Middleburg Bank is leaving its downtown branch. Photos by Michael Schwartz.
A northern Virginia financial firm is exiting downtown Richmond in favor of the suburbs, leaving a nearly century-old East Main Street building up for grabs.
Middleburg Bank, along with Middleburg Trust Co., will vacate the Virginia Trust Co. building at 821 E. Main St. later this year. They’ll move west to 1600 Forest Ave., a 13,400-square-foot building the bank purchased last month for $2.2 million.
Middleburg said its lease on the downtown building will expire later this year, and it has been on the hunt for a new home for about 12 months.
John Mason Antrim, president and CEO of Middleburg Trust, said the firm considered other downtown properties, as well as spots near Stony Point, Innsbrook, around Reynolds Crossing and elsewhere.
The bank is moving into a space at 1600 Forest Ave.
He said the new office will make things easier on the company’s clients.
“I’m reluctant to leave downtown, but I think it’s a very good move for us,” Antrim said. “Our clients have been reluctant to make the trek downtown and look for parking and so forth.”
The new building will have more than twice the useable space as downtown, on-site parking and a more modern setup for the company’s employees. And it needs only minimal customization before Middleburg can move in.
“It has all the good stuff you look forward to in a more suburban setting,” Antrim said.
With pending departure of the downtown building’s lone tenant, the owner of 821 E. Main has put the property on the market both for sale and for lease.
John Mason Antrim
It is owned by Fredericksburg-based developer W.J. Vakos & Co., which also owns the adjacent 17-story office building at 801 E. Main St.
Chris Waller oversees the management of W.J. Vakos’ Richmond properties and said the company has already received interest on the Virginia Trust Building and is considering other banks, restaurants, office uses and other ideas.
“Who the next user is going to be, we don’t know,” Waller said. “These days you have to be pretty flexible. We would like another bank to come along. It does have a really neat vault in it.”
The property was built in 1919 and has six stories, including a basement and a sub-basement. It has about 8,400 square feet of rentable square feet, primarily on the main floor and mezzanine. The basement levels bring its total square footage to 26,400.
Middleburg’s current building sits near Main and Ninth streets across from the capitol.
In addition to the old bank vault, Waller said some of the building’s other notable characteristics include a staircase of nearly 100 steps that leads to upstairs offices on the third and fourth levels. There’s no elevator to reach them.
As the story goes, Waller said, the president of the original bank in the building kept his office at the top of those stairs.
“If you wanted to meet with him you had to go up there because he wasn’t coming down until it was time to go home,” he said. “It’s going to take some creativity to figure out how to use those upper floors.”
W.J. Vakos purchased the building in 1998 through Virginia Trust Company Building LLC. It paid $400,000 for the building, according to city records. The property was most recently assessed by the city at $2.38 million.
The downtown building has served as Middleburg Trust’s headquarters for 15 years, and Middleburg Bank established a branch in the property in 2011 as part of its entrance into the Richmond market.
With the move to Forest Avenue, Middleburg Bank will have a second branch in the West End to join its location on Libbie Avenue.
Andy McLean, the bank’s chief lending officer who also oversees the Richmond operations, said the Forest Avenue location will house retail, commercial and mortgage operations. He said it has the potential to add a drive-thru, an option not available downtown.
Both the trust company and the bank are wholly owned subsidiaries of Middleburg Financial Corp., based in Middleburg, Virginia. They’ll look to be up and running on Forest Avenue by November.
As Middleburg’s departure will take one bank out of downtown, another is moving in.
Hampton Roads-based TowneBank has leased 26,000 square feet in the Gateway Plaza office tower that’s nearing completion on Cary Street between Eighth and Ninth streets.
Middleburg Bank is leaving its downtown branch. Photos by Michael Schwartz.
A northern Virginia financial firm is exiting downtown Richmond in favor of the suburbs, leaving a nearly century-old East Main Street building up for grabs.
Middleburg Bank, along with Middleburg Trust Co., will vacate the Virginia Trust Co. building at 821 E. Main St. later this year. They’ll move west to 1600 Forest Ave., a 13,400-square-foot building the bank purchased last month for $2.2 million.
Middleburg said its lease on the downtown building will expire later this year, and it has been on the hunt for a new home for about 12 months.
John Mason Antrim, president and CEO of Middleburg Trust, said the firm considered other downtown properties, as well as spots near Stony Point, Innsbrook, around Reynolds Crossing and elsewhere.
The bank is moving into a space at 1600 Forest Ave.
He said the new office will make things easier on the company’s clients.
“I’m reluctant to leave downtown, but I think it’s a very good move for us,” Antrim said. “Our clients have been reluctant to make the trek downtown and look for parking and so forth.”
The new building will have more than twice the useable space as downtown, on-site parking and a more modern setup for the company’s employees. And it needs only minimal customization before Middleburg can move in.
“It has all the good stuff you look forward to in a more suburban setting,” Antrim said.
With pending departure of the downtown building’s lone tenant, the owner of 821 E. Main has put the property on the market both for sale and for lease.
John Mason Antrim
It is owned by Fredericksburg-based developer W.J. Vakos & Co., which also owns the adjacent 17-story office building at 801 E. Main St.
Chris Waller oversees the management of W.J. Vakos’ Richmond properties and said the company has already received interest on the Virginia Trust Building and is considering other banks, restaurants, office uses and other ideas.
“Who the next user is going to be, we don’t know,” Waller said. “These days you have to be pretty flexible. We would like another bank to come along. It does have a really neat vault in it.”
The property was built in 1919 and has six stories, including a basement and a sub-basement. It has about 8,400 square feet of rentable square feet, primarily on the main floor and mezzanine. The basement levels bring its total square footage to 26,400.
Middleburg’s current building sits near Main and Ninth streets across from the capitol.
In addition to the old bank vault, Waller said some of the building’s other notable characteristics include a staircase of nearly 100 steps that leads to upstairs offices on the third and fourth levels. There’s no elevator to reach them.
As the story goes, Waller said, the president of the original bank in the building kept his office at the top of those stairs.
“If you wanted to meet with him you had to go up there because he wasn’t coming down until it was time to go home,” he said. “It’s going to take some creativity to figure out how to use those upper floors.”
W.J. Vakos purchased the building in 1998 through Virginia Trust Company Building LLC. It paid $400,000 for the building, according to city records. The property was most recently assessed by the city at $2.38 million.
The downtown building has served as Middleburg Trust’s headquarters for 15 years, and Middleburg Bank established a branch in the property in 2011 as part of its entrance into the Richmond market.
With the move to Forest Avenue, Middleburg Bank will have a second branch in the West End to join its location on Libbie Avenue.
Andy McLean, the bank’s chief lending officer who also oversees the Richmond operations, said the Forest Avenue location will house retail, commercial and mortgage operations. He said it has the potential to add a drive-thru, an option not available downtown.
Both the trust company and the bank are wholly owned subsidiaries of Middleburg Financial Corp., based in Middleburg, Virginia. They’ll look to be up and running on Forest Avenue by November.
As Middleburg’s departure will take one bank out of downtown, another is moving in.
Hampton Roads-based TowneBank has leased 26,000 square feet in the Gateway Plaza office tower that’s nearing completion on Cary Street between Eighth and Ninth streets.
Their new building is so mundane.