Law Firm Extends Lease at Richmond Office Tower

Williams Mullen has extended its lease at 200 S. 10th St. in downtown Richmond, Va. The regional law firm has been anchoring the 15-story, 207,000-square-foot office building known as the Williams Mullen Center since its 2010 completion.

MEK Management Services Inc., acting on behalf of the building’s ownership, Kireland South 10th Street LLC, had agreed to extend the remaining term of the law firm’s lease by seven years.

The negotiation was executed well before the initial expiration date, as the previous 148,911-square-foot commitment was to expire in 2028, according to CommercialEdge information.

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Other terms of the deal were not disclosed. However, the tenant’s leadership stated, in prepared remarks, that the firm had achieved its goal of remaining at the Williams Mullen Center with a much-improved financial arrangement.

Jamie Galanti and Thomas Hatcher of Commonwealth Commercial Partners consulted for Williams Mullen during the lease negotiations. Trib Sutton of Divaris Real Estate Inc. represented the landlord.

A Richmond office tower

Virginia Beach, Va.,-based Armada Hoffler developed the office tower at the corner of 10th and Canal streets in the central business district to serve as the Richmond home of Williams Mullen. When the developer sold it in January 2016 for $78 million, the building was 98 percent leased and Williams Mullen occupied 82 percent of the space.

Williams Mullen Center has approximately 5,500 square feet of ground-floor retail space, 210 surface parking spaces and 900 covered parking spaces. Other tenants of the building include others law firms like Holland & Knight and professional and financial services firms such as Agincourt Capital Management and Rockefeller Capital Management.

The office tower is adjacent to Kanawha Plaza and just a few blocks from the Virginia State Capitol. The property is an easy walk to hotels, shops, residential buildings, restaurants, the James River Park System and Canal Walk. The building has direct access on and off the I-195 expressway.

Office leasing, close to historical averages in Richmond

While the Richmond office market ended the first quarter of 2024 at a 15 percent vacancy rate, the market has shown resilience and leasing activity has been close to historical averages from 2020 to 2023, according to a Newmark report. There was positive leasing activity in the first quarter of 2024 with four of the top five transactions being new leases.

One of the new leases was in the CBD, where Atlantic Union Bankshares inked a direct lease for 18,586 square feet, Newmark data shows. Innsbruck remained Richmond’s most popular submarket.