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I figured this would be a good place for the new announcement for development in Manchester, and a good place to highlight other projects in this area of the city. Reynolds South property sold for development Thalhimer Realty Partners Inc. has purchased a 17.2-acre site at Seventh and Hull streets, formerly home to the Reynolds South plant, for $9.25 million. Advertisement Posted: Friday, December 6, 2013 12:00 am {sodEmoji.|} Updated: 8:56 am, Fri Dec 6, 2013. BY CAROL HAZARD Richmond Times-Dispatch More apartments, retail and offices are coming to the Manchester area of South Richmond. Plans call for three apartment buildings, two 13-story residential and/or office buildings and retail shops. Work will begin on the apartments, the first phase of the project, in January. Thalhimer Realty Partners Inc. purchased a 17.2-acre site at Seventh and Hull streets for $9.25 million. The transaction closed Wednesday. The site — encompassing about 7.5 city blocks — is the former location of Reynolds Packaging Group’s foil manufacturing plant, commonly called the Reynolds South plant. The plan is to convert three historic warehouse and distribution buildings into 263 apartments, Drew Wiltshire, vice president of Thalhimer Realty Partners, said Thursday. Thalhimer Realty is the development subsidiary of Cushman & Wakefield {sodEmoji.|} Thalhimer, a commercial real estate firm in Henrico County. Some apartments will be ready by the end of 2014, but all will be finished by spring 2015, Wiltshire said. The second phase will involve the development of retail space on 5.4 acres along Hull Street. “No one is beating on our door to build anything yet,” he said. “We will market it for sale or for lease.” The final phase is to build two high-rise, high-density buildings 13 stories tall, one possibly for residential living and the other for offices, Wiltshire said. “We see it as two buildings, 250,000 square feet each,” Wiltshire said, adding that the plan is preliminary and flexible. The two high-rises would be near Legend’s Brewery between Sixth Street and the river bordered by Porter and McDonough streets. “The initial and only certain phase is the conversion of the three existing buildings into apartments,” Wiltshire said. The property, which has been on the market about three years, is considered one of the most significant riverfront properties in downtown Richmond. “This is a great development opportunity on the river. It will change the landscape downtown,” said Trib Sutton, a senior vice president with CBRE{sodEmoji.|}Richmond. The transformation on the north side of the river will continue now on the south side, Sutton said. Sutton, along with Rob Dirom, Scott Boyers, Scott Durham and John Carpin of CBRE{sodEmoji.|}Richmond, represented the seller in the transaction, Pactiv LLC, a Chicago-based packager and successor to Reynolds Metals, which had been based in Henrico. The team was responsible for the sale of the North Plant property in February 2012 for $7.3 million. That site, housing a similar manufacturing plant on 6.8 acres, fronts the Kanawha Canal and the James River. Developers Fountainhead Properties and WVS, buyers of the North Plant, recently finished the first phase of the Reynolds North property with the completion of about 174 apartments and retail space. [email protected] (804) 775-8023