WSTB

Dominion Resources Inc. plans to tear down a six-story office structure — the Richmond Plaza building at 111 S. Sixth St. — and construct a 20-story office tower in its place.

Demolition is expected to start in late June and take four months. Construction on the new building is targeted for completion in early 2019.

A decision about what will happen to the nearby One James River Plaza, where Dominion Virginia Power operates, will be made in 2019, company spokesman C. Ryan Frazier said.

That 21-story building at 701 E. Cary St. either will be gutted and renovated or a new tower will be built in its place, Frazier said.

If the second building is constructed, it would be 850,000 square feet and 16 stories tall, Frazier said. An auditorium would be built on the property, and a connector would go over South Seventh Street.

About 1,300 employees work in One James River Plaza, about the same number who will work in the new tower at 111 S. Sixth St.

The development plans were filed with the city Thursday afternoon.

Dominion bought the Richmond Plaza and parking deck in 2011 for $5.5 million but never occupied the building, which was built in 1922, according to city records. One James River Plaza was built in 1977.

The 908,000-square-foot tower going up this year in place of Richmond Plaza, which has been vacant for at least a year, will have 17 office floors, retail space at the northeast corner of the building at South Seventh and East Cary streets, above-ground parking, and four floors of underground parking.


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