Universal Corp. is planning to sell its headquarters building at North Hamilton and West Broad streets and find other office space in the Richmond area.

The tobacco leaf company, founded in 1918, is planning the move as its local staff has declined because of changes in the tobacco industry. The company moved into its current headquarters at 1501 N. Hamilton in 1968 and has made two additions to the building since then.

"We're basically too small for [this building] now," Karen Whelan, the company's vice president and treasurer, said of the 83,000-square-foot office. "We have less than 150 people in the building."

Whelan said the company is looking at office space around the Richmond area and expecting to make a move this year.

"We're exploring areas to go and discussing that with people, and also discussing a sale," of the building, Whelan said. She declined to comment on the asking price. The city of Richmond assessed the property at just less than $6 million.

Universal Corp., a Fortune 1000 company, buys tobacco leaf from farmers in the United States and other countries such as Brazil. It processes the raw leaf, removing the stems and drying it, and supplies it to manufacturers of cigarettes and other tobacco products.

The company's U.S. operations have undergone changes in recent years because of declining demand for U.S.-grown tobacco and a transition from auction sales to direct purchasing from farmers.

The company's local employment declined from more than 200 in 2002 after it moved the headquarters of its U.S. tobacco division to Rocky Mount, N.C., where it opened a tobacco processing plant a year later. It closed a processing plant in Danville in 2006.

The company also has sold its non-tobacco enterprises in recent years, including a lumber distribution subsidiary and businesses that traded other agricultural products such as tea and sunflower seeds.

The North Hamilton Street office was completed in 1947 as an office for Standard Oil of New Jersey.
Contact John Reid Blackwell at (804) 775-8123 or jblackwell@timesdispatch.com.