The building was formerly home to a woodworking shop and architecture firm. (Mike Platania photo)
A relative newcomer to the Richmond commercial real estate scene is laying down roots in one of the city’s most sought-after neighborhoods.
Newmark is preparing to open an office at 3410 W. Leigh St. in Scott’s Addition.
Based in New York and publicly traded, Newmark is a giant in the commercial real estate brokerage industry with over 170 offices worldwide and $2.7 billion in annual revenue. It arrived in Richmond a few years ago when it lured a handful of Colliers brokers to launch its local operations, which now include a capital markets division.
Despite now having a local staff of nine, Newmark has been operating without a physical office space in town. Allison DiGiovanni, Newmark’s executive vice president for the Mid-Atlantic region, said the plan all along was to secure one.
“We did a pretty broad search and toured the whole market,” DiGiovanni said.
Newmark decided on the Leigh Street property, where it’s leasing 4,300 square feet in the 10,000-square-foot building that was once the office for Fultz & Singh Architects and Method Woodworking and Design. The two-story building is adjacent to a Starr Hill Brewery taproom.
“That space was a perfect fit for the team,” DiGiovanni said. “It really fit our needs in terms of size, layout and location.”
The location gives Newmark room to grow, and DiGiovanni said the firm plans to expand Newmark’s Richmond operations with property management, research and support divisions.
The company plans to move in later this month, DiGiovanni said. Thalhimer’s Kate Hosko and Amy Broderick represented the landlord, local general contracting firm M.L. Bell Construction, in the deal.
The landlord built out the remaining suites in the building on spec. (Courtesy M.L. Bell)
M.L. Bell bought the building for $1.9 million two years ago and began renovating it with a refreshed façade, new HVAC and electrical systems and more.
It quickly landed Serve Capital Partners as a tenant for the upstairs suite, but M.L. Bell owner Mike Bell said leasing the remaining downstairs suites while they were empty shells was tricky.
“We had a lot of interest in the space but people really had a tough time visualizing what it would look like from a dark shell to Class A office,” Bell said. “So at the end of 2023, with the encouragement of my brokers, we decided to develop it as a spec suite.”
Bell said the company poured in an additional $600,000 to outfit the downstairs suites, adding things like kitchenettes, brick walls, skylights and conference rooms. The investment already has started to pay off, as the Newmark lease was finalized a few months later.
“It was fun to do. You’re trying to envision what people need. As someone that has office space myself, I built it like what I would want it,” Bell said. “We took the risk on the spec build and believe it’s going to be pretty successful.”
The other, 2,700-square-foot spec suite next to Newmark’s office remains available, and Hosko and Broderick have the listing.
My father worked for – and later managed – an envelope printing company in that building from the time he got back from Europe after WWII (1946) until he retired shortly before the company shuttered in the mid ’90s. All-in-all, he was there for nearly 50 years – and managed the company for more than 20 years. His office was just to the right of the main door in the photo (above). His office window was where the right side of the new main entrance cut-in is, and the rest of his office was about half the width between the… Read more »
What great memories! Thanks for sharing! I really enjoyed reading and have similar ones of my own.