S.L. Nusbaum Realty Company is developing the Whispering Oaks Apartments in Portsmouth, Virginia, as part of an urban redevelopment project.

Sidney L. Nusbaum founded S.L. Nusbaum Realty Company in 1906 as a residential brokerage company. Today, Sidney L. Nusbaum’s great-grandson Alan Nusbaum sits as chairman of the board for the 97-year-old real estate firm, which has grown over the years, branching into various aspects of commercial real estate. Alan Nusbaum’s father and grandfather began selling large tracts of residential land to developers in the 1950s and entered the multifamily management business in the late 1950s. In the late 1960s, S.L. Nusbaum Realty Company began developing shopping centers, high-rise office projects and medical facilities in Norfolk and Virginia Beach, Virginia. Since then, the company has focused on strip center and multifamily development. The company has also built a significant brokerage arm.

Based in Norfolk, with an office in Richmond, Virginia, S.L. Nusbaum Realty Company handles large investment sales brokerage around the Mid-Atlantic and develops primarily in Virginia and North Carolina. The company’s management portfolio is also located in Virginia and North Carolina, with regional managers throughout the area.

S.L. Nusbaum has approximately $1.5 billion worth of properties under management, according to Miles Leon, president. The company manages 7.5 million square feet of shopping center space — 5.4 million square feet of which it developed — and it developed 5,000 of the 15,000 apartment units that it manages.

Nusbaum

“We strive to attract quality personnel and retain them over a long period. When we find quality people, we offer them partnership in the firm,” says Nusbaum, noting that the company has 30 partners. “We have less turnover than any company of our size and nature. We keep a lot of quality developers under one roof. We strive to retain the highest reputation and do the right thing.”

With 124 corporate employees and 724 staff employees in the field, the key to the company’s success is its organization, according to Leon. The company is very decentralized, he says. “We have independent, capable partners who are looking for opportunities to develop with us.”

“Our growth is very conservative,” adds Nusbaum. “We look for good opportunities — we don’t have to develop every corner. We build to hold apartments and shopping centers, so we take a long-term, conservative approach and we look for income generated.”

This approach has proven effective, according to Nusbaum, who points out that the company survived the economy of the early 1990s as a private company when so many others converted to real estate investment trusts.

The company is also thriving in the current down economy. “Last year may have been one of the best years we’ve ever had,” says Nusbaum.

Leon

Leon notes, “For the last 10 years, our growth has been steady. We’ve located great apartment sites in Northern Virginia and Tidewater, Virginia.”

The company has also built several shopping centers in Richmond and Williamsburg. Tidewater’s Navy presence, Richmond’s corporate activity and Williamsburg’s attraction for businesses and retirees make these areas ideal for S.L. Nusbaum’s developments.

S.L. Nusbaum is currently developing several projects in Virginia. In Portsmouth, the company has formed a joint venture with Wachovia Bank to undertake a $14 million urban redevelopment project called Whispering Oaks Apartments. Formerly known as Portsmouth Gardens, the project is located in the Portsmouth Center City Redevelopment Area. It currently consists of 136 units built in the 1930s and 48 units built in the 1960s. The newer units (28 one-bedroom units and 20 two-bedroom units) will be rehabilitated, with completion planned for late spring 2004. The older units will be razed to make room for 132 two- and three-bedroom units, with completion slated for May 2005. Wachovia and S.L. Nusbaum are using Federal Housing Tax Credits and below-market financing from the Virginia Housing Development Authority for the project. Companies involved in the project include engineering firm Kimley-Horn and Associates and architect Rodriguez Ripley Maddux Motley.

In Williamsburg, S.L. Nusbaum is developing the 200,000-square-foot WindsorMeade Marketplace on 30 acres at the northwest corner of Monticello Avenue and Route 199, adjacent to S.L. Nusbaum Realty Company’s Monticello Marketplace, a 294,446-square-foot center built in 1998 and anchored by Ukrops, Target and T.J. Maxx. Completion is slated for spring 2005. Companies involved in the project include general contractor Ashland Construction, AES Consulting Engineers of Williamsburg, and architects Dayton and Thompson. S.L. Nusbaum and the Casey Family are joint owners.

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