MeadWestvaco building nears completion in Richmond

Downtown Richmond's newest office tower, soon to be the home of packaging company MeadWestvaco Corp., is progressing toward a fall completion.

The gleaming exteriors are finished on the nine-story building overlooking the James River between Fifth and Seventh streets, next to the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond.

MeadWestvaco's brand logo -- the letters "MWV" -- is visible at the top of the building, which is lit at night. The interior structural work, such as elevators and wiring, also is essentially done, developers said.

About 300 construction workers for the project's lead contractor, Whiting-Turner Contracting Co., remain busy, working on drywall, carpeting, wallpapering and painting, as well as landscaping around the building.

MeadWestvaco plans to start moving into the building late this year.

The move will be made in stages, company spokeswoman Alison von Puschendorf said. About 600 employees will work there. Some will move in December and some in early 2010.

MeadWestvaco is temporarily based in an office on West Broad Street near the Innsbrook Corporate Center in western Henrico County, where the Fortune 500 company moved its corporate headquarters from Stamford, Conn., in early 2006.

MeadWestvaco announced later that year that it would lease the new, downtown office from Richmond-based NewMarket Corp., which is developing the property for more than $100 million.

MeadWestvaco employees will have spectacular views of the city and the James River, said Bruce Hazelgrove, vice president of corporate resources for NewMarket.

The fuel-additives firm has its corporate office adjacent to the new building site, formerly a parking lot for the Federal Reserve.

While the MeadWestvaco office progresses on schedule, other plans for the site surrounding the building have been stalled by the recession.

NewMarket Corp. envisions the MeadWestvaco building as an anchor for a mixed-use development called Foundry Park.

"This time last year, we did start exploring the hotel, residential and retail portion of the development," Hazelgrove said. "Then the financial markets just came crashing down, so it didn't make sense."

About 4 acres of undeveloped property near the MeadWestvaco building is a dirt field, but it won't stay that way because the land will be seeded and irrigated. "It will be a parklike atmosphere," Hazelgrove said.

"We will be patient," he said of other plans for the site. "We will make sure that the timing is right, and the market is right, and it will have lasting value to our shareholders and the community."

One related project of the Foundry Park development was finished more than two months ago -- a new parking deck on Byrd Street for the Federal Reserve Bank. It opened in April, about a month ahead of schedule. The six-story deck has about 900 parking spaces.

The MeadWestvaco office is being constructed as a "green" or environmentally-friendly project, the company and developers said.

For example, terrazzo floors in the building are made from recycled material. About 95 percent of the construction debris has been recycled, and the building will use natural lighting to reduce energy consumption.

"We have designed this building with sustainability in mind from the ground up," von Puschendorf said.

Contact John Reid Blackwell at (804) 775-8123 or .