Girl Scouts scoop up former bank branch to serve as new local HQ

The former bank branch at 3214 Skipwith Road was bought by the local arm of the Girl Scouts. (BizSense file)

The regional arm of the Girl Scouts has secured a former bank branch in Henrico for its new local headquarters.

The Girl Scouts of the Commonwealth of Virginia recently purchased the old BB&T building at 3214 Skipwith Road for $3.6 million, per online county records.

The 18,000-square-foot, two-story building near the intersection of Broad Street and Parham Road will replace the nonprofit’s current offices at 4900 Augusta Ave. near Willow Lawn, where it has operated for about a decade in a leased space smaller than the Skipwith building, spokeswoman Janna Joyner said.

Two dozen employees who work at the Augusta location will be relocated as part of the move and will occupy the Skipwith building’s upper floor. The ground floor will be devoted to programming with event space and an educational kitchen as well as a store where Girl Scouts can buy their uniforms and other gear.

The Girl Scouts plan to be operating out of the new space in late March after a round of renovations. Joyner said a budget for the upfit was still being finalized. The Girl Scouts declined to share the name of the general contractor that will handle the project.

The Girl Scouts of the Commonwealth of Virginia has a membership of 4,800 girls and 3,460 adults, Joyner said. The nonprofit reported $3.5 million in revenue and $4 million in expenses for 2023, per tax filings.

The Girl Scouts bought the Skipwith property from North Carolina-based Self-Help Credit Union in a deal that was recorded with Henrico in early September. The property was most recently assessed at $5.2 million.

It would appear that Self-Help never opened a branch in the Skipwith building, though the credit union owned the property for about two years. It bought the property in late 2022 from D.C. developer Madison Marquette, which owned the property for a several-months stint earlier that year.

Self-Help didn’t respond to a request for comment Monday.

The BB&T bank shuttered at the property as part of a wave of branch closings tied to the 2019 BB&T-SunTrust merger that created Truist.

The post Girl Scouts scoop up former bank branch to serve as new local HQ appeared first on Richmond BizSense.