A warehouse in Henrico’s Westwood area, originally slated to be transformed into a modern office space akin to those in Scott’s Addition, is reverting to its industrial roots.
Earlier this month, the property at 2117 Westwood Ave. was sold to HVAC company Hoffman & Hoffman for $4.3 million. The firm, based in Greensboro, North Carolina, has been serving the Richmond area since the 1990s, providing commercial HVAC sales and services.
Hoffman & Hoffman plans to relocate from its current local headquarters at 2104 W. Laburnum Ave. to the newly acquired Westwood property. The company, along with its approximately 23 local employees, expects to move into the renovated space by early 2025.
The 30,000-square-foot building, which once served as a warehouse for an electrical supply company, had been targeted for an office conversion by Jay Nichols last year. Nichols’ family formerly owned HandCraft Cleaners and successfully redeveloped its Scott’s Addition facility into a commercial hub in the mid-2010s, featuring hospitality tenants like Stella’s Grocery and Väsen Brewing Co. and office tenants such as Brandito and Fahrenheit Advisors.
The planned office conversion for the Westwood building has now been scrapped following the sale. Nichols, who purchased the property from Atlantic Electrical in 2021 for $3.8 million, declined to comment on the recent sale.
The 2-acre site, located near the Carvana car vending machine and Topgolf, straddles the Richmond-Henrico County line, with most of the property in the city. The sale, which closed on August 6, was finalized through two separate transactions: $3.8 million for the portion in Richmond and $550,000 for the portion in Henrico. The property was most recently assessed at a combined value of $2.9 million.
Charlie Black, Hoffman & Hoffman’s local branch manager, expressed enthusiasm for the company’s continued investment in Richmond.
“Richmond is a key market for us. We’ve expanded our team here significantly, and we need the space to accommodate our growth,” Black said.
It’s important to note that Hoffman & Hoffman is not connected to Hoffman Associates, a D.C.-based developer that Nichols is also working with on a separate project in Scott’s Addition. Hoffman Associates, known for its large-scale projects like The Wharf in D.C., is planning a $133 million, six-story apartment complex at 3200 W. Moore St., on a parcel of land owned by Nichols. As of late last month, that deal was still progressing.
