Once home to the 25th Street Cleaners, the 111-year-old building at 322 N. 25th St. is leased to the Church Hill Animal Hospital. (Mike Platania photo)
Rajesh Patel got his start investing in the Richmond region in the 1990s when he emigrated from India and developed and opened a Subway restaurant in Petersburg.
Nearly three decades later, Patel and his son Kishan are keeping the family business going but have gone in a different direction — one that led them to a nearly $2 million real estate deal in the city of Richmond.
The Patels this fall purchased 322 N. 25th St. in Church Hill for $1.8 million. The 7,900-square-foot building near the intersection of East Marshall Street is home to the Church Hill Animal Hospital with four loft apartments above it.
Kishan said they plan to continue leasing the building as is with the animal hospital under a long-term lease. He said the acquisition is part of the family’s continued shift from the hospitality industry into real estate.
“We’ve been pretty active. We probably closed on eight different transactions this year, all in real estate. It’s not just buildings like this but also apartment complexes and single-family homes,” Kishan said.
“We’ve bought four homes in Church Hill in the last few months that we’ll renovate and rent out. We thought this was a great opportunity for us to continue our investments in Church Hill.”
One South Commercial’s Tom Rosman and Justin Sledd represented the Patels in the deal, and First Community Bank was their lender. The two-story building was most recently assessed by the city at $1.01 million.
Despite the recent real estate deals, the Patels haven’t totally divested from the hospitality industry. Patel said he and his father still own the Country Inn & Suites hotel in Petersburg, Frost Gelato’s Short Pump location, as well as a few Subways.
The entrepreneurial streak in the family goes back generations. Patel said his grandfather once owned a few stationery stores in London before moving to India. Rajesh eventually built his Subway mini-empire up to a dozen locations all over the Richmond region before starting to sell them off in the early 2000s.
“We knew a lot of people that were moving to America like family friends that wanted opportunities to buy businesses and we were there to kind of help them. So we sold a majority of them,” Patel said.
Over time he started expanding into other areas like hotels and reduced the footprint of restaurants.
The shift into real estate has also led the Patels to the eastern part of the state with a handful of multifamily properties in the Tidewater region. Kishan said they also have some vacant land in Petersburg that he’s hoping may soon become valuable.
“There are rumors that Petersburg might get a casino. We do have undeveloped land in Petersburg that we could develop,” Patel said, referring to an ongoing effort to try to bring the failed Richmond casino plan to Petersburg.
The Church Hill deal is the last one the Patels will close in 2021, but Kishan said they’d like to add up to five more properties to their portfolio in 2022.
“If there was more opportunity in the market to buy, I think we would. But the opportunities are very limited,” he said. “And if they do come, I think you have to make a business decision within hours to put it under contract.”
Once home to the 25th Street Cleaners, the 111-year-old building at 322 N. 25th St. is leased to the Church Hill Animal Hospital. (Mike Platania photo)
Rajesh Patel got his start investing in the Richmond region in the 1990s when he emigrated from India and developed and opened a Subway restaurant in Petersburg.
Nearly three decades later, Patel and his son Kishan are keeping the family business going but have gone in a different direction — one that led them to a nearly $2 million real estate deal in the city of Richmond.
The Patels this fall purchased 322 N. 25th St. in Church Hill for $1.8 million. The 7,900-square-foot building near the intersection of East Marshall Street is home to the Church Hill Animal Hospital with four loft apartments above it.
Kishan said they plan to continue leasing the building as is with the animal hospital under a long-term lease. He said the acquisition is part of the family’s continued shift from the hospitality industry into real estate.
“We’ve been pretty active. We probably closed on eight different transactions this year, all in real estate. It’s not just buildings like this but also apartment complexes and single-family homes,” Kishan said.
“We’ve bought four homes in Church Hill in the last few months that we’ll renovate and rent out. We thought this was a great opportunity for us to continue our investments in Church Hill.”
One South Commercial’s Tom Rosman and Justin Sledd represented the Patels in the deal, and First Community Bank was their lender. The two-story building was most recently assessed by the city at $1.01 million.
Despite the recent real estate deals, the Patels haven’t totally divested from the hospitality industry. Patel said he and his father still own the Country Inn & Suites hotel in Petersburg, Frost Gelato’s Short Pump location, as well as a few Subways.
The entrepreneurial streak in the family goes back generations. Patel said his grandfather once owned a few stationery stores in London before moving to India. Rajesh eventually built his Subway mini-empire up to a dozen locations all over the Richmond region before starting to sell them off in the early 2000s.
“We knew a lot of people that were moving to America like family friends that wanted opportunities to buy businesses and we were there to kind of help them. So we sold a majority of them,” Patel said.
Over time he started expanding into other areas like hotels and reduced the footprint of restaurants.
The shift into real estate has also led the Patels to the eastern part of the state with a handful of multifamily properties in the Tidewater region. Kishan said they also have some vacant land in Petersburg that he’s hoping may soon become valuable.
“There are rumors that Petersburg might get a casino. We do have undeveloped land in Petersburg that we could develop,” Patel said, referring to an ongoing effort to try to bring the failed Richmond casino plan to Petersburg.
The Church Hill deal is the last one the Patels will close in 2021, but Kishan said they’d like to add up to five more properties to their portfolio in 2022.
“If there was more opportunity in the market to buy, I think we would. But the opportunities are very limited,” he said. “And if they do come, I think you have to make a business decision within hours to put it under contract.”