Crescent Business Center Building 7

Address: 10382 Lakeridge Parkway, Ashland

Project Type: Private

Project Size: 32,000 square feet

Project Cost: $7.1 million

Owner: Merritt Properties

Contractor: Merritt Construction Services

Architect: Merritt Construction Services

Engineer: Balzer & Associates (civil; now part of Westwood Professional Services)

Subcontractor: Cornerstone Electrical

The problem announced itself early: The soil was wet, unstable and unsuitable for construction. Rather than halt progress amid an already compressed timeline, the team at Merritt Construction Services brought in specialized machinery and tilled truckloads of dry powder directly into the ground. As moisture activated the material, the soil transformed into a concrete-like base capable of supporting a Class A industrial facility. It was an unconventional fix for an unconventional schedule — and it worked.

Building 7 at Crescent Business Center in Hanover County was driven from the start by national healthcare tenant Agiliti’s hard end-of-year occupancy requirement. Breaking ground in March 2025 and delivering that August, the 32,000-square-foot, $7.1 million light-industrial facility was completed in five months — a timeline that demanded precise sequencing from every party involved. Interior construction began before the building was fully enclosed, requiring continuous coordination across trades. Building 7 marked Maryland developer Merritt Properties’ entry into the greater Richmond market, necessitating the formation of new working relationships with local vendors, utility providers and county engineers to navigate permitting, electrical and site requirements.

The building was designed around the tenant’s optimized Kaizen layout, the Japanese continuous-improvement workflow philosophy, allowing operational efficiency to be embedded into the facility’s bones rather than retrofitted after the fact. A heavy-duty sprinkler system enables higher-than-standard storage capacities, extending the building’s utility for intensive industrial users.

One detail captures the project’s approach to community as well as any: When site work threatened a mature magnolia tree on an adjacent property, the team modified the roadway alignment and constructed a retaining wall rather than remove it — a small decision that spoke to the character of the effort overall.