The 33,600-square-foot Surry Building.
A down-on-its-luck office building in the West End is looking for a good home.
Norfolk-based Robinson Development purchased the note on the 33,600-square-foot Surry Building at 1601 Rolling Hills Dr. in the Forest Office Park from First Community Bank late last year and foreclosed on the building in January.
Now Robinson is looking for a buyer for the building, which is 85 percent vacant, and has set a price tag of $1.9 million.
“Our strategy is that we are offering it at a pretty attractive price point for sale or for lease,” said Lewis Stoneburner, a vice president at Robinson. “The Glenside/Interstate 64 submarket is one of the tightest in the area, and we think it would make a great investment for either an owner-occupant or an investor group.”
Robinson Development owns the surrounding 710,000-square-foot office park. Vacancy in the submarket, which includes the nearby Reynolds Crossing and HCA’s Henrico Doctors’ Hospital campus, is about 8 percent, according the company.
The Surry Building’s run of bad luck began Oct. 4, 2011, when one of its owners, Veronica Cunningham, was indicted on 41 counts of health-care fraud.
Cunningham and Ronin Holdings LLC bought the 1977 office building in 2004 for $2.8 million. People’s Bank of Virginia, which has since been acquired by First Community Bank, was the lender.
Cunningham owned and operated Community Neurological Services, a business she used to systematically bill Medicare, Medicaid and private insurance companies for millions of dollars in bogus charges.
She was convicted in September of fraud and tax evasion and given 11 years in federal prison. Cunningham was also forced to pay about $6.7 million in restitution, which included forfeiting the Surry Building back to the lender, according to court documents.
The Surry Building got another kick in the pants when another of its tenants, the now-defunct debt collection law firm Friedman & MacFadyen, shut down amid federal lawsuits relating to its foreclosure processing and its connections to a $228 million investment scam.
Friedman & MacFadyen occupied part of the first floor.
Once First Community Bank got hold of the property, it hired Cushman & Wakefield brokers Mark Douglas and Ashley Jones to market the building.
“We tried to find a buyer for the building, but we just ran out of time,” Douglas said. “The lender wanted to get the note off its books by the end of the year.”
Stoneburner, with Robinson Development, said that if he can’t unload the building to a buyer, his firm would hang on to it.
“We are more than happy to just keep it and lease it up,” Stoneburner said. “It’s a good building, and it fits in with our other properties in the area.”
Henrico County most recently assessed the Surry Building at $2.3 million.
The 33,600-square-foot Surry Building.
A down-on-its-luck office building in the West End is looking for a good home.
Norfolk-based Robinson Development purchased the note on the 33,600-square-foot Surry Building at 1601 Rolling Hills Dr. in the Forest Office Park from First Community Bank late last year and foreclosed on the building in January.
Now Robinson is looking for a buyer for the building, which is 85 percent vacant, and has set a price tag of $1.9 million.
“Our strategy is that we are offering it at a pretty attractive price point for sale or for lease,” said Lewis Stoneburner, a vice president at Robinson. “The Glenside/Interstate 64 submarket is one of the tightest in the area, and we think it would make a great investment for either an owner-occupant or an investor group.”
Robinson Development owns the surrounding 710,000-square-foot office park. Vacancy in the submarket, which includes the nearby Reynolds Crossing and HCA’s Henrico Doctors’ Hospital campus, is about 8 percent, according the company.
The Surry Building’s run of bad luck began Oct. 4, 2011, when one of its owners, Veronica Cunningham, was indicted on 41 counts of health-care fraud.
Cunningham and Ronin Holdings LLC bought the 1977 office building in 2004 for $2.8 million. People’s Bank of Virginia, which has since been acquired by First Community Bank, was the lender.
Cunningham owned and operated Community Neurological Services, a business she used to systematically bill Medicare, Medicaid and private insurance companies for millions of dollars in bogus charges.
She was convicted in September of fraud and tax evasion and given 11 years in federal prison. Cunningham was also forced to pay about $6.7 million in restitution, which included forfeiting the Surry Building back to the lender, according to court documents.
The Surry Building got another kick in the pants when another of its tenants, the now-defunct debt collection law firm Friedman & MacFadyen, shut down amid federal lawsuits relating to its foreclosure processing and its connections to a $228 million investment scam.
Friedman & MacFadyen occupied part of the first floor.
Once First Community Bank got hold of the property, it hired Cushman & Wakefield brokers Mark Douglas and Ashley Jones to market the building.
“We tried to find a buyer for the building, but we just ran out of time,” Douglas said. “The lender wanted to get the note off its books by the end of the year.”
Stoneburner, with Robinson Development, said that if he can’t unload the building to a buyer, his firm would hang on to it.
“We are more than happy to just keep it and lease it up,” Stoneburner said. “It’s a good building, and it fits in with our other properties in the area.”
Henrico County most recently assessed the Surry Building at $2.3 million.