RICHMOND, Va. — After 24 years in Boulders Office Park, advertising firm Barber Martin Agency is moving its office to 1408 Roseneath Road, filling 10,000 square feet of a 25,000-square-foot building at the corner of Roseneath and Leigh Street.
The move marks a new chapter for the veteran agency, which currently occupies 11,000 square feet in the Southside office park that CEO Robyn Zacharias described as cavernous and inefficient. While the Scott’s Addition space is technically smaller, Zacharias said its open floorplan will improve collaboration while making room for 20 more employees, which the 30-person agency plans to hire in coming years.
“After 24 years of being divided, this allows us to come together as one agency and actually collaborate in a true sense,” Zacharias said.
“To me, Scott’s Addition is the epitome of a renewed energy and revitalization and new life coming to a historic area, and that’s Barber Martin,” she said. “We are essentially a 30-year-old agency, and we’re taking the essence and the core of who we are and what we do well and embracing this change with energy, new talent and youth.”
The agency signed a seven-year lease for the space, which is being converted from industrial to office space by property owner High Summit Holdings, a company controlled by Birck Turnbull of Cushman & Wakefield | Thalhimer and Charles Bice of KB Building Services, along with the development arm of UrbanCore Construction.
The space is being designed by architecture firm Baskervill.
High Summit purchased the property – three buildings totaling 50,000 square feet – last August for $3.46 million. Turnbull has secured two other tenants for the larger of the three buildings, while the other two – each about 10,000 square feet – remain occupied with industrial users. Turnbull said those buildings will be converted to office space as leases come up.
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