Three-building Innsbrook office complex sold to Minneapolis firm for $31M – Richmond BizSense

A year after landing a state agency as a major tenant, an Innsbrook office complex has sold to a new-to-market buyer. 

Franklin Commons, which spans three buildings at 5600-5640 Cox Road, was purchased this week by Minneapolis-based Onward Investors for $31 million, according to Henrico County. 

The trio of three-story buildings are tucked away in the northeastern corner of Innsbrook and house 312,000 square feet between them.

The 25-year-old complex got a boost last year when the Virginia Department of Social Services signed on to take about 100,000 square feet to replace is its downtown Richmond nerve center. Another major tenant at the park is water treatment firm ChemTreat. The complex is about 85 percent occupied. 

The seller was Franklin Street Properties Corp., a public REIT out of Massachusetts that bought the complex in 2003 for $38.1 million. Franklin Street didn’t respond to requests for comment.

Franklin Street was represented in the sale by Newmark brokers Will Bradley and Mark Williford. 

The state’s Department of Social Services relocated there last year.

The sale was recorded with the county July 15. The lease with the Department of Social Services bolstered the complex’s value. The 26-acre campus’ assessed value jumped from $18.7 million in 2023 to $32.5 million in 2024. 

The purchase marked Onward Investors’ entrance into the Richmond market and its first in Virginia overall. The firm has about $730 million in assets under management, with over $500 million of that in the Midwest.

Onward Investors director Francis Luzum said that the firm sees Richmond as a “very healthy market” and that it was drawn to Franklin Commons because of its “quality tenancy and stable cash flow profile, with the opportunity to grow net operating income and enhance value through future leasing.”

Private investment is part of how Onward Investors finances its deals. Last summer the company announced the closing of a $112 million capital raise for its “Onward Investors Value Fund III.” It said it planned to use those funds to pursue commercial and residential real estate investments. That fund looks to have helped finance the Innsbrook deal, as the entity Onward Investors used to buy Franklin Commons was OIVF III Innsbrook LLC. 

In other Innsbrook office news, local Fortune 500 healthcare distribution giant Owens & Minor is relocating its global headquarters from Hanover County to the Henrico office park.

Just down the street from Franklin Commons is the former Innsbrook After Hours site that was planned to become a food truck court, however those plans were recently scrapped.