Gateway Financial Takes 50,000 SF As New HQ

[IMGCAP(1)]VIRGINIA BEACH, VA-Gateway Financial Holdings Inc., the holding company for Gateway Bank, has decided to base its headquarters operations in Virginia Beach after investigating several alternative locations in the mid-Atlantic, including North Carolina and elsewhere in Virginia. Specifically, the firm will be taking occupancy in a $100-million, 22-story tower that will be developed as part of the city’s ambitious Town Center, a $500-million project still under way.

[IMGCAP(2)]By leasing 50,000 sf on two floors of the building, as well as 4,000 sf for a financial center on the ground floor, Gateway is receiving naming rights for the building, which will be called the Gateway Bank Tower. It will be phase IV of the Town Center and its third high-rise, following the Armada Hoffler Tower at 23 floors and the Westin Virginia Beach Town Center Hotel and Residences at 40 floors–the tallest building in the Commonwealth of Virginia.

The proposed Gateway Bank Tower will include first floor retail space; an eight-level, 250,000-sf structured parking garage; 12 floors of office; and, an attached four-story office building. Total retail and office space will comprise more than 350,000 sf. Groundbreaking will occur in Q4 of 2008; the building is expected to be ready for occupancy in Q4 of 2010. Asking rates for the tower will be $30 per sf to $33 per sf, a spokeswoman for Armada Hoffler, the developer, tells GlobeSt.com.