richard-atack-construction

The People Who Built Richmond: Robert ‘Bob’ Atack

Tue, 23 Oct 2018 13:07:22 GMT

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Robert ‘Bob’ Atack: ‘He wanted to improve the quality of his homebuyers’ lives’

For a man who would end up developing more than 10,000 residential homesites in Greater Richmond, Robert “Bob” Atack started out in the business fairly modestly, as a real estate agent. By the time he joined Bowers Nelms & Fonville in 1971, though, the Lakeside native was already showing a talent that would fuel his success as a developer.

“He came to work for us when he was 23 years old, and he probably already knew more about new homes than anybody else,” said Richard “Dick” Nelms, who cofounded Bowers Nelms & Fonville in 1967. “He’d drive around and do research, and he had an uncanny sense of where development was going to go.”

Nelms was so impressed with Atack’s knowledge that he asked Atack to launch the company’s new homes division. (Bowers Nelms & Fonville, which became the largest real estate firm in central Virginia, was bought by Long & Foster in 1997.) “He got it started almost single-handedly,” Nelms said.

Atack worked for Bowers Nelms & Fonville for 14 years, although he pursued real estate projects outside the company with Nelms’ blessing. Among his early projects was developing the first subdivisions for Innsbrook, an office park in western Henrico County that has retail and residential components. The development’s concept – novel in the 1980s – offered homebuyers the opportunity to live, work and play in an extended community.

“Bob was very focused on developing what we wanted for Innsbrook,” said Sidney J. Gunst Jr., president of Innsbrook Associates LLC. “I’d aggregate the land, and then he’d put in the roads, water and sewer and get his builders, and he did exactly what he promised to do.”

Atack’s work in Innsbrook included developing The Village, The Forest, The Woods, The Cedars and The Four Seasons subdivisions.

“The Innsbrook projects were the catalyst that launched Bob into the residential real estate arena,” said Larry Mills, a real estate agent who worked with Atack at Bowers Nelms & Fonville. (Mills is now a real estate agent with Joyner Fine Properties.)

Buoyed by his Innsbrook success, Atack formed a development company, Atack Properties Inc., in 1985 and began developing subdivisions in Hanover County, including AshCreek and Fox Head. Soon, he started new projects in western Henrico, including Fox Hall. “They were all residential communities with onsite or offsite amenities,” said Mills, who worked as a sales manager for Atack for 15 years.

In the company’s early years, Atack worked exclusively with local builders. But after an economic downturn in the late 1990s, he began working with Ryan Homes as well as with local builders.

“My dad didn’t like going national, but it was the right decision because his relationship with Ryan was the best he ever had,” said Atack’s son, Richard “Cory” Atack.

Atack’s first development with Ryan Homes was Magnolia Ridge, one of many he developed in Henrico.

“My dad lived his whole life in Henrico – it was his home,” said Cory Atack, who is secretary of Atack Properties as well as head of Richard Atack Construction II. “He knew the local property owners and helped them develop their land to its highest and best use. He also realized that Henrico’s planners think about a community’s needs four or five years ahead, and Dad saw the common sense in that approach.”

Atack’s other Henrico developments include Church Glen, Henley and Hunton Estates, as well as CrossRidge, the company’s first 55-plus community. Michael E. F. Foltz, an architect and senior vice president with McAllister + Foltz Architecture, began working with Atack on CrossRidge’s design in 1999, and he went on to provide design work for many of Atack’s developments.

“He’d come to me with a general idea, and then we’d brainstorm,” Foltz said. “He was very detail-oriented, and he valued quality over quantity. He wanted to improve the quality of his homebuyers’ lives and make his communities better.”

Sometimes, Atack’s attention to small details would go unnoticed by potential homebuyers. “Bob would build relationships with the guys who buried the water lines,” Nelms said. “If it’s not done properly, in five years, it starts to crumble. He got good people around him, and it’s a part of the reason his developments look so nice today.”

Other details that caught Atack’s attention were more obvious. “Bob was very conscious of the streetscape, and his developments have a sense of entrance,” Mills said. “Fox Hall is a great example – it’s heavily landscaped and has pavers at the entrance. He was personally focused on those details. And not one of those pavers has budged in 30 years.”

Likewise, Foltz recalled drawing several mailbox designs for an Atack neighborhood.

“He didn’t adhere to a budget in the normal, strict sense of the word,” Mills said. “All of his decisions were customer-focused. We had a button made for Bob. It said, ‘Whatever it takes.’ That was his motto, of sorts.”

Atack’s interest in improving the quality of people’s lives extended beyond the realm of real estate. “Bob could never get word of a person in need and not reach out to them,” Mills said. “All his tangible accomplishments pale in comparison to the spiritual contributions he made.”

Atack donated millions of dollars to charitable causes in Greater Richmond, including Good Samaritan Ministries, a Christian ministry off Hull Street in South Richmond. And he contributed funds for the expansion of Mount Vernon Baptist Church in western Henrico.

“There were years he gave more money than he made,” Cory Atack said. “But he said something good would happen around the corner. He understood what I hadn’t learned yet: the cyclical nature of this business.”

After learning he had pancreatic cancer in 2014, Atack drew up a five-year business plan for his company. He died later that year, at the age of 66.

Work on the last big project in Atack’s five-year plan, Saunders Station at Broad Hill Centre, is wrapping up now. The development, located at the intersection of West Broad Street and Bon Secours Parkway, has several components, including the Bon Secours Short Pump Emergency Center, an Aldi grocery store and a CVS store, as well as apartments, town homes and condominiums.

Construction is still underway on the last residential project Atack undertook before receiving his cancer diagnosis. Shortly before his death, Atack asked his son to build the town home development, near the intersection of Nuckols Road and Hickory Park Drive, and name it Bedford Falls, after the fictional small town in his favorite movie, “It’s a Wonderful Life.”

The 1946 movie, a Christmas classic, tells the story of how its protagonist, George Bailey, realizes that helping to improve his hometown is a greater achievement than leaving it behind for a more ostentatious life in the big city, and it resonated with Atack. Foltz, who designed the development, named each of the buildings after characters in the movie.

“Bob was a good man,” Nelms said. “He loved to help people, and he didn’t have an ego to get in his way.”

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Read original article by Doug Childers/Homes Correspondent for Richmond.com here .

Henley: A high-end development with estate lots enters its final phase of construction

Mon, 13 Feb 2017 13:07:22 GMT

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The formula for success in some neighborhoods is complicated. In the case of Henley, a high-end residential development now in its final phase of construction in western Henrico County, it’s not complicated at all. Estate homes on 1-acre lots with proximity to strong public schools and shopping and dining in Short Pump sum it up neatly.

In fact, that’s the reason local developer Robert “Bob” M. Atack bought the 100-acre parcel of land back in 2005.

“He wanted to build an estate-sized neighborhood,” said Atack’s son, Richard “Cory” Atack. “There was nothing like that in Short Pump back then, and he saw a need.”

Construction in Henley began in 2006, with Orleans Homebuilders Inc. building Traditional- and Transitional-style homes on the former farmland. (The community takes its name from a family who owned property in the area, Atack said.)

Like many developments that got their start in the early 2000s, though, Henley, which is located off Pouncey Tract Road, ran into setbacks during the Great Recession.

“Orleans was one of the top three luxury builders in the U.S. at that time,” Atack said. “Like many other builders, though, it fell victim to the housing downturn.”

Orleans built 26 homes in Henley before filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2010. Their exit from Henley left the senior Atack, founder of Atack Properties Inc., facing a big decision.

“We had the opportunity to sell lots to other national builders, but my dad was in a position where he didn’t have to do that,” Atack said. “He understood the market would come back.”

So rather than selling the lots to other builders, the senior Atack turned to his son’s company, Richard Atack Construction, to finish building the development’s homes. (Robert Atack died in 2014, but his company, which has developed more than 10,000 residential homesites in Greater Richmond since 1985, is still active. Among its recent projects is Broad Hill Centre in western Henrico.)

Richard Atack Construction began building custom homes in Henley in 2008, and it’s now the community’s sole builder. Its most recent homes there reflect Contemporary and Arts and Crafts influences.

“As you’d expect with custom-built homes, each homeowner has his own tastes,” said David Ogle, a real estate agent with the Taylor Team at RE/MAX Commonwealth.

Recently, Atack expanded homebuyers’ options in Henley. “In the past year and a half, Richard Atack Construction has made a portfolio of six floor plans available that can be customized by homebuyers,” said Jeannette Mock, Henley’s new-home listing agent and a real estate agent with RE/MAX Commonwealth. “These six plans include both a brick and an Arts and Crafts version. In addition to the portfolio plans, buyers can still build a completely custom home in conjunction with an architect.”

So far, Henley has more than 50 finished homes, with an additional four houses under construction and two in the design phase. All six of the unfinished homes have gone under contract in the last 12 months, Mock said.

“Currently, sales are steady,” she added.

Twenty-six lots remain on the market. When built out, the community will have 79 homes.

Among them will be some of the county’s largest single-family residences.

“The largest house in Henley is about 15,000 square feet,” Ogle said. “The average home there is in the 6,000 to 7,000 square foot range.”

The 150-foot-wide lots allow for a wide range of customizations, including six-car garages and three-car carriage houses, Atack said. And the 1-acre lots allow homebuyers to install private amenities such as swimming pools, tennis courts and basketball courts, as well as outdoor living spaces.

“We get some really unique requests, and we make them happen,” Atack said.

Prices for new custom-built homes in Henley start at $1.2 million.

The community’s success goes back to that simple formula the senior Atack envisioned more than a decade ago, Ogle said.

“Having estate-size lots in the heart of Short Pump with the best schools in western Henrico is what drives that neighborhood,” Ogle said.

Best in home construction honored by building association

Mon, 03 Oct 2016 13:07:22 GMT

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Richard Atack Construction wins Gold!!

Builders participating in this year’s Parade of Homes were honored Wednesday at The Westin Richmond hotel with awards presented in 19 categories from the Home Building Association of Richmond, prior to the start of the annual open house event on Saturday.The association’s signature event this year features 90 new homes throughout the area constructed by 36 builders.

The featured homes, which will be open for viewing from noon to 5 p.m. the first four weekends in October, are located in Richmond and Chesterfield, Hanover, Henrico, King William, New Kent and Powhatan counties. Prices range from the $200,000s to more than $1.2 million.

StyleCraft Homes of Henrico County was the most honored builder with eight awards, including two top Gold awards for best home in the Furnished Townhome and Condominium Under $225,000 category and Furnished Single-Family Detached $740,000-$800,000 category.

Ryan Homes, a national builder with a local office in Chesterfield County, received seven awards for its entries, including a Gold award for the top home entry in the Furnished Townhome and Condominium $240,000-$290,000 category.

Other big winners were Richard Atack Construction of Henrico County, Main Street Homes of Chesterfield County and Shurm Homes of Hanover County. Each received six awards for their Parade of Home entries.

Among homes listed for more than $900,000, Southern Traditions won the Gold award in the Unfurnished Single-Family Detached $900,000-$1 million category.

Other high-end home Gold award recipients were Ray A. Williams Custom Homes of Midlothian in the Unfurnished Single-Family Detached $1.15 million-$1.25 million category, Homeplaces Ltd. in Henrico in the Furnished Single-Family Detached $1.09 million-$1.2 million category and Richard Atack Construction in the Furnished Single-Family Detached Over $1.2 million category.

The full article can be read here: http://www.richmond.com/business/local/article_02f96eb1-5f87-529b-bafa-b4178cf08b29.html

The full list of Parade of Homes award winners and a map of all houses in this year’s event are available at richmondparadeofhomes.com .

New president shepherds in next era for Atack Properties

Fri, 23 Oct 2015 13:37:41 GMT

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Nearly a year and a half have passed since the founder and visionary for Atack Properties Inc. left his legacy for others to pursue. Robert “Bob” M. Atack, a philanthropist and a leader behind the explosive residential growth in western Henrico County, died at 66 from pancreatic cancer in May 2014 — but not before putting his business in order.

“We have been very blessed; Atack Properties is busier now than in the past 40 years,” said his son, Richard “Cory” Atack.

“Bob made sure that his families, his employees, his church and his charities were all provided for,” said James W. Theobald, chairman of the Hirschler Fleischer law firm in Richmond.

Atack Properties is an asset of his estate.

“The results are what you see,” Theobald said. “He got everyone in the right slots and did it in a businesslike, unemotional fashion.”

Theobald, who has worked on zoning for a couple dozen Atack Properties’ projects for 20 or so years, would receive a call from Bob Atack at 8 a.m. just about every day, and it wasn’t always about development. “We became good friends.”

And at 4 p.m., also just about every day, he would call Cindy S. Weinstock, then vice president of Atack Properties.

Weinstock, who has been with the company for 27 years, is now president of Atack Properties.

Weinstock, whose mother worked in a factory and whose father was a painter, grew up in Mechanicsville and earned a bachelor of science degree in 1985 from Virginia Commonwealth University.

She was working at Lawyers Title as a salesperson when she answered an advertisement for a sales manager at Atack Properties. “It quickly became apparent that what was needed was not a sales manager, but a project manager.”

Weinstock took two hiatuses from the company: one when her second child was born in 2000 and again in 2011, when she needed a break.

“It was always known to me that if anything happened, he was planning on me coming back,” Weinstock, 52, said.

“Bob was a salesman; I am more nuts and bolts,” she said.

Even though Bob Atack was perfunctory about getting his business affairs in order, he wasn’t that way in general.“Bob was emotional,” Theobald said.

“Cindy sees things more objectively,” he said. “This business can hurt your feelings because people (in general) are against development. If Bob didn’t like what he was hearing, he would just stand up and leave.”

Cory Atack, 43, is now secretary of Atack Properties and participates in decision-making for the company. However, until recently, he was never involved in development — buying raw land, putting in utilities and selling lots to builders.

He heads Richard Atack Construction, a custom homebuilding company that he founded in 1997 in Henrico. He is building now in Henley, a high-end residential community developed by his father off Pouncey Tract Road. He’s the sole builder there now.

The minimum lot size is 1 acre, but the houses are so big — from 7,000 square feet to 10,000 square feet each — that the lots look smaller.

“We are geared up to do the last section in Henley,” Atack said, adding that the development stalled during the housing downturn. “We just waited (for the market to turn); we didn’t reduce our standards.”

Atack Properties has developed more than 10,000 residential homesites mostly in Henrico but also in Hanover and Chesterfield counties since the firm was founded in 1985.

Communities include CrossRidge on Staples Mills Road, a mixed-use community and one of the first in the area for people 55 and older, and the high-end Swanson Mill Run community off Mill Road in Henrico. Ryan Homes just finished building there.

Atack Properties and Richard Atack Construction are run from the same building in the Innsbrook Corporate Center in Henrico. Seven people are employed by Atack Properties; five by Richard Atack Construction.

“People always assumed I worked for my dad, but I built homes and worked for Tom Teal (a builder whose company was bought in 1998 by Centex) after I graduated from Randolph-Macon College in 1994. My dad didn’t give me a pickup truck and a checkbook. I worked my way up from punch man to superintendent.”

Any development is typically years in the making, and much of what Atack Properties is doing now was started by Bob Atack.

The company just went through its first zoning case without its founder — and without any problems — for an amended plan for Bedford Falls at Hickory Grove, a luxury town house development off Nuckols Road. Bob Atack named the community after the fictional town in his favorite move, “It’s a Wonderful Life.”

After he died, the company had an opportunity to pick up an additional 4.3 acres and add 40 town houses to the original proposal for 37 town houses at Bedford Falls. The land for the first phase of the project is being cleared, and construction is expected to start soon.

At Broad Hill Centre, a 70-acre site west of Short Pump Town Center, Atack WB Investors, which is managed by Atack Properties, just sold a 2.2-acre tract to Aldi to build a store there. The store will be at least the ninth for the German-based discount grocer in the Richmond area.

Bob Atack closed on an all-cash $6.75 million deal for the West Broad Street development site in October 2011. His plan was a mixed-used development — a plan that is coming to fruition.

The site is just west of Broad Street Marketplace, where a Cabela’s outdoors goods store and Wegmans grocery store will be anchor tenants, and Broad Hill Centre is east of state Route 288.

Bon Secours Richmond Health System purchased land at Broad Hill Centre for medical offices, including a free-standing emergency department and imaging center.

Commonwealth Properties is putting up a 320-unit luxury apartment building. The first units are expected to open in February. Reston-based Stanley Martin Homes will build 166 condos there and 78 town homes are planned for the site. A national pharmacy chain — announcement pending — plans to take frontage on West Broad Street.

“Cindy has done a phenomenal job; she gets every bit of credit for the Broad Hill Centre property,” said David Cottrell, an investor in the project. “Every piece is sold.”

In addition to that development, Atack Properties sold its final section last year in Hunton Park, a 13-year project with about 700 residences — apartments, town homes, condos and single-family homes — off Staples Mill Road. Hermitage Town, a town house community off Wistar Road, is under construction.

And the company is dusting off plans for The Ridings, a 500-acre tract off state Route 5 in Varina for a mixed-density residential community with equestrian themes and pedestrian trails. Bob Atack along with partners David and Christy Cottrell donated 87 acres in front of the property to the county. The parcels have sat untouched since the property was purchased in 2004 and 2005.

“Timing is contingent on market demand, which could be a few years from now,” Weinstock said.

Meantime, Mount Vernon Baptist Church on Nuckols Road in Henrico plans to open a 1,200-seat sanctuary next year, thanks in part to an irrevocable trust set up by Bob Atack. His favorite charity, also named in the trust, is Good Samaritan Ministries, a Christian ministry off Hull Street in South Richmond.

“Bob Atack’s business and philanthropic endeavors made him a pillar of the community, and no one can ever replace him,” Weinstock said. “He is still with us in spirit and will always be the captain of our ship; I’m just serving as the navigator, striving to maintain the course he set for Atack Properties.

“Our group intends to continue his legacy of honoring commitments, while developing thoughtfully designed residential and mixed-use communities in the Richmond area.”

Originally a story written by the Richmond Times Dispatch:
http://www.richmond.com/business/local/article_fb00d8fe-d480-5f70-b6be-f13bfd6b08fb.html