Golfsmith swings for Richmond

West Broad Village has landed another one-of-a-kind retailer for the Richmond region.

Golfsmith, the country’s largest retailer of golf equipment and accessories, has signed a lease to move into a 24,000-square-foot, build-to-suit store at West Broad Village in Henrico County next year.

Markel/Eagle, a Richmond-based real estate investment company that owns the property, will build the store, said Jeff Doxey, president of NAI Eagle, which represented Markel/Eagle in the transaction.

This will be the first Golfsmith store in the Richmond market, although the Austin-Tex.-based company has five stores in Northern Virginia.

“They’ve been looking in the Short Pump market for a couple of years,” Doxey said. “They were interested in West Broad Village primarily because of the anchors Recreational Equipment Inc. (REI) and Whole Foods.”
 
Like Golfsmith, these stores only have one location in the Richmond market.

Golfsmith will be located next to REI on one of the last commercial pad sites in the mixed-use development with frontage on West Broad Street.  The parcel is one of a few not owned by Excel Trust, a San Diego REIT that bought much of West Broad Village last year.

Doxey said construction will begin in earnest on the store next week. Harrison Hall and Peter Vick, also with NAI Eagle, also represented Markel-Eagle in the deal.

It bumps the occupancy rate at the center to about 80 percent, Doxey said.