“It’s close to work and Shockoe Bottom,” said Malik Harris, who moved into 8th & Main in January. A project designer, Harris walks two blocks to work.

Crystal Williams said the No. 1 reason she chose to live at 8th & Main was its proximity to her work on the Monroe Park campus at Virginia Commonwealth University. “I just walk out the door and get on a bus and don’t have to pay to park,” she said.

“Number two is all the utilities are combined into the rent, so I know exactly how much I am paying. And number three, it is new and because it was a bank, I knew the walls would not be paper-thin. But in all honesty, I don’t have neighbors yet.”

Five bank vaults are situated throughout the complex.

The bank was constructed in 1931, and an addition was built in the 1960s. Vacant for at least six or seven years, the building was most recently occupied by the Virginia Department of Social Services. The building was chopped up into little office cubicles, all of which were torn down as part of the renovations.

“The entire building was vacant, drab Class C office space packed with cubicles at the time we purchased the building,” Johnson said. The developers purchased the building in September 2014 for $8.5 million.