Good deeds

Commercial real estate moves forward in pandemic

Published September 28, 2020 by Sydney Lake

The pandemic hasn’t seemingly slowed down commercial real estate development and transactions in Hampton Roads.

Despite significant financial hits to the hospitality industry, the $125 million, 305-room Marriott Virginia Beach Oceanfront opened in June, the second phase of Gold Key | PHR’s three-phase, $350 million renovation and expansion of The Cavalier Resort.

Also in June, Suffolk-based TowneBank and Children’s Hospital of the King’s Daughters (CHKD) jointly purchased for $30 million the 22-story Norfolk Southern Tower in downtown Norfolk from the Fortune 500 railroad corporation, which is in the process of migrating its corporate headquarters to Atlanta.

In the health care industry, Norfolk-based Sentara Healthcare opened the $93.5 million, 253,000-square-foot Sentara Brock Cancer Center, a patient treatment and care facility in Norfolk, in June.

In Suffolk, Bon Secours is planning a $115.7 million, 67,000-square-foot expansion of the Bon Secours Health Center at Harbour View, for which it filed a certificate of public need in July.

On the horizon are two proposed casinos: the $300 million, 400,000-square-foot Rivers Casino Portsmouth and the Pamunkey Indian Tribe’s $500 million resort in Norfolk, both of which must be approved by local voters in November to move forward.