THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, November 3, 1995 TAG: 9511030536
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: D1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MYLENE MANGALINDAN, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 75 lines
Is the real estate market heating up?
Hampton Roads real estate developers and economic development officials answer with a resounding ``Yes.''
``We're seeing a lot of activity in office and industrial commercial development,'' said Robert Ruhl, business development manager of the Virginia Beach economic development department. ``We're seeing a little bit of speculative building coming to the forefront again.''
On the heels of a slew of economic development announcements throughout the state, Hampton Roads added two new commerce parks Thursday: one in Suffolk and another in Newport News.
Newport News-based Hamner Development Co. and Richmond-based Luck Properties Inc. launched Deer Run Commerce Center in Newport News. It will be the first privately funded speculative building on the Peninsula in five years, said Michael Mulhall, Hamner Development vice president of industrial marketing.
Richmond-based Dominion Land Management Co. held a ribbon-cutting ceremony also to kick off the Bridgeway Commerce Park in Suffolk.
Bridgeway Commerce Park is a public-private venture. The city of Suffolk contributed $3 million in water and sewer improvements for the business park.
Dominion Land Management, owned by Dominion Capital, invested more than $2 million into the Suffolk project, primarily for road improvements, said Don Priest, president of Dominion Land Management. Dominion Capital is one of the major subsidiaries of Richmond-based Dominion Resources, which also owns Virginia Power.
Land prices will sell for between $40,000 to $70,000 an acre. The commerce park consists of 313 acres, Priest said.
``This has been planning for a long time, at least four years or more,'' Priest said. ``Right now the market is coming back up. We see signs and interest on the part of small users.
``It's a good time to get into the market,'' he said. ``The pace of interest is picking up. Any economic development director would say the same thing. The number of inquiries has increased.
``We're very bullish.''
Newport News' Deer Run will offer clients space in six industrial buildings. Mulhall said the current climate of new companies coming to the area and existing company expansion has boosted the demand for space.
``We've already got five companies interested in our first building,'' he said.
Deer Run is located down the road from Fort Eustis and 15 minutes on Interstate-64 from Gateway 2000's proposed facility in Hampton. Its six buildings range in size from 24,000 to 50,000 square feet. They can accommodate light industrial uses like manufacturing, assembly, distribution and warehousing.
Space in the first building will sell for $4.50 per square foot, Mulhall said. The project costs $8 million and is funded solely by Luck Properties.
Luck Stone Corp., a Virginia-based crushed stone business, formed its subsidiary, Luck Properties, to turn some of its real estate holdings into a profitable venture, said Luck Properties general manager John Pullen.
``We had a lot of non-utilized real estate products,'' Pullen said. ``We acquired more property than we needed for our mining operations. It left us with a glut of land.''
Pullen suggested to Luck Stone Corp. Chairman and CEO Charles Luck III that they develop the land to gain a profitable return.
Hamner convinced Pullen and others that the time was ripe for development because local clients had outgrown their existing buildings and needed more space. ILLUSTRATION: MAP
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