North Fork gets three new tenants

By Charlotte Crystal

The University of Virginia Foundation has leased space to three new tenants in the U.Va. Research Park at North Fork — TIAA-CREF, a financial management company; Northrop Grumman Corp., a global defense enterprise; and Padow’s Hams & Deli, a sandwich shop.

TIAA-CREF and Northrop Grumman will occupy space on the third floor of North Fork’s Town Center One Building, while Padow’s will be on the first floor of the same building.

“We are pleased to welcome these new tenants to North Fork,” said Tim Rose, chief executive officer of the U.Va. Foundation, which manages real estate for the University. “This deepens the University’s long-standing relationship with TIAA-CREF, and we hope to further expand our ties with Northrop Grumman. The opening of Padow’s brings us a step closer to our Town Center vision for the research park.”

TIAA-CREF, the Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association-College Retirement Equities Fund, based in New York, has signed a five-year lease for 6,400 square feet of space, as of June 1. Initially, the company will transfer about five employees to the new office, said Russell C. Sykes, assistant vice president and director of TIAA-CREF’s mid-Atlantic-South division. In the future, the company expects to increase the number of employees in the North Fork office to a dozen or so.

According to Sykes, TIAA-CREF serves about 12,000 clients in the Charlottesville area.

“We wanted to be closer to our clients to better serve their needs,” Sykes said.
A software business unit of Northrop Grumman Corp. became an official North Fork tenant on May 1, signing a two-year lease for approximately 4,000 square feet of space.

Northrop Grumman is a $25 billion global defense group headquartered in Los Angeles, Calif., that employs about 120,000 people in all 50 states and 25 countries.

In Charlottesville, employees of the company’s Information Technology sector are developing software solutions for its Defense Missions Systems unit.

Padow’s Hams & Deli has taken 1,500 square feet of space under a five-year lease, and its sandwich shop is the first on-site food-service provider open to all the North Fork tenants and their employees.

Three partners — Desiree Dawson; her brother, Michael Sanders; and their uncle, Buzz Kennell – have operated the Charlottesville franchise of Padow’s Hams & Deli in the North Wing of the Barracks Road Shopping Center since 1996.