THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, March 2, 1996 TAG: 9603020351
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: D1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY CHRISTOPHER DINSMORE, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Short : 37 lines
Cruise International and its CI Travel division will be moving its headquarters to the World Trade Center in downtown Norfolk.
CI's owner Richard O'Leary sold the travel company's distinctive headquarters on Norfolk's Front Street to the national animal rights activist group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.
PETA paid $2 million for the four-story structure on Smith Creek.
The group will move its national headquarters to Norfolk in June.
The building wasn't for sale, but it had been several years ago, O'Leary said.
PETA's agent approached him about selling it and the deal just made sense, he said.
``I'll miss it; I love this building,'' O'Leary said. ``I had seller's remorse for a while, but it just made business sense for us to do it.''
O'Leary plans to move half its 50 employees into space in the World Trade Center. He's looking for space for the others.
PETA wanted to be in or near downtown Norfolk, said Gerald Keller, the Pembroke Commercial Realty agent who represented PETA.
Besides CI, the building also houses Spirit Cruises, which operates the Spirit of Norfolk and other ``Spirit of. . . '' dinner-cruise vessels across the country. It will likely stay until its lease expires next January.
PETA will move about 60 people here from its current headquarters in suburban Washington. It will hire 30 locally.
KEYWORDS: PETA by CNB