Once eyed for a restaurant conversion, the former Maaco on Broad Street is now set to become an office. (BizSense file)

With some major bodywork underway, the former Maaco shop in Scott’s Addition will soon reopen as office space.

Charlotte-based specialty insurance company Amwins is trading its current Richmond-area location in the West End for the former auto paint shop at 3318 W. Broad St. 

Greg Watson, a senior vice president at Amwins, said the company focuses on specialty property and casualty insurance, which leads the Amwins to deal with everything from hurricane- and wildfire-exposed properties to putting together insurance programs for Fortune 500 firms. 

The company has over 150 offices worldwide and entered the Richmond market via acquisition in 2021 when it bought Worldwide Facilities, another wholesale insurance brokerage. That brokerage also arrived in Richmond by acquisition when it bought local firm Royal Oak Underwriters in 2020. 

Amwins’ local office has been at 8417 Patterson Ave. in the Tuckahoe area, but Watson said the company wanted more space to build out its local presence, which will serve more than just Central Virginia. 

Greg Watson

“We’re planting a stake in Richmond. Our office is quite far out currently and we’re planning to build our mid-Atlantic operation to be quite large,” Watson said. 

He added that Amwins’ local headcount is 16 but that the new office will have room for around 40 people.

Amwin is leasing the former Maaco building from local development firm Spy Rock Real Estate Group, which bought the property in 2019 for $1.6 million. Spy Rock had once looked to convert the garage into a restaurant space but ultimately inked this office deal. 

Watson said Amwin operates on a hybrid work schedule, with most employees working from home on Mondays and Fridays. He said that the company is never going to “drop an iron fist” on work-from-home practices, but that he hopes the new Scott’s Addition office is exciting enough to help attract new talent. 

“What we want to do is provide the best office possible for our employees to thrive. So in building this out, we expect it to be a huge recruiting tool for us,” Watson said. “We’re planning ahead.”

He said Amwin is aiming to be moved in sometime in the first quarter of 2024 and expects to shutter the Patterson Avenue office. 

Other companies to recently plant their office in Scott’s Addition include engineering firm Jacobs, architecture firm Hickok Cole and staffing agency Magnify. A chunk of office space in the neighborhood recently opened up when ad agency Yebo closed in June, freeing up its space on Roseneath Road.