This 38,000-square-foot office and warehouse building is located northeast of the Midlothian Turnpike-Chippenham Parkway interchange at the new N. Chasen & Son will be home. (Photos by Mike Platania)
Less than a month after cashing in on a record-setting contract from Scott’s Additions, a local painting contractor has secured its next home south of the river.
N. Chasen & Son bought 6801-6831 Atmore Drive last month for $3.4 million. A 38,000-square-foot warehouse is set to become the new headquarters of a longtime local painting and woodworking company.
N. Chasen & Son has spent the past 50 years in the Scott Addition on West Marshall Street, but last month sold the 2.5-acre complex for $10.8 million to local developer Capital Square, which plans to build a 350-unit apartment tower.
Leisa Deffenbaugh, N. Chasen & Son’s CFO, said the search for a new headquarters felt like searching for a new home in the competitive Richmond market.
“You can’t find what you want to rent or buy,” she says. “Our choice was to buy. But frankly, we were like, ‘What if we don’t get what we want?’ We had a strategic plan. We were totally thinking about renting a place.
The 2-acre site includes plenty of parking, which N. Chasen & Son needs for the trucks it operates.
Deffenbaugh said they relied on some old-school sensibilities to acquire the Atmore Drive property.
“We did it the old-fashioned way: we were interested in driving around and doing outreach,” Deffenbaugh said.
“Our guys are out on the road anyway, serving customers and quoting work. We said, ‘Look, if you’re driving by something that’s convenient and looks like a good place, write us and we’ll do the legwork.'” It was a team effort.
The approach worked, and on July 1 they closed on the building and roughly 2-acre parcel for $3.4 million. The parcels were recently appraised for a total of $1.4 million.
CBRE’s Jason Hetherington, Matt Hamilton and Chris Wallace represented N. Chasen & Son in the deal, and Porter Realty Co.’s Byron Holmes represented the seller, Sheppard Investment Company.
N. Chasen & Son sold its Scott’s Addition holdings earlier this year for $10.8 million. (BizSense file photo)
Deffenbaugh said that in addition to meeting N. Chason & Son’s parking needs, the Atmore location’s proximity to highways and turnkey development attracted them.
“It has an office and work space that we need to do our indoor painting as well as store paint and prepare works,” she said. “It has a good balance for us.”
- Chasen & Son will not occupy the full 38,000 square feet, and Deffenbaugh said they will continue to lease most of the space. The move is slated to begin this month.
From N. Just down the road from Chasen & Son’s property is Urbana at Hioaks, a 216-unit income-based housing development currently under construction. Just as N. Chasen & Son’s Invest in Scott’s Addition paid dividends for them in the 1970s, Deffenbaugh said they hope to buy into another hotspot in the future.
“That area is reminiscent of Scott’s Addition 20 years ago,” Deffenbaugh said. “We expect that location to be not only convenient for our operations, but also good value for the dollar.”
