Richmond-based Shamin Hotels has purchased two former car dealerships in Colonial Heights with plans to turn them into medical office buildings with out-parcels for restaurants. The former Dominion Chevrolet-Buick-Cadillac Southpark and Priority Nissan properties were bought late last year for a combined purchase price of $4.4 million.

Neil Amin, Shamin’s chief executive, cited that the reason he bought the properties was because of the enormous amount of acreage that was available for mixed-use projects. Totaling 15-acres, he envisions both properties being anchored by medical office space with at least five out-parcel opportunities available. Shamin has already signed their client Colonial Orthopaedics for the Dominion site which they purchased together in November. A tenant for the Nissan site has yet to be signed.

Counting on strong demand for apartments and office space near Fort Lee and Virginia State University, Richmond-based developer Tom Wilkinson has been working on the largest adaptive reuse development in Petersburg. He now hopes to secure financing for a $40 million, 300,000 square-foot apartment and office project that will complete the $100 million conversion of seven buildings in a former cigarette factory downtown. (more…)