The building stands at the corner of East Main and South Eighth streets downtown. (BizSense file)
A hotelier and financier are teaming up to buy a downtown office tower and carry out a previously proposed plan to turn it into hundreds of apartments.
Wytestone Plaza at 801 E. Main St. is under contract to be sold to Steven Walker of RPC Realty Capital and Kalyan Hospitality’s Nick Patel.
The 59-year-old office tower’s current landlord, The Vakos Cos., began planning a residential conversion of Wytestone Plaza about a year ago. Walker confirmed the pending deal and said he and Patel are planning to keep the Vakos project going and turn the building’s office space into around 300 apartments.
RPC is a debt advisory and development firm that’s helped arrange financing for projects like Spy Rock Real Estate Group’s The Ella just west of Scott’s Addition and SNP Properties’ The Penny in Jackson Ward. Kalyan is a local hotelier whose portfolio counts 36 hotels, with more in the works.
Walker and Patel have worked together in the past, both on acquisition deals like Kalyan’s purchase of The Berkeley Hotel downtown, as well as developments like Altitude at Stoneport, a nearly 550-bed student housing development in Harrisonburg.
Steven Walker (LinkedIn)
The duo created a joint venture to take on the Wytestone deal. Walker said he and Patel approached Vakos about the Wytestone building after reading BizSense’s coverage of the conversion last fall, hoping that the firm might be willing to sell since the majority of The Vakos Cos.’ focus is primarily in its hometown of Fredericksburg.
“I called Nick and I said, ‘We need to go meet with (the Vakoses),” he said. “Nick and I had a relationship with the Vakos family just from prior interactions.”
Last week the two sides worked out a deal for the 280,000-square-foot Wytestone Plaza as well as a neighboring 0.2-acre parking lot at 13 S. 8th St. and a deck at 800 E. Cary St. The Vakos Cos. did not respond to requests for comment by press time.
The contract purchase price was not disclosed. The city most recently assessed the three parcels at a combined $29 million, with Wytestone Plaza accounting for $25.3 million of that total. The three parcels span just shy of an acre and occupy about half of a city block.
Walker said he and Patel will pursue state and federal historic tax credits to help fund the project, the total bedroom count of which is still being worked out.
“When it’s all said and done, it’ll be primarily studios and one-bedroom units with a limited number of two bedrooms, totaling approximately 300 units,” he said.
The building has a ground-floor, 15,000-square-foot commercial space that was once a Wells Fargo bank branch but has been vacant in recent years. Walker said that space wouldn’t become apartments.
“We would ideally like to find a (commercial) user that would benefit all the new apartment residents in this area like a gym, convenience store or something along those lines,” Walker said.
Below the office building are three levels of parking, and Walker said they intend to keep the adjacent parking lot and deck that would be included in the purchase, giving the project about 380 parking spaces.
The project will be named Altitude on Main, and Walker said they’re planning for the apartment building to “look and feel like a hotel.” The state’s Department of Social Services is the primary tenant at Wytestone Plaza, and Walker said the office building is about 50 percent occupied. Ahead of the Wytestone sale, the state department recently leased 100,000 square feet of office space at 5600 Cox Road in Innsbrook.
Walker and Patel have not selected an architect, general contractor or engineer for the project. Walker said they’re scheduled to close on the building mid-2024 and then they’ll begin the plan of development process with the city.
The building stands at the corner of East Main and South Eighth streets downtown. (BizSense file)
A hotelier and financier are teaming up to buy a downtown office tower and carry out a previously proposed plan to turn it into hundreds of apartments.
Wytestone Plaza at 801 E. Main St. is under contract to be sold to Steven Walker of RPC Realty Capital and Kalyan Hospitality’s Nick Patel.
The 59-year-old office tower’s current landlord, The Vakos Cos., began planning a residential conversion of Wytestone Plaza about a year ago. Walker confirmed the pending deal and said he and Patel are planning to keep the Vakos project going and turn the building’s office space into around 300 apartments.
RPC is a debt advisory and development firm that’s helped arrange financing for projects like Spy Rock Real Estate Group’s The Ella just west of Scott’s Addition and SNP Properties’ The Penny in Jackson Ward. Kalyan is a local hotelier whose portfolio counts 36 hotels, with more in the works.
Walker and Patel have worked together in the past, both on acquisition deals like Kalyan’s purchase of The Berkeley Hotel downtown, as well as developments like Altitude at Stoneport, a nearly 550-bed student housing development in Harrisonburg.
Steven Walker (LinkedIn)
The duo created a joint venture to take on the Wytestone deal. Walker said he and Patel approached Vakos about the Wytestone building after reading BizSense’s coverage of the conversion last fall, hoping that the firm might be willing to sell since the majority of The Vakos Cos.’ focus is primarily in its hometown of Fredericksburg.
“I called Nick and I said, ‘We need to go meet with (the Vakoses),” he said. “Nick and I had a relationship with the Vakos family just from prior interactions.”
Last week the two sides worked out a deal for the 280,000-square-foot Wytestone Plaza as well as a neighboring 0.2-acre parking lot at 13 S. 8th St. and a deck at 800 E. Cary St. The Vakos Cos. did not respond to requests for comment by press time.
The contract purchase price was not disclosed. The city most recently assessed the three parcels at a combined $29 million, with Wytestone Plaza accounting for $25.3 million of that total. The three parcels span just shy of an acre and occupy about half of a city block.
Walker said he and Patel will pursue state and federal historic tax credits to help fund the project, the total bedroom count of which is still being worked out.
“When it’s all said and done, it’ll be primarily studios and one-bedroom units with a limited number of two bedrooms, totaling approximately 300 units,” he said.
The building has a ground-floor, 15,000-square-foot commercial space that was once a Wells Fargo bank branch but has been vacant in recent years. Walker said that space wouldn’t become apartments.
“We would ideally like to find a (commercial) user that would benefit all the new apartment residents in this area like a gym, convenience store or something along those lines,” Walker said.
Below the office building are three levels of parking, and Walker said they intend to keep the adjacent parking lot and deck that would be included in the purchase, giving the project about 380 parking spaces.
The project will be named Altitude on Main, and Walker said they’re planning for the apartment building to “look and feel like a hotel.” The state’s Department of Social Services is the primary tenant at Wytestone Plaza, and Walker said the office building is about 50 percent occupied. Ahead of the Wytestone sale, the state department recently leased 100,000 square feet of office space at 5600 Cox Road in Innsbrook.
Walker and Patel have not selected an architect, general contractor or engineer for the project. Walker said they’re scheduled to close on the building mid-2024 and then they’ll begin the plan of development process with the city.
A minimum of 300 more Toilets , washing machines, bathroom sinks, kitchen sinks etc draining into the
City’s waste pipes, that are not adequate.
Repurposing office space into residential dwellings ignites hidden concerns.
Agreed, but what are we to do with all the office space that is not being used? Everyone seems to be saving bank and working from home.
Yes, especially in the context of Richmond’s housing shortage. Small units like these will give young people starting out a place to live, opening up more traditional apartments for others. I also like the large number of parking spaces removing cars from the street side parking.
Every large bldg in downtown Richmond will soon become apartments.
If the city waste pipes can handle all the crap coming from City Hall – they should easily be able to handle a few more apartment buildings.
Icon in Norfolk was their Bank of America (same design and layout just maybe shorter that RVA’s tower) and it was successfully converted into 300 apartments about 5 years ago. No major issues since it opened I have heard off. But not sure how this will address housing shortage. These will not be affordable. They will be the same average size and rental prices of other apartments Downtown, in Manchester and Scott’s Addition just in the older “skin” of a building.
The sewer is a combined sewer so it is sized for storm water. This is not even remotely an issue.
It’s nice to see older, structurally significant buildings being re-purposed. The tsunami of cheap, flimsy apartment buildings flooding our city will have to be bulldozed in a few decades. I’m already hearing complaints from the young people living in Manchester and Scott’s Addition that “everything breaks, the buildings leak, and the walls are so paper-thin you hear the neighbors all the time.” When asked why they choose to live there, they tell me that’s where their friends are…
Agreed. Preservation and Re-purposing is the best green build.
The building will be gutted to the studs inside and the new wall will be made out of the same material they billed new units out of and just as thin! This is a 1960s office building with very few permanent interior walls off the common area corridors.
Yeah, but the structure should be steel or concrete and steel. Much better than wood frame. It will also help with noise attenuation between floors.
I wonder about the data supporting so many studios and 1 bdr apartments? Will the rents be truly “affordable” for young singles or retirees? Will any be used for STRs, i.e., Air B’n Bs? Will there be decent greenspace?
This building is easy walking distance from VCU Health (aka “MCV”). If nothing else, they will be suitable for students and young professionals working their first job after graduation.
It’s also blocks from Browns Island, The capital lawn, Tredegar and the river… Green space abounds.
Even if these rents aren’t affordable then it will increase the housing stock and help keep pressure off of existing units. That way the existing units will hopefully be less likely to keep increasing their rents.
good news/bad news. a sensible reuse of out-of-demand office space, but combined with the Forensic Sciences move discussed in another article here, that’s several hundred professional workers who will never come back downtown again, regardless of how long and deep work-from-home becomes. but at least we’ll have residents downtown to add to the 24/7 activity
Really good topical article here from a VCU grad on Office to Resi challenges. One thing noted in the article several times is how much more in taxes the city gets from offices than apartments (and a corollary of how much less in services the city needs to provide offices than some kind of residential housing). https://www.loopnet.com/learn/office-to-resi-is-becoming-more-reasonable-expert-says/1377446407/