A rendering of the center. (Courtesy Commonwealth)
A sizable new warehouse project is set to rise in Varina.
Commonwealth, the Innsbrook-based real estate firm formerly known as Commonwealth Commercial, is preparing to begin its development of the Airport South Commerce Center, a new $50 million industrial park in eastern Henrico.
Totaling 405,000 square feet over two buildings, the park will rise on a 55-acre plot at the northwest corner of the Airport Drive-Pocahontas Parkway interchange across from parts of the Sauer Industrial Center.
Ken Strickler, Commonwealth’s president and CEO, said the project location and the fact it could be built by-right helped motivate the company to pursue the development.
“In Richmond, there’s a limited availability of entitled sites like this one,” Strickler said. “We like the Richmond industrial market. The fundamentals are strong, and we like the location … from an access standpoint, it’s very convenient, it’s close to a lot of infrastructure.”
Commonwealth bought the land last spring for $4 million, per county records, and is getting ready to begin construction with the goal of a September 2027 completion. Samet Corporation and Triad Design Group, both of Greensboro, North Carolina, are handling the construction and design of the project, respectively. Bohler, a NoVa-based firm with a local office, is the engineer. Ben Bruni and Colton Konvicka, who both work as brokers at Commonwealth, are handling leasing.
The two warehouses at the Airport South Commerce Center will vary greatly in size, with one totaling 335,000 square feet and the other 70,000 square feet. Strickler said they had to have the buildings differ in size in order to not impact nearby wetlands, and that they see strong demand for smaller industrial spaces. Commonwealth also has experience building sub-100,000-square-foot industrial buildings.
A few years ago, the company developed the Dominion Commerce Center, another 70,000-square-foot center at 9003 Old Staples Mill Road near Henrico’s Laurel area.
The initial plan for the Staples Mill project was for it to serve as the headquarters for Commonwealth’s general contracting arm, Dominion Construction Partners, but that never occurred as DCP was quietly shuttered in recent years. Strickler confirmed DCP is no longer in business but declined to comment further.
Commonwealth has since leased out the Dominion Commerce Center to tenants like BBG Granite and Curtis Power Solutions, and earlier this month the company offloaded the center, selling it for $17.5 million to multinational REIT Invesco.
In addition to its brokerage and development operations, Commonwealth also has property management divisions, as well as forestry, hotel and asset management operations.
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