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A $3 million land purchase is tied to a nationwide used car auction business planning to open its seventh Virginia branch near Smithfield.

Isle of Wight County supervisors voted in 2022 to approve zoning for a “scrap and salvage service” on two parcels totaling 75 acres. Oklahoma City-based Advanced Construction Development LLC had applied for the zoning on behalf of Insurance Auto Auctions, an internet-based auctioneer of vehicles involved in collisions, floods or repossessions.

IAA plans to store roughly 3,500 vehicles on consignment from insurers at the proposed site in the Isle of Wight Industrial Park off Benns Church Boulevard.

Land transfer records from last month show the sale of 94.7 acres from Locust Grove Partners to Portage Property Partners. The deed is dated Jan. 12, 2023, though the sale wasn’t recorded until May 6 of this year. The Oklahoma City address of Portage is the same as what Advanced Construction Development listed on the final plat submitted to Isle of Wight County’s Community Development Department in 2023. The net developable area is just over 73 acres, according to Portage’s correspondence with the county.

Land transfers from 2023 previously showed the sale of a five-acre parcel on IWIP Road, which allows access to the industrial park from Benns Church Boulevard, in January of that year from H&B Railroad Co. to Portage for $500,000.

IAA’s plans for the two parcels include a single-story metal building, concrete parking lot for employees and customers and an outdoor vehicle storage area paved with asphalt millings.