THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, July 12, 1994 TAG: 9407120296
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: D1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: By MYLENE MANGALINDAN, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 67 lines
Two stalwarts of downtown Norfolk will be moving to new headquarters to make room for the city's proposed MacArthur mall.
S.L. Nusbaum Realty Co., a commercial real estate firm, and Goodman & Co., a regional accounting firm, will move from the Maritime Tower to the 21-floor NationsBank Center within the next year.
The firms are moving to make way for the MacArthur Center. Their leases in the Maritime Tower expire in 1995.
``As far as we know, the building as we know it won't be here,'' said Donald M. Dale, managing director of Goodman & Co. ``That was the original impetus'' for the move, he said.
S.L. Nusbaum has been downtown for about 90 years, president Miles B. Leon said. Goodman & Co. has been downtown since 1932, Dale said.
Designs for the $270 million proposed mall currently include the land now occupied by the SMA Center, where the two firms' office tower is now.
The city has exercised its option to buy the property when the two firms' leases expire next year, said Robert B. Smithwick, director of the Norfolk economic development department. But the building has to be free of all tenants, he said.
``There is a possibility of tearing (Maritime Tower) down, depending upon the final design of MacArthur Center,'' Smithwick said. ``As the design stands now, part of the parking will go there.''
The second reason for the move involved the firms' leases. Goodman's lease expires in September 1995 and S.L. Nusbaum's lease expires in the spring of 1995.
``We're pleased that NationsBank had a role in retaining two of Norfolk's oldest and largest companies in the downtown Norfolk area,'' said William L. Rueger, senior bank executive at NationsBank. ``We have been working together with the city of Norfolk to retain these companies.''
``We've chosen one of the finest office buildings in the state,'' Leon said.
``We feel as professionals that we need to be downtown,'' added Dale.
NationsBank negotiated with its two newest tenants for approximately six months before a lease was signed.
S.L. Nusbaum and Goodman & Co. employ more than 200 people, Leon said.
In NationsBank Center, the two firms will occupy 42,000 square feet each. The two firms combined occupy about six floors of the Maritime Tower of comparable space at 234 Monticello Ave.
S.L. Nusbaum will move into the 10th floor of the NationsBank Center in November. Goodman & Co. will move into the eighth floor next May. They will share space on the ninth floor.
NationsBank will relocate its executive offices in mid-November from the eighth floor to the sixth floor to make room for its new neighbors. About 50 bank employees move to the company's other space in Two Commercial Place and the Norfolk Southern Tower.
``We anticipate when S.L. Nusbaum and Goodman & Co. move in, it'll be 100 percent leased,'' Rueger said.
``We're obviously pleased,'' he said. ``It speaks strongly to the building's addresss and the quality of the building itself.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
JIM WALKER/Staff
S.L. Nusbaum, and Goodman & Co., will move from the Maritime Tower,
above, to the NationsBank Center within the next year.
by CNB