The office and retail space in Block Four of The Town Center of Virginia Beach is complete.

Tenants Open for Business in The Town Center of Virginia Beach 

VIRGINIA BEACH, VIRGINIA:  The 3.2 million pounds of reinforced steel are in place.  Wood paneling and granite for the tower’s lobby floor and columns were shipped from Brazil and Saudi Arabia.  Otis elevators began zooming tenants up the 24 floors of the office tower at 700 feet per minute.

The first phase of office and retail space in Block Four of The Town Center of Virginia Beach is complete.  Tenants began moving in during October  including P.F. Chang’s China Bistro; The City of Virginia Beach Department of Economic Development; Morgan Stanley; Cherry, Bekaert & Holland; Troutman Sanders; Armada Hoffler; and Williams Mullen.

The backbone infrastructure and the internal roads were completed as part of Phase I.  Cobblestone crosswalks and traffic signals were installed.  Specially grown elms and zelcovas for the area’s sidewalks came from North Carolina to be lit by custom-designed streetlamps.  The first phase of development also included a 1,300-space parking garage that offers free parking to tenants and visitors of The Town Center.  On top of the garage is a 225,000-square-foot office tower and a 16,000-square-foot penthouse building. 

The first retail tenant of The Town Center of Virginia Beach, P.F. Chang’s China Bistro, began serving its fresh, innovative, contemporary Chinese cuisine from a two-story building on the northwest side of the tower in early October.  Founded in 1993, the Scottsdale, Arizona-based restaurant features an intense energy atmosphere where high-quality, lightly sauced dishes are wok cooked in a dramatic exhibition kitchen.  All 65 company-owned P.F. Chang’s offer American hospitality in sophisticated bistro settings.

Additionally, the City of Virginia Beach's Department of Economic Development now occupies the 10th floor in the tower building.  According to Donald Maxwell, director of the Department of Economic Development, "The Town Center's strategic location and complimentary mixed-uses make it one of the most significant projects in the history of Virginia Beach."   The Hampton Roads Technology Council has subleased 700 square feet of space from the Department of Economic Development.

Located on the 19th and 20th floors of the Class A high-rise office tower is Atlanta-based Troutman Sanders, a major East Coast law firm.  Troutman Sanders entered Virginia in 2001 by merging with Mays and Valentine, a long-established law firm headquartered in Richmond, Virginia. Mays and Valentine had offices in Norfolk’s Dominion Tower and Virginia Beach’s Pembroke area.

Construction has also begun on a 175-room Hilton Garden Inn on Block Five facing Virginia Beach Boulevard.  This will be a limited-service, deluxe business hotel.  Luxurious, top-quality finishes will appoint everything from the larger-than-normal guestrooms, to the breakfast room/coffee shop and cocktail bar.  The $20 million hotel is being financed in part by The Endowment Fund of Hampton University in Hampton, Virginia. 

The Hilton Garden Inn is being built by a partnership of Armada Hoffler and Crestline Capital, a hotel ownership and management group spun off from the Marriott Corporation in 1998.  Crestline also manages the Waterside Marriott Hotel and the Waterside Convention Center in Norfolk and the Renaissance Portsmouth Hotel and Waterfront Conference Center.  There are more than 130 Hilton Garden Inn hotels nationwide, including locations in Williamsburg, Richmond and Washington, D.C.  The Virginia Beach hotel is the first Hilton Garden Inn in South Hampton Roads. 

While many of the services and the atmosphere will be on the level of a four-star hotel, other services will be limited as guests will be encouraged to use the facilities of The Town Center.

“We want the hotel guests to take advantage of the amenities that The Town Center of Virginia Beach has to offer,” said Gerald Divaris, chairman and CEO of Divaris Real Estate, Inc.  “We think it will add to the synergy at Town Center, bringing the business traveler and contributing to the 24-hour activity at night and on weekends.”

A destination retailer will also add to the project’s atmosphere.  A seller of upscale outdoor lifestyle goods has signed a lease to open an 84,000-square-foot, two-story store on the corner of Columbus Street facing Independence Boulevard.  A parking garage will be constructed as well as other retail and office uses in Block Twelve that will accommodate the outdoor lifestyle retailer. 

The financial needs of the residents, employees and visitors will be covered by Towne Bank, the first freestanding banking facility to be built in The Town Center.   Towne Bank has broken ground for a16,000-square-foot, two-story building on Block Five, on what was previously used as a parking lot for the tenants of One Columbus Center, an existing 11-story Class A high-rise office building.  With the addition of new, covered parking garages, a portion of the surface parking was made available for redevelopment.  Towne Bank will have drive-thru lanes that can be entered from Constitution Drive.  The bank will face Columbus Village Entertainment Center, a highly successful retail complex anchored by Barnes & Noble, Bed Bath & Beyond, Planet Music and Columbus Movies 12.

In total, over 85 percent of the available space in Block Four of The Town Center of Virginia Beach has been leased. "The leasing has surpassed even our highest expectations," says Lou Haddad, CEO and president of Armada Hoffler, The Town Center's developer.  "As the leasing and management agents and partner in The Town Center, we are thrilled with the response to the development," says Divaris, "and we look forward to announcing additional exciting tenants in the near future."

"Since the inception of this project in the early 1980's, we have been a strong supporter and proud participant in the vision of a central business district," notes Thomas Frantz, Hampton Roads regional head and chair of the business department at Williams Mullen.  The international law firm, which employs over 200 attorneys, occupies two floors in the high-rise office tower in The Town Center. 

Other signed tenants for the office tower include Wilcox and Savage; Armada Hoffer and Faggert & Frieden.  The perimeter of Block Four's parking garage is flanked by two- to five-story, mixed-use buildings.  Leases have been signed for this space with several tenants including Morgan Stanley; WVBT-Channel 3, the CBS-television affiliate’s newsroom; and Pender & Coward, P.C., a large Virginia Beach-based law firm. 

One of the oldest law firms in Virginia Beach signed a long-term lease for three floors of office space in The Town Center.  Pender & Coward occupies a five-story building on the west side of the office tower.   The space is luxuriously appointed with Italian granite floors, a 20-foot dome in the lobby and custom-made Oriental carpets. 

"As a Virginia Beach-based law firm, we are very excited about relocating to the hub of the city's newly defined financial district.  We considered three other new office opportunities, but hands down, we went for The Town Center because of what it offers," states Douglas E. Kahle, CEO of Pender & Coward. 

Additional blocks will come on line in 2004 with a variety of uses, including more office space, restaurants, retail and a 334-unit luxury apartment building.  Several new restaurants are coming to The Town Center as well as world-renowned entertainment facilities including a nationally known comedy club.  Block Ten is planned to have retail on the ground floor, a parking garage, and 12 floors of upscale apartments.  The apartments are expected to become available for occupancy during the winter of 2004-2005. 

The City of Virginia Beach has also approved plans to construct a 1,200-seat performing arts center at The Town Center of Virginia Beach.   This will entail the relocation of the existing Pavillion Theatre, currently located ten miles east, close to the oceanfront.  The Pavilion Theater is scheduled to be demolished to make room for the city's expanded Convention Center.

The Town Center's location in Virginia Beach's central business district at Pembroke, is 11 miles from downtown Norfolk, 11 miles from the oceanfront, 7.5 miles from the Chesapeake Bay, and 7.5 miles from Virginia Beach's Municipal Center. This puts The Town Center equidistant from 85 percent of the region's population. 

The area commands the highest occupancy rates in the region, the greatest sales per square foot and the second largest bank deposit activity in the Commonwealth of Virginia.   All of these factors are evidence of the strong demand for this central location that has over 330,000 people currently living within a five-mile radius. 

Gerald Divaris has worked closely with city officials and the Central Business District Association for more than 19 years to see this vision come to life.  The landmark development in Virginia's largest city broke ground in the summer of 2000.  A team comprising the principals of Armada Hoffler Holding Company and the executives of Divaris Real Estate are developing the project.   Armada Hoffler Construction Company is constructing the buildings, while CMSS Architects is responsible for the urban planning and architecture of the development. 

"The Town Center is a place to mingle and a focus for the city," says Divaris. "It is a place that provides the citizens of Virginia Beach with a source of pride and a central hub for their daily activities." The Town Center is different in design from any other area in the city and will provide around-the-clock action with both commercial and residential components.