Va. Natural Gas will lease near Town Center

VIRGINIA BEACH

Virginia Natural Gas has leased a 32,500-square-foot building to be constructed near Town Center and plans to move its headquarters there by next year.

Developer Armada Hoffler has already begun construction on the building in the Lakeview Corporate Park near Independence Boulevard and Interstate 264, said Danya Bushey, a spokeswoman for the firm, which will lease the two-story property to Virginia Natural Gas for 15 years.

Bushey declined to disclose the cost of the development, citing an agreement between the developer and the utility company.

Virginia Natural Gas leases 11,000 square feet at its present headquarters in downtown Norfolk and a 22,000-square-foot building on Virginia Beach Boulevard in Norfolk. The larger building houses the company's service representatives and account executives, said Tami Gerke, a spokeswoman for Atlanta-based AGL Resources, Virginia Natural Gas' parent company.

The utility company will consolidate those locations and move its 110 employees to the new Virginia Beach building next year, Gerke said.

"It streamlines our expenses and improves operations by bringing more employees to a single site," Jodi Gidley, Virginia Natural Gas' president, said in a news release.

Josh Brown, (757) 446-2318, josh.brown@pilotonline.com