MeadWestvaco’s headquarters building in downtown Richmond sells for $143.6 million

Published July 9, 2013 by Paula C. Squires

A subsidiary of Massachusetts-based Select Income REIT is the new owner of MeadWestvaco’s corporate headquarters building in downtown Richmond.

According to a July 2 filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the subsidiary paid $143.6 million for the building located at 501 S. Fifth St., not far from the banks of the James River.

The property is triple-net leased to a sole tenant: MeadWestvaco Corp. a Fortune 500 global packaging company. The seller was Foundry Park I LLC, a subsidiary of NewMarket Corp. a Richmond-based holding company. NewMarket owns the 3.1-acre site along the James known as Foundry Park. The most recent assessment for the site and MeadWestvaco’s nine-story was $81.2 million. NewMarket also is the parent company of Afton Chemical Corp. and Ethyl Corp., which have offices nearby.

NewMarket has been exploring the possible sale of one of Richmond’s newest corporate buildings since March. MeadWestvaco moved into the building in late 2009. The sale reportedly will not affect MeadWestvaco’s lease.

Select Income REIT, located in Newton, Mass, focuses primarily on properties net leased to single tenants. Altogether, it owns 272 properties, 229 of which are located in in Hawaii, as well as 43 office and industrial properties throughout the U.S. The portfolio contains 25.4 million square feet of rentable space.