For commercial real estate brokers and developers, 2000 was a good way to start a new millennium. Vacancies were down, rental rates up. Despite a collapsing stock market and economic slowdown, large projects initiated in 1999 — and sometimes earlier — came online across the country, shining like bright, new coins amid the dot-com ruins. While the technology sector crashed and burned, investors flocked to the safer harbors of real estate. In the year’s final quarter alone, one real estate group tracked more than 400 deals valued at $13 billion, a reflection of the industry’s strong performance, particularly in the retail and multi-family sectors.

Virginia saw its share of large commercial deals. America Online opened a $520 million data center in Prince William County. Boston-based General Investment & Development Co. picked Henrico County as the site for a $45 million, 58-acre business park. In the past, Virginia Business has written about large projects in our annual survey of biggest real estate deals. This time, however, at the urging of the Virginia chapter of Certified Commercial Investment Members, we changed the focus of this year’s feature to the "most significant" projects of 2000. We invited members of the real estate community to nominate entries. Our purpose? To find projects that showed how creative problem-solving made a difference and how tweaking projects helped a community. We wanted the big, the small, even the ugly if it demonstrated innovation.

The competition, which we managed with the CCIM, was open to any commercial, industrial or mixed-used project undertaken by the private sector or a public-private partnership. It had to be located in Virginia, and the project had to close in 2000. So, what did we get? Sixteen official nominations from across the state. All major geographic regions were represented, with Northern Virginia snagging the highest number of nominations for six of its projects

Projects ranged from the ordinary — lots of office parks — to the high-flying. Literally. One project in Reston began as the headquarters building for the National Model Airplane Association. Its distinguishing feature was a massive airplane model suspended from the ceiling. Later, the building was turned into a Baptist church with a pulpit towering over the open area where the airplane used to hang. After several years of religious services, the building was converted again into office space for a high-tech firm. Now that’s recycling.

The nominees were judged by a panel of seven commercial real estate professionals. Each judge carries the CCIM designation, a high-level recognition in the real estate industry held by a minority of its members. It requires 240 hours of graduate work in such areas as leasing, asset management, valuation and investment analysis. The judges who weighed in on the most significant real estate projects for 2000 were: B.K. Allen, managing partner, B.K. Allen Real Estate, Reston; Jane Ferrara, managing director, Advantis Real Estate Services Co., Richmond; Lee Hilbert, vice president, Grubb & Ellis/Harrison & Bates, Richmond; Ryan Lorey, director/transactions, Capital One, Glen Allen; Doug Sawyer, principal, Sawyer Properties, Roanoke; Anthony Smith, executive vice president, CB Richard Ellis, Virginia Beach; and Karl Wagner, Wagner & Associates, Richmond.

The judges were looking for skillful transactions, involving multiple parties, and complex deals. "We didn’t want this to be seen as a dollar, volume project. We wanted it to be significant because of the work — whether that was working with municipalities, the state, economic developers. We wanted to be sure that people used their skills," says judge Allen.

Having a positive, economic impact on the community was another must. Says Ferrara, another judge who reviewed the entries: "We were looking for improvement of the real estate through revitalization or redevelopment to create value, new jobs, increases to the tax base." The extraordinary also snared attention. "The ones we picked all had some unique twist about them: size, something unusual about the project, something out of the ordinary that gave them interest," says judge Wagner.

Virginia Business profiles the five winning projects in alphabetical order. They provide interesting studies in the behind-the-scenes, art of the deal. Read about the massive project that Virginia could have lost to Atlanta or Charlotte. Sympathize with a broker who didn’t give up when a city council voted against his project’s rezoning. The common thread running through the stories shows that creativity, persistence, and perks, especially the tax kind, may have replaced location as the ultimate cement when it comes to inking real estate deals.