Henrico to map plan for use of former Best Products HQ [Richmond Times-Dispatch, Va.]

Dec. 24--Henrico County is the proud owner of the former corporate headquarters of Best Products Inc., a defunct catalog showroom retailer as renowned for its style as its business prowess.

Now, the county has to decide what to do with its $6.2 million investment.

"I don't intend to be in a hurry," County Manager Virgil R. Hazelett said after the purchase closed on Wednesday.

Henrico will begin a master planning process to decide how best to use the Best Plaza property, with 286,000 square feet of buildings and more than 58 undeveloped acres at Interstate 95 and East Parham Road.

Hazelett expects to move county functions into the buildings gradually over the next 10 years, allowing Henrico to save on leases and avoid construction of new buildings.

"This is an investment for the future," he said, "not an investment for today."

Henrico bought the 92-acre property from Metropolitan Life Insurance Co., represented by Cushman & Wakefield/Thalhimer. Bank of America began leasing the property in late 1999, but moved out its employees late last year.

The purchase raised some eyebrows because Henrico still faces daunting budget challenges as the region recovers from recession. But county officials say they got a bargain on the property, which had been assessed at $25 million when Bank of America still occupied it.

"It will save Henrico County millions of dollars," predicted Hazelett.

The complex is located more centrally than the main county office complex in western Henrico, and it's easily accessible from Interstates 95 and 295.

It's also hard to top for style. Best Products was founded in the mid-1950s in Richmond by Sydney and Frances Lewis, who made an art of its buildings.

The complex, built between 1977 and 1985, features a pair of 16-foot-tall art deco stone eagles from the former Airlines Terminal Building in Manhattan.

At its peak, Best employed 1,100 people at the complex, but the number had dwindled to 500 when the company closed in 1997. Another now-defunct Richmond retailer, Circuit City Stores, occupied part of the complex for its credit-card bank subsidiary in the late 1990s.

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