Village Bank and Trust Financial Corp. (VBFC)

[Enterprising Investor]

Uphoff Ventures buys former Village Bank headquarters building in Watkins Centre (6/15/16)

By JOHN REID BLACKWELL Richmond Times-Dispatch

The former headquarters building of Village Bank and Trust Financial Corp. at Watkins Centre in Chesterfield County has been acquired by Uphoff Ventures for $12.25 million.

Village Bank vacated the four-story building on Midlothian Turnpike near state Route 288 in 2014 and moved into a smaller office nearby. The company said earlier this year that it was in negotiations to sell its former headquarters.

“This particular building is one of the more attractive suburban office facilities that I have seen, and it is in a very prominent area,” said Steve Uphoff, founder and co-owner of Uphoff Ventures. “We thought it would fit well into our portfolio of real estate assets.”

“That area of Chesterfield is going to continue to grow, so that makes the property valuable to us,” he said of Watkins Centre.

Uphoff Ventures is co-owned by Uphoff, the founder of the Uppy’s convenience store chain; his wife, Linda Uphoff; daughter Cassandra Moore and son-in-law Steven Moore, who are partners in Uptown Alley, an upscale bowling entertainment complex with locations in Chesterfield and Surprise, Ariz.

Two new Uptown Alley facilities are in development in Virginia Beach and Manassas and 15 in China. Uphoff was in China on Wednesday.

Commercial real estate brokerage CBRE|Richmond brokered the deal for Uphoff Ventures to buy the Village Bank building, and the firm will serve as leasing agent for 73,873 square foot building, which has about 10,000 square feet of office space available now.

Village Bank and Trust, the parent company of Village Bank, moved out of the headquarters office in 2014 to meet regulatory requirements, and as the company started a turnaround plan to return to profitability that included closing two of its 13 branch offices.

“We marketed it patiently,” said Bill Foster, president and chief executive officer of Village Bank. “We got it leased up with quality tenants to maximize value.”

He said there are more than a dozen tenants in the building now. Moving the corporate offices to the village of Midlothian has proven to be a good one, he said.

Village Bank operates eleven retail branch locations in Chesterfield, Hanover, Henrico and Powhatan counties.

Uphoff sold most of the Uppy’s convenience store chain in 2010. Since then, Uphoff Ventures has invested in other businesses, including Dion Oil Co. of Florida, which it acquired in February.

http://www.richmond.com/business/local/article_46fc4597-6041-5179-a49c-471989b22717.html