Real Estate: W. TAYLOR FRANKLIN
CO-FOUNDER AND CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER, THE FRANKLIN JOHNSTON GROUP, VIRGINIA BEACH
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Franklin started The Franklin Johnston Group, a development, investment and management firm, with his father and two other former S.L. Nusbaum employees in 2013. Today they have 497 employees in Virginia and 76 workers in six other states.
In recent news, the company offered $7 million to buy the Laskin Road Annex building in Virginia Beach and plans to build a mixed-use development there and move its headquarters to the location. The $70 million development will include an office tower, a rooftop restaurant, 132 apartments, about 10,000 square feet of retail and a parking garage at the site that once was home to an elementary school, the company said.
This year, Franklin, 40, reigned as the youngest King Neptune in the 48-year history of Virginia Beach’s Neptune Festival. He serves as vice chair of Norfolk Collegiate’s board of trustees and is a trustee for his alma mater, Virginia Wesleyan University. He also served as assistant secretary of the Virginia Beach Development Authority and is chairman of the Chesapeake Bay Wine Classic Foundation.
SOMETHING I’D NEVER DO AGAIN: Jump off a cliff in Virgin Gorda, British Virgin Islands
FAVORITE SONG: “Days Like This,” by Van Morrison
