January 15, 2022 – CarMax has opened its new 80,000 square foot Midtown Innovation Center at the Sauer Center on West Broad Street, across from The BookBindery. The tenant improvements at the 1902 Putney Shoe Factory Building allow CarMax to house their Marketing and Technology business units in an open-plan, flexible workspace complementing the industrial origins of the original construction.

CarMax is one of the nation’s largest used car and truck retailers. It employs approximately 200 people in Richmond, and more than 500 at its 243,000-square-foot headquarters .

CarMax is a Fortune 500 company with more than 220 stores across the U.S. HOK Architects is the architect of the Midtown project.

January 15, 2022 – Starbucks is up and running at 2309 W. Broad Street – only one block from The BookBindery – injecting a shot of activity into what was home to an Arby’s that shuttered more than five years ago.

The Seattle-based coffee chain remodeled the building and added a drive-thru. The cafe is 3,200 square feet and has about 35 employees.

The site was previously eyed as a Zaxby’s, and the chicken chain’s local franchise group scooped up the property toward that end. However, the franchise group later nixed that idea and lined up Starbucks to take the site.

Jan 29, 2020 – Customers shopping at the new Whole Foods Market off West Broad Street near the Fan District can pick out Sumo Mandarins, grab cut-to-order fresh pasta and scoop out bulk nuts all while sipping on a glass of wine or draft beer.

That’s where shoppers can get their wine and draft beer by using self-service dispensing machines. The self-pour tap system offers 16 different wines and 16 different draft beers. The upscale grocery retailer calls it “sip and shop.”