PRINCE EDWARD – The former Carbone building has a new owner.

Kidd And Company, Inc. of Richmond, purchased the 147,838 square foot building on 40 acres just west of Farmville several months ago and its new owners could divide it up for multiple business purchase or rental opportunities.

“…We've basically cleaned it out, cleaned it up, got the roof fixed on it and that's about all we've done to it so far,” Ray Kidd, one of the owners in the husband and wife venture, said in a telephone interview last week.

The square footage of space may seem large, but for those who deal with big buildings, Kidd offers that it's “pretty medium size, actually.”

Kidd and his wife look to purchase old buildings and he says he's looking at one now that has 700,000 square feet.

“It actually lays good to be multiple unit,” he said of the Prince Edward site. “That's typically what we do with these. We…typically keep at least a half a million square foot of that type of stuff in our inventory at all times.”

Typically, he also explained, they buy larger buildings, divide them and turn them into what they call “business condominiums” which can be sold or rented by the square foot.

The particular property, Kidd highlights, lays real well to be divided.

They often turn such large buildings into business hubs. Kidd cited that they have a 100,000 square foot building in downtown Richmond that is a 26-unit business condominium that includes, among other things, a medical supply, granite shop, and contractors.

“…We typically put a small office, a restroom and…mainly just a shop type thing,” Kidd said.

Farmville, Kidd also detailed, would be their attempt to go outside of the direct Richmond area and try to make something happen. He said he is talking with someone from Indiana now that may be taking as much as half of this site.

Kidd detailed that they usually get it shell-ready, which means dividing the building how a customer wants, providing a water line, restroom and individual power meter. While they don't do a lot of tenant up-fit (finishing out the space), they can and even have a division in their business to finance it.

Kidd cited that they general contractors by trade, have been self employed for 30 years and, about 15 years ago, they basically got out of the contracting business and went strictly into buying, renovating and selling commercial properties.

“That's virtually all we do now…,” Kidd said. “Typically, we do two to five hundred thousand square foot of that type of space a year between…acquiring it, renovating it, and selling or renting it…”

County Economic Development Director Sharon Carney noted that she, along with the Virginia Economic Development Partnership, is assisting in marketing the building.