Featuring Rotarian Mike Barrett

Work to begin on second office building in January

By Tom Shean, The Virginian-Pilot - 11/20/2007

Virginia Beach - After dealing with delays in the assembly of needed parcels, The Runnymede Corp. said Monday that it will begin work on a five-story office building near the Virginia Beach Convention Center on Jan. 2.

The building, dubbed Towne Pavilion Center II, will occupy a site bound by Mediterranean and Cypress avenues east of the Towne Pavilion Center at the end of the expressway.

The "class A" office building will be smaller than the existing eight-story Towne Pavilion Center because Runnymede wasn't able to acquire all of the lots it sought, said Michael Barrett, chief executive officer of the Virginia Beach-based development, leasing and management company.

The company, he said, was unable to acquire three lots on the block, so it lacked the parking space that a larger building would need.

"We would have preferred to start much sooner," he said, but assembling the other 17 lots "took a little longer than we expected."

Barrett declined to say what the 83,000-square-foot building will cost but said such buildings currently cost in the range of $200 to $250 per square foot. That would put the price tag for Towne Pavilion Center II in a range between $16.6 million and $20.8 million.

TowneBank, meanwhile, said it will lease almost half of the new building's square footage for its Towne Financial Services, a unit that includes insurance, mortgage banking, investment, group benefits and other non bank services.

The Portsmouth-based bank said its Virginia Beach headquarters will remain in the nearby Towne Pavilion Center I. However, the bank will move its existing branch to a much larger facility in the new building, said Will Sessoms, TowneBank's Virginia Beach president.

Barrett said Runnymede expects to have 85 percent of the new building leased by the time it opens in April. The building, he said, will be owned by the principals of Runnymede, who also own the existing Towne Pavilion Center.

The second Towne Pavilion Center is being designed by CMSS Architects in Virginia Beach. The general contractor is Clancy & Theys Construction Co.

Tom Shean, (757) 446-2379, tom.shean@pilotonline.com

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