DATE: Thursday, November 27, 1997           TAG: 9711270650

SECTION: BUSINESS                PAGE: D1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY MIKE ABRAMS, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH                    LENGTH:   71 lines

HOT LYNNHAVEN WILL GET MORE COMPETITION BEACH DEVELOPER WILL TAKE ON N.C. COMPETITION

A local developer known for some of the region's finest suburban offices plans to break ground in January on a speculative building less than a mile from a competitor's recently announced project.

Cecil Cutchins, president of Olympia Development Corp., confirmed he'll construct an 80,000-square-foot, $8 million building in his Reflections corporate park near Lynnhaven Mall.

The sleek, four-story structure - with the floor space of about 40 average single-family homes or a typical grocery store - will complete the 12-year-old development off South Lynnhaven Road.

The Olympia proposal comes just a month after Highwoods Properties Inc., a Raleigh, N.C.-based real estate investment trust, unveiled its design for a 103,000-square-foot, $10 million building off Lynnhaven Parkway.

Both developers intend to begin around the same time, attract clients during construction and open the buildings by next fall.

``I think I'll have the superior site,'' Cutchins said. ``I have established an address over the last 12 years.''

The response from Highwoods: ``You always have to assume that others see the same good market potential you do and will come to compete,'' said Paul W. Kreckman, an executive with the trust. ``You try to build a better mousetrap. You put up a better building, in a better location, at a better price.''

Industry observers say the demand for top-of-the-line ``Class A'' office space is on the rise, as are rental rates.

With existing space filling up, developers are more willing to take on speculative projects, whereby they erect offices without pre-signed tenants. The first such success in a number of years was the 60,000-square-foot Southport Centre in Virginia Beach, which opened more than half-full earlier this year near Mount Trashmore Park.

Cutchins plans to charge market-rate rents of about $17 per square foot in his newest building, Reflections IV.

The other three buildings in the park occupy 207,000 square feet and host, among others, Metro Information Services Inc., Cigna Corp. and Contship Container Line.

The new building will match the others with a glass-and-brick exterior, peaked roof and a decorative lobby.

``The task is to make it look different - not the old '80s cliches,'' said Barry Moss of Tymoff & Moss Architects, the Norfolk firm handling the project. ``We'll give it distinct entrances, new details, exotic finishes.''

The Highwoods building, expected to be the largest of its kind in the vibrant Lynnhaven business corridor, also will feature executive amenities and command similar rents.

With more than 450 suburban office, industrial and service center properties, Highwoods is pushing to dominate office and industrial markets in the Southeast. In Hampton Roads, the publicly traded trust acquired the four-story Riverside Corporate Center I in Norfolk and plans to add a sister building next door.

But Cutchins isn't backing off.

He pointed to Olympia Development's past projects as proof of his ability to compete.

Olympia developed the six-story Bell Atlantic building off Route 44 in Virginia Beach as well as the Greenwich Station radio facility and a Department of Environmental Quality building, both also in the resort city.

Olympia plans to break ground early next year on another building, a 60,000-square-foot Harbor Bank facility in Newport News.

``I don't build a lot,'' Cutchins said. ``I build a few. I try to have a high-end product.'' ILLUSTRATION: TYMOFF-MOSS Architects illustration

This artist's view represents what a new speculative office building

planned for the Reflections corporate park should look like

Map

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