the street from Forest City’s redevelopment of the Ballston Mall, 4040 Wilson Blvd. is Ballston’s tallest building at 22 stories, and it offers unobstructed views of Washington, D.C. AvalonBay plans to take space on the 8th, 9th and 10th floors and a portion of the 7th floor, leaving about 117,000 square feet of office space still available. VIDA Fitness, which will open its first non-D.C. location, has signed a lease for 30,000 square feet on the building’s second floor.


“When we decided to amend 4040 Wilson to a mixed-use building consisting of roughly a 50/50 split of office and residential and increased retail last year, we did so in an effort to adjust to the recent market trends which consisted of more prospective tenants in the +/- 75,000 SF range and more retail demand along Wilson Blvd.,” Kevin Shooshan, leasing director of the Shooshan Co. said in a statement.


“AvalonBay’s decision to relocate its headquarters to what will be D.C.’s first vertical mixed-use development is a testament not only to the resurgent Ballston submarket, but to how forward-thinking companies are embracing community and innovative, smart and sustainable workplace design,” Jerry Sweeney, president and CEO of Brandywine Realty Trust said in a statement.


The Shooshan Cos. and Brandywine Realty Trust, in partnership with Clark Construction, will begin construction on 4040 Wilson in the first quarter of 2018. JLL’s Herb Mansinne and Robert VeShancey represented the landlord in this transaction.

VT Milcom building in Virginia Beach sells for $2 million


S. L. Nusbaum Realty Co. announced the sale Thursday of the VT Milcom Building, a 24,319-square-foot commercial building in Virginia Beach, for $2 million.

Viking 529 LLC purchased the building from VT Milcom Inc. It’s located at 529 Viking Drive, on nearly five acres within the Oceana Industrial Park.

Martin Murden, Bill Overman and John Wessling of S.L. Nusbaum Realty Co. represented the buyer in this transaction.

According to S. L. Nusbaum, Viking 529 LLC is owned by Daniel Farris of Virginia Foundation Solutions, a company that specializes in foundation repair, crawlspace repair and waterproofing.

Global Technical Systems to expand in Virginia Beach with a $55 million manufacturing center

 

Global Technical Systems (GTS), a Virginia Beach-based provider of advanced engineering solutions for the defense and homeland security industries, plans to build a $54.7 million, 500,000-square-foot manufacturing center that would create 1,100 jobs. 

 

In announcing the project Tuesday, Gov. Terry McAuliffe described the expansion by GTS, which has operated in Virginia Beach for 20 years, “transformational” for the city and the region. “GTS models how traditional defense-oriented businesses can step out of their comfort zones and create new technologies with commercial applications that can truly change the world. We are proud to have GTS on the Commonwealth's corporate roster.”

 

GTS plans to build an electro-mechanical energy storage system operation. It would produce and distribute 100 percent green energy storage systems using advanced composites and engineering technologies. The building will be located on about 30 acres of land currently owned by the city of Virginia Beach, at the site of the former Owl's Creek Golf Course.

 

According to the governor, Virginia Beach competed against Florida, Mississippi, Oklahoma and Washington, D.C., for the project, which will create jobs with an average annual salary of $74,000.

 

Construction is scheduled to begin in the first quarter of 2018, with the facility operational in 2019. Since the project involves new technology, Global Technical Systems will work with local and regional workforce partners to develop customized training programs for new employees. 

 

“This is the type of project that every community in America wants,” Virginia Beach Mayor William D. Sessoms Jr.  said in a statement. “A local, homegrown company develops a truly transformational new technology and makes the strategic decision to build it at home.”  

 

Yet some residents who live around the former Owl’s Creek Golf Course voiced concerns last month about increased noise and traffic that could come from the facility. The Virginian-Pilot reported that representatives of the Seatack Community Civic League spoke in favor of the project at a November meeting of the city’s Planning Commission, while other residents questioned why an industrial use was locating in what traditionally has been a residential area on the west side of Birdneck Road. 

 

The process developed by Global Technical Systems to store energy uses advanced carbon fiber technology to create a clean electro-mechanical device that stores energy without using hazardous chemicals. Energy can come from any source such as solar, power grid, wind or water and be released upon demand when needed. This scalable technology could be used around the world for developing countries in a variety of institutional, commercial and residential applications. 

 

Founded in Virginia Beach in 1997, GTS is a family-owned small business led by Terry and Yusun Spitzer.  Their firm has traditionally provided high-tech engineering products and engineering services for commercial and Department of Defense (DoD) customers. However, it saw an opportunity to create a new business model based on advances in carbon fiber technologies. 

 

“This green energy manufacturing center is a longstanding dream we've had at GTS,” CEO Terry Spitzer said in a statement. “Having steadily grown our business since 1997, we've continuously expanded our technical engineering competencies to meet the dynamic needs of our commercial and government customers. “ 

 

Spitzer added that the new technology has the potential to shape the future of renewable energy, grid modernization and other energy-dense storage applications. With the new facility, GTS anticipates rapidly expanding to capture an emerging trillion-plus dollar grid storage market that will reshape the way utilities address modernization including offsetting the need for new electric generation. Its broad applicability promises to deliver other improvements to high-energy users such as mass transportation, including high-speed rail and metro-rail systems; data centers, critical infrastructure back-up power systems for emergency services providers and DoD applications such as high- energy pulsed weapons and shipboard electric drive architectures.

 

“Central to our aspirations is delivering much-needed economic diversification and high paying advanced manufacturing jobs,” Spitzer said.

 

According to Virginia Beach Economic Development Director Warren D. Harris, the company has been working on the prototype at its Lynnhaven headquarters facility for several years, and market response has been strong.

 

The project received several local and state incentives. The Virginia Economic Development Partnership worked with Virginia Beach to secure the project. Gov. McAuliffe approved a $1.8 million grant from the Commonwealth's Opportunity Fund. The governor also approved a $3 million performance-based grant from the Virginia Investment Partnership program, an incentive available to existing companies. Funding and services to support employee-training activities will be provided through the Virginia Jobs Investment Program. The company also will be eligible to receive a $1 million Major Business Facility Job Tax Credit from the Commonwealth of Virginia.

 

The Virginia Beach Development Authority is scheduled to approve an Economic Development Incentive Program grant in the amount of $1.8 million based on the company's capital investment and job creation.

 

 

 

 

 

Ad agency ndp opens in its new space in Scott’s Addition

Advertising agency ndp opened its new 15,900-square-foot office in Richmond’s Scott’s Addition on Dec 1, the same day that its merger with Richmond-based Free Agents Marketing took place.

The office is located at 2912 West Leigh St. in a converted one-story warehouse built in the 1940s.

The space is designed for creative collaboration with open workspaces, a work café, presentation rooms and magnetic walls to hang work-in-progress. It also has a wellness room and a shower for employees who commute by bike or on foot.

In a nod to the building’s history, ndp said exterior walls were preserved and interior doors and flooring repurposed when possible.

The Richmond office of Hickok Cole, a Washington, D.C.,-based architecture firm, designed the office.  Hickock Cole is known locally for its design of the collective workspace called Gather.

 The ndp offices in Roanoke, Chattanooga and Norfolk remain open.

“December 1 marks our collaborative effort in several significant ways, “ Danny Fell, president and CEO of ndp, said in a statement. “For starters, there’s our new space that focuses on our staff working together for the best possible outcomes for our clients. And then there’s the official start of ndp and the former Free Agents Marketing as one firm, with one name, and one central purpose.”

The former Richmond offices of ndp were located for 10 years at 1 E. Cary St. That property is for sale.

Sheltering Arms purchases land for new facility in Goochland County

Sheltering Arms Physical Rehabilitation Centers has purchased a 25-acre, $7.9 million site in Goochland County for a new hospital that it will operate in a joint venture with VCU Health System.

According to CBRE|Richmond, which announced the sale Monday, the site is located on Wilkes Ridge Parkway in The Notch at West Creek adjacent to the West Creek Medical Center. 

“The purchase of this property allows us to move forward with our plans to advance the convergence of rehabilitative and regenerative medicine consistent with our commitment to provide top-notch innovative care for our patients in a setting that will have easy accessibility from the major highways, ample parking and green space that is conducive to healing,” Mary Zweifel, CEO of Sheltering Arms, said in a statement.

Sheltering Arms plans to open the 114-bed, 200,000 square foot hospital in spring 2020.

CBRE’s Trib Sutton and Malcolm Randolph represented Sheltering Arms in the transaction. The sellers of the property were North Gayton Co. LLP, PWC Properties LLC, and Riverstone Properties.