Innsbrook Redevelopment Plans: How the Office Park Is Becoming a Mixed-Use District, and What It Means for You

Innsbrook redevelopment plans center on one shift: Henrico County has rezoned and re-planned the park so that apartments, townhomes, retail, and a hotel can be built alongside its office buildings. The framework dates to the county’s 2010 Innsbrook Area Study and a 2016 zoning overlay, and the results are now visible in several hundred new apartments, approved retail at the north end, and land sales by the park’s largest office owner.

Office is not going away; it is getting neighbors. Below is what the county adopted, what is built or planned, and what the change means for office tenants, owners, and anyone eyeing land or retail. For rents, vacancy, and lease terms, see our Innsbrook office space guide.

What is the Innsbrook Area Study?

The Innsbrook Area Study is Henrico’s land use plan for the park and its surroundings. The Board of Supervisors approved it on September 14, 2010. It covers 1,351 acres, including Innsbrook and the former Circuit City headquarters, which the county says contained about 8.6 million SF of office and commercial space. The study recommended Urban Mixed Use and Traditional Neighborhood Development land uses and designated the area an Urban Development Area, with the goal of using existing infrastructure to support infill development.

A land use plan does not change zoning by itself. It tells property owners and the Planning Commission what kind of rezoning the county will support. The zoning tools came next.

How do UMU zoning and the Innsbrook overlay work?

Urban mixed-use (UMU) zoning allows higher-density development that combines housing with commercial and civic uses. Per Richmond BizSense’s 2017 reporting, the first UMU rezoning in Innsbrook came in 2012, when Highwoods Properties won approval on 40 acres southwest of Cox Road and Sadler Place. But UMU generally required at least 20 acres, which few owners in a built-out office park could assemble.

In June 2016, the county created the Innsbrook Redevelopment Overlay District. According to the Board of Supervisors’ agenda for that ordinance, it applies to Land Bays A, B, and C from the 2010 study, cuts the minimum UMU site to four acres, and drops the development impact statement requirement unless the planning director asks for one. Henrico’s current zoning district list still includes both the Innsbrook Redevelopment Overlay (IR-O) and the UMU planned development district.

What Innsbrook redevelopment plans are built or underway?

North End at Innsbrook

Highwoods assembled a 34-acre site at the park’s northern entrance, including a former Elks Lodge property, and had it rezoned in fall 2021. In 2022 it sold 22 acres to Massachusetts-based Northland for $23.25 million, per BizSense. Highwoods kept about 12 acres, where it said it planned a 315,000 SF Class A office building once it secured preleasing. Henrico approved Northland’s plans in June 2025, including a four-building retail village at Nuckols Road and Lake Brook Drive, but BizSense could not confirm a construction timeframe.

Spy Rock’s residential infill on Cox Road

Spy Rock Real Estate Group paid $8 million for about 10 acres at 4650 Cox Road, near Sadler Place, from an LLC tied to Highwoods, per BizSense. The site is grass and surface parking. Plans call for a five-story, 270-unit apartment building and 61 three-story townhomes with 519 parking spaces. BizSense reported a possible second phase on roughly 30 acres of parking lots to the south, on parcels owned by Highwoods-Markel Associates, with no plans filed yet.

Metropolis and the corporate-campus land play

Metropolis shows a second source of land: surplus corporate campuses. Robinson Development Group bought a 14-acre site between Dominion Boulevard and Sadler Road from Wells Fargo, next to its Innslake Drive campus, per BizSense. The first phase delivered 402 units in 2023 and sold for $98 million in 2025; the second phase, The Verve, is now under construction.

Why is Highwoods selling in Innsbrook?

Highwoods has long been Innsbrook’s largest landlord. In February 2026, BizSense reported that it owned about 20 office buildings in the park and had handed management of its 2.2 million SF of local real estate to Thalhimer. Then, in a September 14, 2026 release, Highwoods said it had sold six non-core office buildings totaling 472,000 SF in the Innsbrook submarket. It has also been selling development land, including the North End and Cox Road sites above.

The company describes these as non-core sales as it concentrates on what it calls the best business districts in its markets. For Innsbrook, that means more buildings changing hands to new owners with different capital plans, and more land moving to residential developers.

What does the shift to mixed use mean for office tenants, owners, and investors?

• Office tenants. More housing, restaurants, and eventually retail near the office help recruiting and walkability. The tradeoff is parking: several projects are on former surface lots. Confirm your building’s parking ratio and whether adjacent lots are slated for construction during your term. If your building has sold, review your lease’s estoppel and SNDA status and introduce yourself to the new owner.
• Office owners. With Innsbrook at 13.5% vacancy in Q2 2026, per Cushman & Wakefield | Thalhimer, older buildings compete with a growing mixed-use product. Surplus parking or open land may be worth more as a residential site than as office support, but selling it can reduce your own parking and affect existing leases.
• Land sellers and buyers. Prices have run well above assessed values. BizSense reported the Cox Road site sold for $8 million against a $3.5 million assessment, and the North End land for $23.25 million against $5.32 million. Assessments lag the market, so don’t use them as a pricing guide in either direction.
• Retail and hospitality. The approved North End program includes 55,000 SF of retail and a 150-room hotel, but timing is uncertain. Retailers should watch residential deliveries, since rooftops inside the park are what make daily-needs retail viable.
• Apartment investors. Every major post-pandemic complex in the park has now sold, per BizSense’s March 2026 report on Innsbrook Square, which suggests institutional appetite for the location.

If you are leasing now, the market still favors tenants; see our Innsbrook office space guide for rents and concessions, and our post on Innsbrook sublease office space if you need a shorter commitment.

Want to talk through an Innsbrook site or lease?

Whether you are an office tenant weighing how the changes affect your building, or an owner wondering what surplus land might be worth under UMU zoning, I’m happy to help you sort through the options and the right questions for Henrico Planning. See how I work on the services page, or get in touch.