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Reporter's notebook
Virginia Business
November 2005
CarMax’s new corporate
headquarters opened last month in Goochland County
and appears to be as hassle
free as its car-buying stores. A covered garage provides
ample employee parking. Opportunities for fitness abound
with two miles of outdoor walking trails and an indoor
fitness center with a full-size basketball court.
A media tour of the 250,000-square-foot
glass and steel building in West Creek Office Park
was led by CEO Austin
Ligon, who seemed more like a proud papa showing off
his latest creation than a departing leader of the nation’s
largest retailer of used cars. A few days after the tour,
Ligon, CarMax’s co-founder and president for 11
years, announced he will retire next year.
At least, he’ll get to spend a little time in
the environmentally friendly headquarters. The building
is on 130 acres, next to a forest. Sited in order to
capture as much sunlight as possible, the building includes
such energy-saving features as exterior sunshades — which
help block the glare into offices — and a sensored
lighting system, which automatically dims or brightens
lights, depending on the sunlight.
Wide stairways and exposed ductwork
give the headquarters a light, industrial feel, much
like CarMax stores. “We
want you to feel this is the building CarMax would have
built: open, airy, not luxurious, but a pleasant place
to work,” says Ligon. Employees can eat in an on-site
cafeteria and collaborate in 75 conference and meeting
rooms. Work zones are color-coded and range in tone from
eye-popping greens and reds to serene shades of deep
blue.
The building enables CarMax to consolidate about 650 employees from 10 buildings
it has leased in the Innsbrook area. Ligon refused to comment on cost other
than to say that the headquarters ran about 10 percent more than a new speculative
office building in Innsbrook.
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One way to see the beauty of
Bath County’s Appalachian
Mountains is by helicopter. Within view of the historic
Homestead resort, the ridges remain undeveloped and,
on a clear day, one can see for miles. That view has
been part of the Homestead’s charm for more than
two centuries, and will continue under terms of The Homestead
Preserve, a 450-home community under construction near
the resort.
To preserve the stunning views,
the developers sold most of their tract — 9,250 of 11,500-acres — to
the Nature Conservancy and placed an additional 935 acres
into permanent conservation easements with the Virginia
Outdoors Foundation. This means no more than 325 acres,
or less than 3 percent of the tract, will be affected
by the new development.
Apparently, conservation sells. Most of the lots for
sale during the project’s
first development phase are gone, scooped up by home buyers up and down the
mid-Atlantic. The lots are pricey, going from $250,000 to $1 million for tracts
of one-half to 10 acres. And if this less-is-more twist isn’t enough,
consider this: Homestead Preserve developers Charles Adams and partner Don
Killoren were instrumental in the design and development of Celebration, Fla.,
near Orlando. That’s an innovative 8,000 unit, high-density Walt Disney
project that has served as a model for New Urbanism, seemingly the direct opposite
of the slow-paced Alleghany Highlands.
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