Christi Garrett and Mark Remes outside the new home of BES Studios. Photos by Jonathan Spiers.
A longtime Richmond production studio has set up shop near Rocketts Landing after decades in the Southside.
BES Studios has moved into its new space in a building it purchased at 5711 Old Osborne Turnpike, just across city limits in eastern Henrico County.
Owner Christi Garrett purchased the 13,600-square-foot building and nearly 8-acre property last July for $1.125 million with her husband Mark. The studios fill 11,000 square feet on the ground floor, and the Garretts are leasing two upstairs units, one of which is occupied by concrete detailer Seaboard Services of Virginia, which built the building in 2009 and downsized its space.
The other unit, a 1,500-square-foot space, is currently available.
Studio staff did much of the upfit themselves.
The move ends two decades of renting a comparable-size space off Midlothian Turnpike near Chippenham Parkway. BES Studios had been there for 21 years, and Garrett said an earlier iteration of the company had been there for 20 years before that.
It also brings BES closer to downtown and its cluster of ad agencies and production shops. At the same time, Garrett said the location just east of Rocketts Landing also serves to set BES apart.
“I didn’t want to be just another one down there, so we kept looking and looking outside of the area,” Garrett said. “We looked at Scott’s Addition, downtown, and I walked in here and it made sense.
“It required very little changes to create the space that we wanted, all under one roof,” she said. “And we are within seconds of downtown without being another face in the crowd.”
Garrett said she’s been looking to make such a move since she and her father, Bill Meade, took over the business and rebranded as BES Studios – the letters a reference to its origins as Broadcast Engineering Solutions.
“We’ve looked for over 20 years,” she said.
Garrett worked with Andrew Gibb and Christina Jefferies of commercial real estate firm 7 Hills Advisors. Jeff Cooke, Richard Thalhimer and Isaac DeRegibus of Cushman & Wakefield | Thalhimer represented the seller, WWB LLC.
Garrett said she considered another rental property until the ownership option arose and she started comparing prices.
“We’d looked at renting when we first started out with 7 Hills, and when we saw what new rental space would be, it made no sense,” she said. “I could buy a whole lot cheaper than I could rent.”
The space includes a 3,500-square-foot production studio.
The new space, which previously housed a children’s furniture maker, includes office and common areas, a conference room, a kitchen, audio and post-production suites, and a 3,500-square-foot production studio with a truck-accessible loading dock and a lounge area for clients.
BES staff designed the space and did much of the upfit themselves. They also created some of its contents, such as wooden sound buffers in the audio recording suite. The company also worked with contractor Kenwood Builders, and Sawmill Solutions and Van Jester Woodworks made some of the furniture and desktops.
“There’s a lot of us in this building,” Garrett said. “A lot of blood, sweat and tears. A lot of personal touches here.”
The hillside property includes ample parking and also features a patio and decks with views of the city skyline. Executive producer Mark Remes said those spaces have been put to good use since the company moved in about a month ago.
“This is the perfect building we’ve been searching for,” Remes said. “To even think about moving after 20 years, it had to have everything. It needed to have space where clients can be at home, and be close to downtown but still affordable.”
Added Garrett: “We’re very homey. We try not to be a sterile environment. Most of my people have been with me up to 20 years, and the one thing we’ve always enjoyed is our clients are like our family. Some of them just come to hang out. That’s the vibe we wanted to give off.”
The hillside building comes with a view.
Two of BES’s biggest and longest-running clients are Haynes Furniture and The Dump, the Henrico furniture outlet. It has produced the companies’ recognizable TV commercials and radio ads for years with Burford Advertising. Other recent collaborations include a Virginia Lottery commercial with Barber Martin Agency and a two-year video project for VCU Massey Cancer Center.
“There’s so much going on in this community now, it’s just trying to keep up,” Remes said. “There’s such quality work going on, and we’re happy to be a part of that.”
While the studio’s focus has been broadcast advertising, Remes and Garrett noted more work in social media and digital space.
“The industry itself has changed so much,” Garrett said. “It used to be we did a lot of retail broadcast, very corporate video newsletters and things of that nature. We still do a considerable amount of retail broadcast for television, but a lot more web work, longer-format web, instructional videos.”
Garrett said the new space will allow the 11-person company to grow. She said she plans to hire more employees over time.
Remes said they’re enjoying having clients to the building and introducing them to the new space.
“We’ve got so much invested in this now, and we’ve only been here for two months, it’s just so cool every day to have them start coming through the door,” he said.
BES joins a group of local studios that have upgraded their digs in recent months. Parkwood Creative set up shop in Manchester, Glossy Productions recently moved from there to Northside, and Spang TV has opened its new studio facility off Chamberlayne Avenue.
Christi Garrett and Mark Remes outside the new home of BES Studios. Photos by Jonathan Spiers.
A longtime Richmond production studio has set up shop near Rocketts Landing after decades in the Southside.
BES Studios has moved into its new space in a building it purchased at 5711 Old Osborne Turnpike, just across city limits in eastern Henrico County.
Owner Christi Garrett purchased the 13,600-square-foot building and nearly 8-acre property last July for $1.125 million with her husband Mark. The studios fill 11,000 square feet on the ground floor, and the Garretts are leasing two upstairs units, one of which is occupied by concrete detailer Seaboard Services of Virginia, which built the building in 2009 and downsized its space.
The other unit, a 1,500-square-foot space, is currently available.
Studio staff did much of the upfit themselves.
The move ends two decades of renting a comparable-size space off Midlothian Turnpike near Chippenham Parkway. BES Studios had been there for 21 years, and Garrett said an earlier iteration of the company had been there for 20 years before that.
It also brings BES closer to downtown and its cluster of ad agencies and production shops. At the same time, Garrett said the location just east of Rocketts Landing also serves to set BES apart.
“I didn’t want to be just another one down there, so we kept looking and looking outside of the area,” Garrett said. “We looked at Scott’s Addition, downtown, and I walked in here and it made sense.
“It required very little changes to create the space that we wanted, all under one roof,” she said. “And we are within seconds of downtown without being another face in the crowd.”
Garrett said she’s been looking to make such a move since she and her father, Bill Meade, took over the business and rebranded as BES Studios – the letters a reference to its origins as Broadcast Engineering Solutions.
“We’ve looked for over 20 years,” she said.
Garrett worked with Andrew Gibb and Christina Jefferies of commercial real estate firm 7 Hills Advisors. Jeff Cooke, Richard Thalhimer and Isaac DeRegibus of Cushman & Wakefield | Thalhimer represented the seller, WWB LLC.
Garrett said she considered another rental property until the ownership option arose and she started comparing prices.
“We’d looked at renting when we first started out with 7 Hills, and when we saw what new rental space would be, it made no sense,” she said. “I could buy a whole lot cheaper than I could rent.”
The space includes a 3,500-square-foot production studio.
The new space, which previously housed a children’s furniture maker, includes office and common areas, a conference room, a kitchen, audio and post-production suites, and a 3,500-square-foot production studio with a truck-accessible loading dock and a lounge area for clients.
BES staff designed the space and did much of the upfit themselves. They also created some of its contents, such as wooden sound buffers in the audio recording suite. The company also worked with contractor Kenwood Builders, and Sawmill Solutions and Van Jester Woodworks made some of the furniture and desktops.
“There’s a lot of us in this building,” Garrett said. “A lot of blood, sweat and tears. A lot of personal touches here.”
The hillside property includes ample parking and also features a patio and decks with views of the city skyline. Executive producer Mark Remes said those spaces have been put to good use since the company moved in about a month ago.
“This is the perfect building we’ve been searching for,” Remes said. “To even think about moving after 20 years, it had to have everything. It needed to have space where clients can be at home, and be close to downtown but still affordable.”
Added Garrett: “We’re very homey. We try not to be a sterile environment. Most of my people have been with me up to 20 years, and the one thing we’ve always enjoyed is our clients are like our family. Some of them just come to hang out. That’s the vibe we wanted to give off.”
The hillside building comes with a view.
Two of BES’s biggest and longest-running clients are Haynes Furniture and The Dump, the Henrico furniture outlet. It has produced the companies’ recognizable TV commercials and radio ads for years with Burford Advertising. Other recent collaborations include a Virginia Lottery commercial with Barber Martin Agency and a two-year video project for VCU Massey Cancer Center.
“There’s so much going on in this community now, it’s just trying to keep up,” Remes said. “There’s such quality work going on, and we’re happy to be a part of that.”
While the studio’s focus has been broadcast advertising, Remes and Garrett noted more work in social media and digital space.
“The industry itself has changed so much,” Garrett said. “It used to be we did a lot of retail broadcast, very corporate video newsletters and things of that nature. We still do a considerable amount of retail broadcast for television, but a lot more web work, longer-format web, instructional videos.”
Garrett said the new space will allow the 11-person company to grow. She said she plans to hire more employees over time.
Remes said they’re enjoying having clients to the building and introducing them to the new space.
“We’ve got so much invested in this now, and we’ve only been here for two months, it’s just so cool every day to have them start coming through the door,” he said.
BES joins a group of local studios that have upgraded their digs in recent months. Parkwood Creative set up shop in Manchester, Glossy Productions recently moved from there to Northside, and Spang TV has opened its new studio facility off Chamberlayne Avenue.