Like a Good Neighbor: State Farm reaped millions in aggressive sale-leasebacks of its operations centers, as did the LLCs who bought them and flipped them.

As Allison Wrabel reports, State Farm Insurance, one of the largest employers in the area, is closing its operations center on Pantops, along with 11 other operation centers across the country, and allowing employees to work from home, something they have been doing since March.

It's unclear now what will happen to the 55.46 acre property, or what kind of impact the closure will have on the Pantops Master Plan that was completed last year, which was designed around data showing current employment and commuting patterns that could now change.

"This would be one sweet space, location for residential development," says local realtor Roger Voisinet, mentioning the recently proposed pedestrian bridge across the Rivanna in the Riverview Park area, which would reach across to the State Farm property. "With the new pedestrian bridge in 2024, that area could be even more attractive," he says. (Wrabel also has an update on the pedestrian bridge proposal)

One curious sidebar to all this, which Th…