Richmond: Economy/Business/Real Estate

[Icetera]

Do not expect any expansion of the James Center any time soon

http://richmondbizsense.com/2016/02/23/james-center-headed-to-foreclosure/

[eandslee]

Yeah, The James Center is in trouble.  I'm just hoping there is a silver lining here...I'm hoping that they might lower their leasing rates to draw in some suburban companies downtown...or other companies moving to Richmond.  MW really sent them a blow by moving out.  I wonder if they moved out because The James Center owners weren't willing to make upgrades to the building?  Honestly, I think the buildings are looking a bit aged and worn (poor management of the buildings will not draw in or retain your best tenants).

[drayrichmond]

Two ways we can look at this.

1. James Center will sit in limbo and remain stagnate for the foreseeable future. Little will be done with the property and there's a good chance it won't attract new clients unless the market shifts demand. (most likely)

2. A new buyer or investor comes into the picture and reinvigorates James Center with an influx of capital. New management and a stimulus of capital attracts new tenants and James Center enters a renaissance of sorts. (hopeful thinking).

[eandslee]

Welcome to the forum drayrichmond!  Come and post often!  Yeah, I'm hoping for possibility number 2.  If that doesn't happen, I think it will put a significant damper on the renaissance Downtown Richmond is experiencing. 

[jbjust]

The James Center needs a lot of mechanical work, to be honest.  If they had dealt with the issue head-on, MW would still be there.  

[drayrichmond]

Hopefully this isn't an omen as to what may happen with SunTrusts current tower when they move to their new tower. It's great that we are getting new high-rises, but I wish it was more new companies moving in rather than existing companies shuffling around downtown. 

But on a high note, looks like the Airport is expanding their capabilities and with the addition of a maintenance facility. Looks like it will bring in a couple dozen good jobs to the area. 

http://www.richmond.com/business/article_d69f57b0-4359-51c1-8c4a-2744bf89ae8b.html

[jbjust]

The airport facility is just to work on RJ-145's, which are is a truly embarrassing aircraft.  United is phasing out their 145's and AA should do the same.  Heck, two of AA's flights to Phily are still on prop planes. 

[blopp1234]

http://richmondbizsense.com/2016/05/23/project-buzzard-circling-near-amazon-in-chesterfield/

new distribution center to be built in southern chesterfield. 

[eandslee]

52 minutes ago, blopp1234 said:

http://richmondbizsense.com/2016/05/23/project-buzzard-circling-near-amazon-in-chesterfield/

new distribution center to be built in southern chesterfield. 

This is interesting.  I wonder who is going to do this?  Can't wait for an announcement...sounds HUGE.  Wish we could land a HUGE corporate HQ downtown, but I'll take this too.  Still hoping and wishing.

On another note, I saw that another NC bank (First Citizens Bank) is swallowing up another Virginia bank (Bank of Virginia). This crap has to stop!  I'm sick of NC banks taking over the banks in Virginia and becoming mega banks of the world (killing our economy and bolstering theirs).  This is how Charlotte got to be what it has become.  Meanwhile, Richmond remains this comparatively small insignificant town in Virginia.  Thanks for the raping NC!

[drayrichmond]

11 hours ago, eandslee said:

On another note, I saw that another NC bank (First Citizens Bank) is swallowing up another Virginia bank (Bank of Virginia). This crap has to stop!  I'm sick of NC banks taking over the banks in Virginia and becoming mega banks of the world (killing our economy and bolstering theirs).  This is how Charlotte got to be what it has become.  Meanwhile, Richmond remains this comparatively small insignificant town in Virginia.  Thanks for the raping NC!

I saw that too, very disappointing. North Carolina seems to have no problem cannibalizing its neighbors economies. Not to get into politics here, but with NC's problems with it's quote-unquote bathroom bill and companies taking issue with it, I think we should be returning the favor and start lobbying with those companies (ie paypal canceling a 400 job expansion in Charlotte) to move their operations and expansions to VA. 

[Icetera]

Richmond region now home to eight Fortune 500 companies, up two from last year:

http://www.richmond.com/business/local/article_d027a921-761a-5245-8966-383cc6936306.html

[jbjust]

1 hour ago, Icetera said:

Richmond region now home to eight Fortune 500 companies, up two from last year:

http://www.richmond.com/business/local/article_d027a921-761a-5245-8966-383cc6936306.html

Where did we peak before 2008?  Seems like we had 10-12. 

[drayrichmond]

So looked up how many fortune 500 companies other localities in our area have:

Also note that these are headquarters, so for example places like Raleigh have many more branch offices that belong to Fortune 500 companies, but not the headquarters. If i give a range (ie 2-3) I'm just counting the distant suburbs/borderline whether to include or not companies. I've also included approximate city populations.

The Norfolk/Chesapeake Area(pop 1,725k)- 3

Raleigh NC(430k) - 1 

Charlotte NC(790K) - 5-6 

Harrisburg PA(50k) - 2

Pittsburgh PA(300k) - 4

Surprisingly Baltimore MD(620k) - 0

Indianapolis IN(850) - 2-4

DC(670k) - 15

So, seeing as how Richmond has about 220k people and is sitting on 8 fortune 500 companies; compared to our neighbors, I'd say we look pretty good. 

[jbjust]

Yes, but having the largest bank in the world (BOA) should count as 10-15 Fortune 500 co's.

[drayrichmond]

24 minutes ago, jbjust said:

Yes, but having the largest bank in the world (BOA) should count as 10-15 Fortune 500 co's.

Yeah, it doesn't account for the size of the company, BOA is huge in Charlotte, heres a great map that plots the companies with their size

http://fortune.com/fortune500/visualizations?iid=recirc_f500landing-zone1

[wrldcoupe4]

These are fortune 500s in our region, not in the city alone. 

[Icetera]

IKEA for Hampton Roads

http://pilotonline.com/business/consumer/it-s-true-ikea-is-coming-to-hampton-roads/article_f2a9952a-95e7-5400-8dde-fa2ed5ecd8ba.html

I find it interesting on where they are locating this Ikea. Typically they are placed on the edge of one major metropolitan area in the direction of other population centers. Given that, I would have expected this to be located in Western Newport News/Hampton/Williamsburg in order to pick up both Hampton Roads (1.7 mil) and the Richmond metro (1.3 mil) but instead they located it way east in between Norfolk and VA Beach. That makes me think they are planning ahead for a future location in Western Richmond (Short Pump) which would work for Charlottesville (0.15 mil), Lynchburg (0.25 mil) and potentially Roanoke (0.3 mil) for a combined market of 1.7 to 2 million.

[blopp1234]

41 minutes ago, Icetera said:

IKEA for Hampton Roads

http://pilotonline.com/business/consumer/it-s-true-ikea-is-coming-to-hampton-roads/article_f2a9952a-95e7-5400-8dde-fa2ed5ecd8ba.html

I find it interesting on where they are locating this Ikea. Typically they are placed on the edge of one major metropolitan area in the direction of other population centers. Given that, I would have expected this to be located in Western Newport News/Hampton/Williamsburg in order to pick up both Hampton Roads (1.7 mil) and the Richmond metro (1.3 mil) but instead they located it way east in between Norfolk and VA Beach. That makes me think they are planning ahead for a future location in Western Richmond (Short Pump) which would work for Charlottesville (0.15 mil), Lynchburg (0.25 mil) and potentially Roanoke (0.3 mil) for a combined market of 1.7 to 2 million.

That's what I was thinking because if they wanted that store to draw people from Richmond they wouldn't have located it where it is. It will be about the same distance as the IKEA up in Woodbridge. It also says that they are building one in Memphis. The population of Memphis is alittle over 1,344,000 while the population of Richmond is 1,271,000 so we could possibly see an IKEA in Richmond in the next 5-15 years.

[HRVT]

7 hours ago, blopp1234 said:

That's what I was thinking because if they wanted that store to draw people from Richmond they wouldn't have located it where it is. It will be about the same distance as the IKEA up in Woodbridge. It also says that they are building one in Memphis. The population of Memphis is alittle over 1,344,000 while the population of Richmond is 1,271,000 so we could possibly see an IKEA in Richmond in the next 5-15 years.

They just built one in Charlotte in 2008. My guess is that you guys will be on the lighter end of the 5-15 year range. Or maybe even sooner. It looks like IKEA is starting to get away from being solely in the major markets. Columbus is also about to have one as are Las Vegas and Kansas City. They have plans to expand rapidly. Instead of 5-15 years, I'd guess Richmond is about 3-8 years away from at least an announcement of an upcoming IKEA.

[drayrichmond]

15 hours ago, HRVT said:

They just built one in Charlotte in 2008. My guess is that you guys will be on the lighter end of the 5-15 year range. Or maybe even sooner. It looks like IKEA is starting to get away from being solely in the major markets. Columbus is also about to have one as are Las Vegas and Kansas City. They have plans to expand rapidly. Instead of 5-15 years, I'd guess Richmond is about 3-8 years away from at least an announcement of an upcoming IKEA.

Let's hope your right, not gonna lie, I love Ikea.

It makes sense for Virginia Beach/Norfolk to get the next one for Virginia, based on the amount of military and transient workers in the area. I'm surprised Vegas doesn't already have one, but Columbus and Kansas City are growing at a far faster rate than Richmond so I wouldn't really expect us to get an Ikea for maybe 5 to 10 years

[eandslee]

I think it's kind of funny that Richmond wants to be in a category with the "big boys" (i.e. wanting an IKEA), when the people don't want to do what's necessary to be with the "big boys."  I'm bummed that Richmond didn't get this IKEA, but Richmond just isn't big enough and besides, when did having an IKEA become the benchmark for being a legit metro?  It isn't, but it does speak volumes about where Richmond is right now. It has a lot of catching up to do. 

[vaceltic]

Drayrichmond is onto something with the transient population of Hampton Roads. There's a constant rotation of incoming/outgoing military families that becomes a huge chunk of new customers for IKEA to draw from on a regular basis. 

[meegwell]

On 6/22/2016 at 0:02 PM, eandslee said:

I think it's kind of funny that Richmond wants to be in a category with the "big boys" (i.e. wanting an IKEA), when the people don't want to do what's necessary to be with the "big boys."  I'm bummed that Richmond didn't get this IKEA, but Richmond just isn't big enough and besides, when did having an IKEA become the benchmark for being a legit metro?  It isn't, but it does speak volumes about where Richmond is right now. It has a lot of catching up to do. 

 

I am not speaking from a position of knowledge on the issue, but it would surprise me that the reason Richmond does not have an IKEA is because "Richmond just isn't big enough"...?

I would guess there are dozens of markets that could handle an IKEA but the reason(s) they don't have one are beyond simply the market size of said location.

Also, looking at the store locator map there are quite a few locations that are not the size of Richmond metro.  I could easily see an IKEA out past Short Pump on West Broad that would be rockin' and rollin' .....but I wouldn't be there because I try my best not to go to that area and I don't really care for IKEA...

[vaceltic]

I remember when Hampton Roads touted the Bass Pro Shops complex as a 'game-changing' tourist draw/destination, which was a flat out exaggeration. IKEA is just another big box store like Bass Pro just being selective right now when entering new markets. Eventually, every market is going to have one because it'll be the only way IKEA can grow as a company.

[HRVT]

3 hours ago, vaceltic said:

I remember when Hampton Roads touted the Bass Pro Shops complex as a 'game-changing' tourist draw/destination, which was a flat out exaggeration. IKEA is just another big box store like Bass Pro just being selective right now when entering new markets. Eventually, every market is going to have one because it'll be the only way IKEA can grow as a company.

Exactly this. In 15 years, IKEA will be in every metropolitan area, and possessing 2 or 3 locations in some of bigger metro areas (they already essentially have two locations around DC with Woodbridge and College Park). IKEA coming to Hampton Roads is exciting, but it isn't the game changer many Hampton Roads folks seem to think.