McKenzie Companies, a Mid-Atlantic commercial real estate services firm, is establishing a foothold in the Central Virginia market with the opening of a new regional office just outside Charlottesville.
The office, located in the Boar's Head Professional Center just west of the city, will be the company's first office in Virginia.
The company, which has five brokerage offices in Maryland and operates primarily in the Washington, D.C., Maryland and Northern Virginia areas, will be able to expand into Southwestern and Eastern Virginia by moving south.
“We see Charlottesville as a gateway for our overall expansion across Virginia, including target areas such as Roanoke, Norfolk, Tidewater and Virginia Beach,” Brendan Gill, McKenzie's president and chief operating officer, said in a statement. “Charlottesville is at the center of influence in Virginia and is the right-sized market to leverage our strengths in providing boutique-style commercial real estate services. Tenants value working with professionals with in-depth local knowledge over dealing with out-of-state agents, and this focus is one way we differentiate our offering from existing offerings.”
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Gill
The company offers commercial real estate brokerage, property and asset management, construction management, and debt and equity placement services.
Two years ago, one of the firm's branches, Mackenzie Investments, began developing and leasing the 75-acre North Richmond Industrial Park in Ashland. The new Charlottesville office will give the firm better access to both its Richmond assets and new property management operations around the state, Mackenzie said.
Charlottesville is not only the gateway to Virginia, but also the former home of both Gill and company founder Clark McKenzie, both of whom graduated from the University of Virginia.
“Charlottesville is one of my favorite places to be, and I have incredibly fond memories of my time spent on campus and in the surrounding community,” Gill said. “After a memorable college experience, a big part of the school always stays with you.”
The MacKenzie Companies announced that it has hired Charlottesville-based Sam Oh as executive vice president of MacKenzie Commercial Virginia to manage the company's growth in Central Virginia. As a former vice president of leasing for Boston Properties, another real estate development firm, Oh has spent the past 15 years in the Washington, D.C. market working with clients such as Google, Microsoft and Volkswagen, as well as government agencies, defense contractors and nonprofits.
The Boar's Head Professional Center is adjacent to the Boar's Head Resort, which is owned by the University of Virginia Foundation, which manages the university's real estate assets.
University of Virginia Foundation
“Adding Sam to our team was the perfect opportunity to align our interest in entering the Virginia market with Sam's desire to join a boutique commercial real estate services firm and play a leadership role in its growth,” said Gill. “An endeavor of this nature always begins with finding the right person for the role. We have been considering this move for months, visiting Charlottesville to develop our long-term strategy, and we consider ourselves extremely fortunate to have found a commercial real estate professional who shares our core values of responsiveness, professionalism and, most importantly, integrity.”
In a statement, Oh said the chance to lead the project in the city where he lives was “too good to turn down.” He stressed that MacKenzie Companies needs to be as versatile as possible to provide high-quality service to Charlottesville's diverse business environment. He also recognizes the recent residential and commercial growth in the area.
Oar
“Major economic drivers led by entrepreneur-owned businesses, research facilities, the biotechnology industry, the University of Virginia and the defense contractor industry make the region an attractive long-term investment destination,” Orr said. “We also see opportunities in data centers as this asset class continues to expand out of Northern Virginia.”
Over the past few months, The Daily Progress has reported on a variety of new business ventures and achievements in the region, including the groundbreaking for the Paul and Diane Manning Biotechnology Institute at the University of Virginia's Fontaine Research Park, San Francisco-based DataShapes' decision to relocate its headquarters to the area from Silicon Valley, and the revitalization of the area's retail sector and burgeoning wine industry.
MacKenzie Companies also found the region's recent economic and professional prosperity attractive, noting that Business Facilities Magazine ranked Virginia No. 2 on its list of “America's Top Tech Talent Pipelines” and that the Virginia Economic Development Partnership described the eight central Virginia counties surrounding the city of Charlottesville as “a vibrant economic ecosystem driven by the vision and passion of entrepreneurs, the strength of our top-ranked Virginia universities, and an exceptionally skilled and educated workforce.”
MacKenzie founded the company in 1968, five years after graduating from the University of Virginia. The real estate group employs more than 225 people across six divisions. The company had a record-breaking year in 2023, executing more than 850 real estate transactions and completing more than 185 construction projects across the Maryland, Washington DC and Northern Virginia markets, the highest figures in the company's history.
The Boar's Head Professional Center is adjacent to the popular Boar's Head Resort and is home to the Virginia Foundation, which manages the university's real estate assets, including Boar's Head.
Emily Hemphill (540) 855-0362
ehemphill@dailyprogress.com
X from @EmilyHemphill06
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