Lansing family lists James River estate in Richmond for $8.5M

The chairman of Henrico County-based Lansing Business Products put his 8,765-square-foot James River estate on the market this week for $8.5 million, making it one of the more expensive homes ever listed in the Richmond region.

“This is on the pricier side for sure,” said Ted Lansing, who is selling the house at 214 S. Wilton Road for his parents, Chris and Erlynn Lansing.

“I guess either they trust me or they felt bad for me,” Ted Lansing quipped Friday.

According to property records, the Lansings bought the estate for about $3.8 million in 2013 from the estate of Beverley Wilkes “Booty” Armstrong, a Richmond business leader who died in 2011.

The five-bed, nine-bath Georgian-style home, which was built in 1952,  sits on more than 2 acres. It features a variegated slate roof, a bluestone patio and an in-ground pool. Located north of the river, the estate sits next to the Wilton House Museum.

“The house has gone through several renovations,” said Ted Lansing, an agent with Shaheen, Ruth, Martin & Fonville Real Estate. “It’s an architectural piece.”

His favorite part of the home is its location. “Most of the rooms in the home, they open up to the James River, so you have a view, which is just beautiful,” he said.

Chris Lansing became president of Lansing Business Products, a distributor of exterior building products, in 1980. Chris Lansing’s father, also named Ted, founded the company in 1955.

When Chris Lansing stepped down as president and CEO in 2016, his son Hunter Lansing became the third generation of the family to lead the company.

Today, Chris and Erlynn Lansing spend most of their time in Utah, where they are active in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, according to Ted Lansing.

“They made the decision to stay out there and have their primary residence really be out in Utah,” he said. “It just made sense to downsize.”

Recently, the couple purchased a smaller home in the Richmond area. “They wanted to have at least a place here,” Ted Lansing said.

For several years, Ted Lansing also worked at Lansing Business Products in human resources, marketing and sales before launching Lansing Homes, a company that builds, remodels and flips houses. “There was an opportunity to kind of hang a shingle on my own,” he said.

Lansing got his real estate license about four years ago, mostly for that business.

“I’m open,” he said of selling real estate. “Maybe this is an opportunity to start growing, using my license to help others.”