The four-floor office building has been in the works since early 2021. (BizSense file photo)
Soon after acquiring a local office furniture firm, a fast-growing North Carolina competitor has signed on for new office space in Richmond.
PMC Commercial Interiors of Raleigh recently leased around 9,000 square feet on the fourth floor of the recently completed, four-story office building at 2230 W. Broad St. in Sauer Properties’ Whole Foods- and CarMax-anchored Sauer Center development.
The commercial interior design firm plans to relocate to Sauer Center from its current Richmond office at 7910 W. Broad St., which it acquired earlier this year as part of its purchase of local office furniture and design company JMJ Workplace Interiors from longtime owners the Massad family.
The acquisition, which closed in late March, was PMC’s first foray into Richmond and the state of Virginia. PMC has also retained JMJ’s warehouse at 6031 Nine Mile Road.
PMC is the latest in a string of recent high-profile tenants to sign onto office space in the 54,000-square-foot Sauer Center building.
The JPMorganChase name has already gone up on the building. BizSense file
Others include accounting giant PwC, which is taking 9,600 square feet on the third floor, and branding firm Prophet, which is relocating to 4,000 square feet on the building’s fourth floor.
They’ll join a Bon Secours physical therapy clinic and urgent care center in the building, along with JPMorganChase, which is relocating from James Center downtown.
With the PMC lease, the West Broad Street building is now fully leased out, a Sauer representative confirmed Friday. Commonwealth Commercial’s Russell Wyatt, Tucker Dowdy and Robbie Berndt represented Sauer in the PMC lease.
PMC CEO Harry Chalker said the company was looking for a location that would be recognizable and easy to find.
“That includes being in a desirable area, and I think the Sauer Center is a very desirable location,” Chalker said. “We looked all over the market, and this location really stood out.”
PMC is currently in the design phase for the new office, Chalker said, and has enlisted ENV Architecture + Design.
Chalker said the design of the new office will focus on shared and social spaces for employees and customers to interact.
Harry Chalker
“One of the reasons people do go to the office is to be with other people. The design should reflect that,” he said.
A rooftop area on the Sauer Center building will also be branded the “PMC Porch,” and will become a usable outdoor space for all of the building’s tenants, as well as a reservable space for other parties, Chalker said.
“In our Raleigh office and Greenville, South Carolina, office we created some outdoor spaces that are really nice,” Chalker said. “In our climate, you have seven months (out of the year) where you can work and be outside comfortably.”
The current PMC Richmond office, which is owned by the Massad family, will be used by company employees until PMC is ready to relocate to the Sauer Center next year.
PMC currently has around 40 employees locally, almost all of whom have come over in the acquisition. The company in July hired David Mangum as the new president for PMC in the Richmond market. Mangum most recently served as a director of Baltimore-based interior design firm MOI in central and western Virginia for four years, per his LinkedIn.
PMC is hiring for three other roles in Richmond currently, Chalker said.
PMC was founded originally in 1945 as the Raleigh Office Supply Company. The company experienced several acquisitions before eventually being purchased by Chalker in 2011. Under Chalker, the name changed from Price Modern to PMC. PMC has six office locations and four other warehouse locations across North Carolina and South Carolina, per its website.
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