A dozen years have passed since Sentara Martha Jefferson Hospital completed its move from a location near downtown Charlottesville to a new facility on Pantops in Albemarle County.
This summer, two entities purchased the two halves of the 8.34-acre site for $38.9 million. A firm going by the name Octagon Partners bought the property in September 2010 for $6.5 million under the name 459 Locust Charlottesville Owner. Hospital operations moved east a year later.
The CFA Institute purchased a portion of the site two years later for its international headquarters. This summer, the firm announced the sale of 915 E. High St. to Lo-Hi LLC for $21.9 million, but CFA will remain on site.
“We will take this opportunity to build out our office space in a more modern design and in keeping with the dynamic work environment brought on by hybrid work arrangements,” says Marty Colburn, CFA’s chief operating officer.
CFA now occupies about a third of the building, with the remaining office space leased to other entities, according to John Pritzlaff, senior vice president at Thalhimer.
“Companies are certainly pushing their employees to go back into the office, but they’re on a hybrid basis,” Pritzlaff says, meaning companies are using less space, although statistics show a return to offices is happening.
Three parcels making up the northern portion totaling 3.843 acres sold on August 22 for $17 million to a firm called MJH Acquisition LLC. Pritzlaff says the two are not related. These three parcels were split off from the rest of the former hospital property on August 7.
459 Locust Ave. features a mixture of 43 one- and two-bedroom rentals under the name Locust Grove. 501 Locust has been developed as office space with tenants such as HemoShear Therapeutics, Varian, Locus, and Lumin. There’s also a 5,000 square-foot vacancy, according to Pritzlaff. The website for the apartments gives the hint that the structures won’t be going anywhere soon.
“The energy used to construct Locust Grove in 1952 is saved through its rehabilitation, providing the green foundation,” reads the sales website.
The overall property has not been used as a hospital site since operations moved to the new facility on Pantops in August 2011. The former medical site opened as the Martha Jefferson Sanitorium in July 1904, named after the daughter of the third president. Operations expanded in the 1970s, creating a bigger impact on the neighborhood that shares the name.
Twelve years after the big move, Pritzlaff says the community can expect the new status quo.
