Avail Vapor’s former headquarters at 820 Southlake Blvd., as seen in 2019. (BizSense file)
The former home base of a once-fast-growing local e-cigarette company has been purchased by Richmond’s tobacco king.
An arm of Henrico-based Altria Group recently bought Avail Vapor’s former headquarters and manufacturing facility at 820 Southlake Blvd. in Chesterfield for $4.1 million, according to online county land records.
The roughly 40,000-square-foot facility is situated on a 4-acre property in the Southport Office Park and had once been the nerve center of Avail’s operations. The company at its peak had more than 100 retail locations in a dozen states before its ceased operations in late 2021 in the face of changing FDA regulations.
Avail launched in 2013 and bought the Southlake property for $1.6 million the following year. It began operations there in 2015. The property was most recently assessed at $1.8 million.
An LLC tied to Avail was the seller in the deal with Altria, which was recorded with the county in late December.
Avail founder James Xu declined to comment on the deal, citing a nondisclosure agreement.
Altria subsidiary Altria Client Services is listed as the buyer of the property. An Altria Client Services spokesperson confirmed the acquisition but didn’t comment on the company’s plans for the facility.
Altria Client Services provides corporate functions for Altria and its other subsidiaries: Philip Morris USA, U.S. Smokeless Tobacco Co. and e-cigarette company NJOY, among others. Those services include things like digital marketing, financial services, communications, government affairs, procurement and packaging design. Altria Client Services has about 1,600 employees, most of which are based locally.
The Southlake Boulevard facility served as a manufacturing plant for Avail’s cartridges of nicotine-infused liquid used in vape pens, as well as its Leafana Wellness line of CBD products that rolled out in 2019, about four years after the plant began operation.
In addition to production operations, the property was Avail’s headquarters for years. Blackbriar Regulatory Services and Blackship Technologies, which were spun out of Avail in early 2020, also operated at the property.
Online retailer Giant Vapes, which was formerly owned by Avail, leases the Southlake property. Whether the company was actively operating in the space was unclear Wednesday. Attempts to reach Giant Vapes for comment were unsuccessful.
Avail ceased operations in 2021 after its unsuccessful attempt to secure federal approval to continue to sell its e-liquids after years of operating in what had been an unregulated market.
In May 2023, Avail filed a request for the U.S. Supreme Court to review a lower court’s ruling against an appeal Avail had filed in the wake of the Food and Drug Administration’s rejection of Avail’s application to continue to sell its vape products.
In October, the Supreme Court decided to pass on hearing Avail’s request. Xu said Wednesday that Avail, Blackbriar and Blackship were on hiatus at this time and weren’t actively operating.
The transaction involving the Southlake property wasn’t the first time Altria and Avail have done business. Altria bought a minority stake in the vape company in 2017, the Richmond Times-Dispatch reported at the time.
Avail Vapor’s former headquarters at 820 Southlake Blvd., as seen in 2019. (BizSense file)
The former home base of a once-fast-growing local e-cigarette company has been purchased by Richmond’s tobacco king.
An arm of Henrico-based Altria Group recently bought Avail Vapor’s former headquarters and manufacturing facility at 820 Southlake Blvd. in Chesterfield for $4.1 million, according to online county land records.
The roughly 40,000-square-foot facility is situated on a 4-acre property in the Southport Office Park and had once been the nerve center of Avail’s operations. The company at its peak had more than 100 retail locations in a dozen states before its ceased operations in late 2021 in the face of changing FDA regulations.
Avail launched in 2013 and bought the Southlake property for $1.6 million the following year. It began operations there in 2015. The property was most recently assessed at $1.8 million.
An LLC tied to Avail was the seller in the deal with Altria, which was recorded with the county in late December.
Avail founder James Xu declined to comment on the deal, citing a nondisclosure agreement.
Altria subsidiary Altria Client Services is listed as the buyer of the property. An Altria Client Services spokesperson confirmed the acquisition but didn’t comment on the company’s plans for the facility.
Altria Client Services provides corporate functions for Altria and its other subsidiaries: Philip Morris USA, U.S. Smokeless Tobacco Co. and e-cigarette company NJOY, among others. Those services include things like digital marketing, financial services, communications, government affairs, procurement and packaging design. Altria Client Services has about 1,600 employees, most of which are based locally.
The Southlake Boulevard facility served as a manufacturing plant for Avail’s cartridges of nicotine-infused liquid used in vape pens, as well as its Leafana Wellness line of CBD products that rolled out in 2019, about four years after the plant began operation.
In addition to production operations, the property was Avail’s headquarters for years. Blackbriar Regulatory Services and Blackship Technologies, which were spun out of Avail in early 2020, also operated at the property.
Online retailer Giant Vapes, which was formerly owned by Avail, leases the Southlake property. Whether the company was actively operating in the space was unclear Wednesday. Attempts to reach Giant Vapes for comment were unsuccessful.
Avail ceased operations in 2021 after its unsuccessful attempt to secure federal approval to continue to sell its e-liquids after years of operating in what had been an unregulated market.
In May 2023, Avail filed a request for the U.S. Supreme Court to review a lower court’s ruling against an appeal Avail had filed in the wake of the Food and Drug Administration’s rejection of Avail’s application to continue to sell its vape products.
In October, the Supreme Court decided to pass on hearing Avail’s request. Xu said Wednesday that Avail, Blackbriar and Blackship were on hiatus at this time and weren’t actively operating.
The transaction involving the Southlake property wasn’t the first time Altria and Avail have done business. Altria bought a minority stake in the vape company in 2017, the Richmond Times-Dispatch reported at the time.
Gosh, I hope this doesn’t affect their largest client base’s (underage teenagers) access to vapes.