The one-story office building is at the corner of West Leigh Street and Roseneath Road in Scott’s Addition. (Mike Platania photo)
A downtown investment management firm is jumping to Scott’s Addition.
Apogem Capital recently signed a lease for new office space at 1408 Roseneath Road. The company is leaving Riverfront Plaza in favor of the 10,000-square-foot space that was left vacant by now-defunct ad agency Yebo.
Formed in 2022 via a merger of GoldPoint Partners, Madison Capital Funding and local company Private Advisors, Apogem manages investments for institutional clients including pension funds, charitable foundations and college endowments.
With over $41 billion in assets under management, president Chris Stringer said Apogem mostly helps its clients invest in private equity and private credit. The firm is a wholly-owned subsidiary of New York Life Insurance.
Chris Stringer
Stringer said the firm’s lease in Riverfront Plaza was coming due, prompting it to look elsewhere.
“I love downtown but Scott’s Addition has a lot more in the way of entertainment for clients when we have them in town – restaurants, coffee shops, breweries, etc.,” Stringer said.
“It is a business where relationships and data make a lot of the difference.…We wanted to create an office space in Scott’s Addition that’s an attractive, great place to bring everyone together.”
Apogem’s future home came available last year when Yebo, an ad firm formerly known as Barber Martin Agency, closed down after 35 years in business. Apogem’s new office will be about half the size of its current digs in Riverfront Plaza.
“The difference in square footage needed is really a function of post-COVID work environments,” Stringer said. “We have a large portion of our business that works primarily remote and from home. Our investment people and our client-facing people are in the office, but our support functions are work-from-home so we needed less space.”
Apogem is leasing its space from local investors Birck Turnbull and Charles Bice, who bought the building in 2016 for $3.5 million. Other tenants in the building include ecological mitigation firm Resource Environmental Solutions and packaging company Stephen Gould.
Stringer said Apogem is aiming to move in in late 2024 or early 2025.
Meanwhile, Riverfront Plaza has been under lender scrutiny in recent months after a loan secured by the two-tower office complex, as well as those of the nearby Bank of America Center, were deemed at risk of going into default.
And into a smaller space from a larger sublet space in a downtown tower. No way the RVA market is going to be able to not only absorb all the vacant spaces with primary tenants like the ad agency that are gone and do so at rents that will cover the loans coming due.