Virginia Beach, Virginia
Virginia Beach, an independent city with no county, assesses $92.3 billion of taxable property and $13.0 billion exempt. The federal government holds about 26,000 acres. The owner of record is free per parcel but cannot be taken in bulk, while every recorded sale and its price are open data.
8 buildings · 7 with an owner established · 30 sources · 1 tier A · 7 tier B · prepared 2026-10-13
Can you find out who owns it?
Virginia records title by deed, and Virginia Beach, an independent city, keeps its own deeds at the Circuit Court Clerk. Remote access to the Clerk's land records is by subscription, capped by statute at $50 a month. The City Real Estate Assessor values every parcel at 100% of market value and shows the owner of record free, one parcel at a time, on its Property Search, whose terms forbid scripted extraction. The City's open data publishes every recorded sale with price, date and deed reference, but no owner names. Virginia law makes every deed state its consideration on the first page.
Is ownership public?An open dataset names the owner
Cost of one title searchOwner of record free per parcel on the Assessor's Property Search. Deeds: Circuit Court Clerk remote access by subscription, statutory cap $50 per subscriber per month plus a per-image fee (Code of Virginia 17.1-276); free at the Clerk's office
Bulk ownership dataNone published
Sale pricesEvery sale, with its address
Sites that forbid taking their data
- propertysearch.virginiabeach.gov (VB Property Search, Schneider/Spatialest) — “The use of robots, screen scraping or other data mining tools, scripts, or other data gathering and extraction techniques is prohibited.”
1
The marquee buildings
The towers that set the tone of the core, and who holds them. A price is the price a document states, on the date it states — not an estimate of what the building is worth now.
| Building | Use | Owner | Owner type | Last price paid |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 222 Central Park Office (Armada Hoffler Tower) 222 Central Park Avenue, Town Center, Virginia Beach 298,353 sq ft net rentable (10-K) |
Office | AH Realty Trust, Inc. (formerly Armada Hoffler Properties) 100% AH Realty's FY2025 10-K lists 'Armada Hoffler Tower', built 2002, 100% owned, 298,353 sq ft, 99.1% occupied, $9.5M annual base rent; Schedule III gives a gross carrying amount of $77.2M (land $1.8M) with no mortgage. The Q2 2026 10-Q renames it '222 Central Park Office (formerly known as Armada Hoffler Tower)'. The company moved its executive office to 4605 Columbus St, which it also owns. Exhibit 21 lists 'Armada Hoffler Tower 4, L.L.C.' among its Virginia subsidiaries, but no document opened here says which entity holds the deed. The Assessor's sales file shows only $0 transfers in 2003 on the parcel. Developed, not bought, so no price. |
REIT | —A |
| Westin Virginia Beach Town Center (hotel and residences) 4535 Commerce Street, Town Center, Virginia Beach |
Hotel | Not established the register is open, but this building was not matched A condominium: the Assessor's sales file splits 4535 Commerce St into units, among them unit 300 (assessed $40.9M) and unit 200 ($8.5M, sold 26 Dec 2007 for $17,173,588). Hospitality Investors Trust's 2020 10-K listed the 'Westin Virginia Beach', 236 rooms, with a 31% ownership interest; that company has since stopped filing, and no later filing opened here names the hotel's owner. The owner of record is shown free on the City's Property Search, but its terms forbid scripted access and it was not used. Left blank rather than guessed. |
Not established | —B |
| Virginia Beach Convention Center 1000 19th Street (parcel 1064 19th St), Virginia Beach |
Civic | City of Virginia Beach 100% The City's 'City Property' GIS layer includes GPIN 24177782170000 (1064 19th St, 24.33 acres), with a recorded acquisition date of 23 Oct 1976 and no price. The parcel layer codes it property class 703, a tax-exempt class. The Assessor's file values it at $257,624,900 (land $38,177,000). The 1976 transfer carries no price, so there is no acquisition figure. |
Government | —B |
| Virginia Beach Sports Center 1045 19th Street, Virginia Beach 285,000 sq ft (City of Virginia Beach) |
Civic | City of Virginia Beach 100% GPIN 24177654890000 (1045 19th St, 21.65 acres) is in the City's 'City Property' layer, coded exempt class 703. The Assessor values it at $89,784,500 (land $30,080,000). The City's November 2024 release says the Convention & Visitors Bureau picked The Sports Facilities Companies to run the 285,000 sq ft facility, which opened in 2020. That is an operating contract, not ownership. No sale is recorded on the parcel. |
Government | —B |
| The Dome and Atlantic Park 1872 Pacific Ave, 400 and 328 20th St, 365 18th St, Virginia Beach |
Mixed use | City of Virginia Beach (The Dome); other Atlantic Park units not established The City's release (Nov 2024): The Dome is 'Owned by the City of Virginia Beach and operated in partnership with Live Nation'. The City Property layer still lists the four Atlantic Park parent parcels: 1872 Pacific Ave (4.31 ac), 400 20th St (3.33), 328 20th St (2.09) and 365 18th St (0.61). The Assessor's file splits them into condominium units in an 'Atlantic Park CDA' district, all transferred on 16 Mar 2023 at $0 consideration. Units are assessed at, for example, $31.2M (1905 Baltic Ave) and $28.4M (1872 Pacific Ave). Who holds the non-City units, and what the developer's entity is, could not be established without the owner field. |
Government | —B |
| Historic Cavalier Hotel 4200 Atlantic Avenue, Virginia Beach |
Hotel | Wheelock Street Capital (acquiring entity not named in sources opened) WHRO (18 Jun 2026): the Cavalier resort complex 'was sold this week to the Connecticut firm Wheelock Street Capital', a deal brokered by CBRE Hotels. The seller was an ownership group including Gold Key | PHR, the developer that reopened the hotel in 2018 after an $85M renovation through a public-private partnership. HEI Hotels & Resorts manages it. The Assessor's file records 4200 Atlantic Ave sold 18 Jun 2026 for $23,928,160, against an assessment of $24,653,400. The roll's owner-of-record LLC was not read. |
Private equity | $23,928,160 2026-06-18 Assessor sales file, document 202603028836. Part of a three-hotel deal WTKR puts at $174,075,858 in total. B |
| Marriott Virginia Beach Oceanfront and Embassy Suites (Cavalier resort) 4201 and 4101 Atlantic Avenue, Virginia Beach |
Hotel | Wheelock Street Capital (acquiring entity not named in sources opened) WTKR: 'the Oceanfront Marriott and the Embassy Suites were also sold to Wheelock Street Capital LLC'. A City spokesperson confirmed amounts totalling $174,075,858, entered into the City's system on 10 Jul and dated 18 Jun. The Assessor's sales file records 4201 Atlantic Ave (assessed $85.8M) at $91,425,936 and 4101 Atlantic Ave (assessed $47.9M) at $46,443,562. The three hotel parcels opened here total $161.8M; the remainder of WTKR's figure is not itemised. WTKR also reports $18M of City and Development Authority gap financing in 2014 and $6.5M more for the Embassy Suites in 2017. This is a sale, not a distressed transfer. |
Private equity | $91,425,936 (4201) and $46,443,562 (4101) 2026-06-18 Assessor sales file, documents 202603028838 and 202603028839; WTKR quotes a City spokesperson putting the deal at $174,075,858. B |
| Lynnhaven Mall 701 Lynnhaven Parkway, Virginia Beach 1,182,000 sq ft GLA (Brookfield Property REIT 10-K, 2020) |
Retail | Brookfield Property REIT (Brookfield Properties; formerly GGP) 46% proportionate share (as reported in 2020) GGP's 2003 10-K says it acquired Lynnhaven Mall on 27 Aug 2003 for about $256.5M, funded partly by a $180M acquisition loan. Brookfield Property REIT's 2020 10-K, its last, lists Lynnhaven Mall at a 46% proportionate share, 1,182,000 sq ft GLA, 97.1% leased, anchors Dillard's, Macy's, JCPenney, Dick's, AMC and Dave & Buster's, with a floating-rate loan maturing May 2024. No later filing opened here confirms current ownership or the refinancing, and the roll's owner LLC was not read. The main parcel is assessed at $187.7M. No foreclosure or trustee's deed appears in the sales file. |
REIT | $256,500,000 2003-08-27 GGP 10-K: acquired for 'approximately $256.5 million'. The Assessor's file records $256,500,000 on 11 parcels, dated 12 Nov 2003. B |
2
The core land
The most valuable ground in the city, and what the public record says about it.
Virginia Beach assesses every parcel at 100% of market value, and the Assessor's annual report gives the whole roll's shape. The most valuable single holdings are federal: the four Navy installations' main parcels together are assessed at more than $5.2B. Downtown here means two places, the Oceanfront resort strip and the Town Center developed by Armada Hoffler. Figures are from the FY2027 Annual Report (data as of 1 Jan 2026) and the Assessor's open Property Sales file, read 13 Oct 2026.
Taxable real estate (FY2027, 159,891 parcels)$92.33B
Assessor FY2027 Annual Report, as of 1 Jan 2026; residential is 60.9%, condominiums 11.2%, apartments 8.4%. Projected July 2026 land book $92.43B.
Exempt real estate (3,787 parcels)$13.02B, 12.4% of the total
Annual Report: federal $5.56B (179 parcels), local government $4.75B (2,251), charitable $820M, religious $814M, educational $605M, state $247M, regional $191M.
Highest-valued parcel$1.81B
104 LC Schofield Rd, JEB Little Creek (federal). Next: NAS Oceana, 1425 NS Tomcat Blvd, $1.68B; 2150 Sandpiper Rd (Dam Neck), $1.19B; JEB Fort Story, $603M. Assessor Property Sales file, Oct 2026.
Highest-valued taxable parcel found$306.5M
1833 Twin Mills Rd, Corporate Landing, industrial class 451 (Assessor file). The Assessor reports $261.9M of new industrial construction in 2025. Owner not established.
Transfer taxes on a saleState 25c + City 8.33c per $100 recordation; grantor tax 50c per $500
Code of Virginia 58.1-801 (state recordation on consideration or assessed value, whichever is greater), 58.1-3800 (city levy one-third of the state tax) and 58.1-802 (grantor tax). A deed cannot be recorded unless the consideration is stated on its first page.
3
Who owns the town
At this scale the significant owner is rarely a trust or a fund: it is one or two local holding companies, a family in its second or third generation, and often the land around the town rather than the buildings in it.
The federal government is Virginia Beach's dominant landowner, through four Navy installations and the Back Bay National Wildlife Refuge. The Assessor values its 179 exempt parcels at $5.56B, and the City's parcel polygons in that class cover about 26,000 acres, roughly 16% of the city's 158,720 acres. The City is next, then the Commonwealth's two state parks. Farmland is the biggest private holding. About 31,768 acres, 20% of the city, are in the land-use (farm and forest) programme, but owners are not published in open data. Parcel acreage here is computed from the City's GIS polygons, corrected for Web Mercator distortion, and checked against the city's total.
| Name | Type | Holdings (Assessor; City GIS) |
|---|---|---|
| United States of America (Department of the Navy; U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service) Annual Report: 'Federal Government 179 $5,557,437,900'. The parcel layer's class 700 has exactly 179 parcels. The largest are 4005 Sandpiper Rd (about 8,600 acres, the Back Bay NWR address per DCR), NAS Oceana (about 5,260 acres, $1.68B), JEB Little Creek (about 2,230 acres in the city, $1.81B), JEB Fort Story (about 1,560 acres, $603M) and Dam Neck (2150 Sandpiper Rd, $1.19B). The City's 'Federal Military Property' layer names Oceana, Dam Neck Annex, Little Creek and Fort Story. |
Government | 179 parcels, $5.56B; about 26,000 acresB |
| City of Virginia Beach Annual Report: local government $4,746,933,700. The City Property layer gives department, acquisition date and price per parcel: Parks & Recreation 385 parcels (4,543 acres), Schools 98 (1,787 acres), Public Works and Utilities about 900. Prices are repeated across every parcel of a multi-parcel deed, so they are not summed. It includes AICUZ purchases near Oceana ('Oceana and ITA Conformity & Acquisition', e.g. 170.4 acres for $3,724,824 in Nov 2014). |
Government | 2,251 exempt parcels, $4.75B; City Property layer 2,240 parcels, 14,705 acresA |
| Virginia Beach City Public Schools (titled within City property) The City Property layer tags 98 parcels to department 'SCHOOLS'. The Assessor reports schools within 'Local Government', not separately, so the school division's own title holdings could not be split out. |
Government | 98 parcels, 1,787 acresB |
| Commonwealth of Virginia (DCR state parks and other agencies) Annual Report: 'State Government 191 $247,046,200'. DCR gives False Cape State Park's address as 4001 Sandpiper Rd (4,321 acres); the City's parcel there, exempt class 701, measures about 4,240 acres. First Landing State Park is 2,888 acres, bought by the Commonwealth in 1933 for $157,000 (DCR). The State Military Property layer adds Camp Pendleton. State community colleges hold a further $137.5M (educational exemption). |
Government | 191 parcels, $247M; False Cape 4,321 acres; First Landing 2,888 acresB |
| Regional government bodies Annual Report category 'Regional Government'. The open files do not name which regional authorities hold these parcels, so the Hampton Roads Sanitation District's holdings are not separately established. |
Government | 119 parcels, $191.4MA |
| Universities and private schools Annual Report, exempt educational property: Virginia Wesleyan $178.7M, Regent University $149.4M, the State Board for Community Colleges $137.5M, Cape Henry Collegiate $42.6M, the ODU Real Estate Foundation $29.1M, and others. |
Institution | $605.4M exemptA |
| Religious and charitable owners Annual Report: religious, 361 parcels, $813.7M (churches $794.6M); charitable, 518 parcels, $820.4M. |
Institution | 879 parcels, $1.63BA |
| Farmland in the land-use programme (owners not published) Annual Report: 17,633 acres agriculture, 8,839 forest, 1,738 open space, 2,268 swamp, 1,289 marsh, assessed at use value with $250.9M deferred. Owner names are not in the open data. |
Private company | 31,768 acres, 893 parcelsA |
5
Who builds the houses
New-home building in this market: the volume, and the firms behind it. Ownership of a builder matters as much as its volume — a private-equity platform and a family firm behave differently.
Virginia Beach is mostly built out and issues few new-home permits. Census files show 335 single-family permits in 2021, then 231, 201, 319 and 266 in 2025. Buildings of five or more units added 128, 966, 327, 347 and 170 units over the same years. Neighbouring Chesapeake (551) and Suffolk (514) each permitted about twice as many single-family homes in 2025. The Assessor counts 2025 new construction at $719.3M, of which residential was $237.3M: 196 single-family homes, 124 condominium units and 734 apartment units. Builder land holdings could not be counted here. The parcel layer and sales file carry no owner name, and the only free owner search, the City's Property Search, forbids scripted extraction under its terms.
| Name | Type | Units permitted / built |
|---|---|---|
| All builders, single-family (Census permits) Census Building Permits Survey, FIPS 51/810: 266 one-unit permits worth $89.9M in 2025, plus 2 buildings with 170 units of 5+. The Census file does not name builders. |
Private company | 266 units in 2025A |
| D.R. Horton, Inc. D.R. Horton's fiscal-2025 10-K lists 'Virginia Beach/Williamsburg' among its Virginia markets. It gives no city-level count, and no roll count could be made (see note). |
Public company | 'Virginia Beach/Williamsburg' marketA |
| AH Realty Trust (Armada Hoffler) - apartments Built and held Encore (286 units), Premier (131) and The Cosmopolitan (342) at Town Center (FY2025 10-K). It sold Encore and The Cosmopolitan in the 20 May 2026 First Closing, and says Premier will follow by mid-2027 (8-K; 10-Q). The Assessor's file records 4544 Columbus St at $87,000,000 on 26 May 2026 and 3000 Main St at $60,500,000 on 27 May 2026. The 8-K names the buyer only as 'an unrelated third party'. |
REIT | 759 units in 2025, 131 after May 2026B |
6
Commercial landlords
The commercial side, counted separately from housing: who holds the office, retail and industrial floor area.
AH Realty Trust, formerly Armada Hoffler, is headquartered in Virginia Beach and is the city's largest listed landlord. It built and still holds most of Town Center plus several suburban shopping centres. Brookfield holds the regional mall, and a private-equity buyer now holds the Cavalier resort. Most other commercial property sits in single-purpose LLCs that the City's open files do not name.
| Name | Type | Virginia Beach holding |
|---|---|---|
| AH Realty Trust, Inc. (formerly Armada Hoffler Properties) FY2025 10-K Item 2: six Town Center offices (222 Central Park, 249 Central Park, 4525 Main Street, 4605 Columbus, One and Two Columbus) and 17 retail properties. Among the retail are Red Mill Commons (373,808 sq ft), Pembroke Square (124,181) and Marketplace at Hilltop (116,953, partly on a ground lease). All are 100% owned. The 10-Q to 30 Jun 2026 still lists them after the apartment sales. |
REIT | 1,954,816 sq ft (807,517 office + 1,147,299 retail)A |
| Brookfield Property REIT / Brookfield Properties (Lynnhaven Mall) Lynnhaven Mall, bought by GGP in 2003 for about $256.5M. Brookfield Property REIT's 2020 10-K reports a 46% proportionate share. No later filing was opened. |
REIT | 1,182,000 sq ft GLA (2020)B |
| Wheelock Street Capital (Cavalier resort) Bought the Historic Cavalier, the Marriott Virginia Beach Oceanfront and the Embassy Suites in June 2026 (WHRO, WTKR). The Assessor's file records $23.9M, $91.4M and $46.4M on the three parcels. HEI Hotels & Resorts manages them. |
Private equity | 3 hotels; $161.8M on the three parcels (WTKR: $174.1M total)B |
?
Looked for and not found
Claims this page would have made if a source could be opened. They are left out rather than guessed.
- Owner-of-record names for private parcels. The City's Property Search shows them free per parcel, but its Schneider terms forbid scripts and scraping, so it was not used. The open parcel, sales and City Property layers carry no owner field. This left the Westin hotel, Lynnhaven Mall's current LLC, the Cavalier buyer's LLC, the Atlantic Park non-City units and the top taxable parcel (1833 Twin Mills Rd) without a named owner of record.
- Builder roll counts (NVR/Ryan Homes, D.R. Horton, others). Could not be made without an owner field. Census permits are given instead.
- Dominion Energy, Norfolk Southern and Hampton Roads Sanitation District holdings. Not establishable from the open files; HRSD presumably sits within 'Regional Government' (119 parcels) but no source opened says so.
- Lynnhaven Mall after 2021. Brookfield Property REIT stopped filing, and its May 2024 floating-rate loan's fate was not checked.
- Westin Virginia Beach Town Center. The current hotel owner is unknown after Hospitality Investors Trust's last (2020) 10-K.
- Atlantic Park developer entity and ground-lease terms. The condominium units transferred at $0 on 16 Mar 2023; no deed was readable because the Clerk's land-records site is a JavaScript application.
- Distress. No trustee's deed or foreclosure on any marquee parcel appeared in the sales file. The file carries no deed-type field, so it cannot screen for trustee's deeds city-wide.
- Circuit Court Clerk's per-subscriber remote-access fee for Virginia Beach. Statute caps it at $50 a month (17.1-276), but the Clerk's own fee page could not be read.
- The parcel layer's exempt class codes (700-719) are matched to the Assessor's categories by count: 700 = Federal 179/179, 702 = Regional 119/119, 713 = Cemeteries 99/99. Others are not labelled in any document opened.
§
Sources
- Real Estate Assessor FY 2027 Annual Report (data as of 31 Dec 2025 / 1 Jan 2026) — City of Virginia Beach, Real Estate Assessor's Office · openA
- Tax Rates ('Real estate is assessed at 100% of its fair market value'; FY2027 exempt property $13,017,183,000) — City of Virginia Beach, Real Estate Assessor's Office · openA
- VB Property Search (Spatialest/Schneider) - page shell and disclaimer: records 'are public information', display 'specifically authorized by the Code of Virginia 58.1-3122.2' — City of Virginia Beach / Schneider Geospatial · openA
- Schneider Geospatial Software Terms ('The use of robots, screen scraping or other data mining tools ... is prohibited') — Schneider Geospatial · openA
- Property Sales feature service (GPIN, address, land/improvement/total value, sale price, sale date, deed book/page, document number; 596,497 rows, no owner or party names), read 13 Oct 2026 — City of Virginia Beach, Real Estate Assessor / data.virginiabeach.gov · openA
- Property_Information MapServer, layer 12 'Parcels' (GPIN, address, land use, property class code, zoning; no owner field) — City of Virginia Beach GIS · openA
- Property_Information MapServer, layer 14 'City Property' (2,240 parcels: GPIN, acres, date purchased, purchase price, department, deed instrument) — City of Virginia Beach GIS (Cadastral Team) · openA
- Property_Information MapServer, layer 15 'Federal Military Property' (NAS Oceana, NAS Dam Neck Annex, JEB Little Creek, JEB Fort Story) and layer 16 'State Military Property' (Camp Pendleton) — City of Virginia Beach GIS · openA
- Circuit Court Clerk's Office - Real Estate Records (Deeds): the Clerk 'records, indexes, and permanently stores all real estate records for the City of Virginia Beach' — Virginia Beach Circuit Court Clerk · openA
- Land Records Website (Logan Systems Public Records, Blazor app) — Virginia Beach Circuit Court Clerk · blockedC
- Code of Virginia 58.1-801: state recordation tax 25 cents per $100 of consideration or assessed value, whichever is greater — Virginia General Assembly (LIS) · openA
- Code of Virginia 58.1-802: grantor tax 50 cents per $500; no deed recorded unless 'the amount of the consideration is stated on the first page' — Virginia General Assembly (LIS) · openA
- Code of Virginia 58.1-3800: city recordation tax equal to one-third of the state tax — Virginia General Assembly (LIS) · openA
- Code of Virginia 17.1-276: secure remote access to land records, clerk's fee 'not to exceed $50 per month' per subscriber plus a per-image fee — Virginia General Assembly (LIS) · openA
- AH Realty Trust (formerly Armada Hoffler Properties) Form 10-K for 2025: Item 2 property tables and Schedule III — U.S. SEC EDGAR (CIK 1569187) · openA
- AH Realty Trust Form 10-Q for the quarter to 30 Jun 2026 — U.S. SEC EDGAR (CIK 1569187) · openA
- AH Realty Trust Form 8-K, 22 May 2026 (Item 2.01: First Closing of multifamily disposition, $485.0M) — U.S. SEC EDGAR (CIK 1569187) · openA
- AH Realty Trust 2025 10-K Exhibit 21.1, list of subsidiaries — U.S. SEC EDGAR (CIK 1569187) · openA
- General Growth Properties Form 10-K for 2003 ('On August 27, 2003, the Company acquired Lynnhaven Mall ... for approximately $256.5 million') — U.S. SEC EDGAR (CIK 895648) · openA
- Brookfield Property REIT Inc. Form 10-K for 2020: property table and mortgage schedule (Lynnhaven Mall) — U.S. SEC EDGAR (CIK 1496048) · openA
- Hospitality Investors Trust Form 10-K for 2020: Item 2 (Westin Virginia Beach, 236 rooms, 31%) — U.S. SEC EDGAR (CIK 1583077) · openA
- Bold New Oceanfront Entertainment Venue 'The Dome' ... ('Owned by the City of Virginia Beach and operated in partnership with Live Nation') — City of Virginia Beach · openA
- VBCVB Selects The Sports Facilities Companies to Operate Virginia Beach Sports Center (285,000 sq ft) — City of Virginia Beach · openA
- Historic Cavalier Hotel, resort complex in Virginia Beach sells to Connecticut firm — WHRO Public Media · openA
- Filings show Historic Cavalier Hotel, Oceanfront properties sold for over $174M — WTKR News 3 · openA
- Building Permits Survey, annual county file 2025 (and 2021-2024): FIPS 51/810 Virginia Beach — U.S. Census Bureau · openA
- D.R. Horton Form 10-K for fiscal 2025 (markets list incl. 'Virginia Beach/Williamsburg') — U.S. SEC EDGAR (CIK 882184) · openA
- False Cape State Park: 4001 Sandpiper Rd; park size 4,321 acres; Back Bay National Wildlife Refuge at 4005 S. Sandpiper Road — Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation · openA
- First Landing State Park: park size 2,888 acres; Commonwealth bought it in 1933 — Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation · openA
- Code of Virginia 58.1-3122.2: remote access to nonconfidential public records — Virginia General Assembly (LIS) · openA