Richmond's Suburban Developments

[Icetera]

42 minutes ago, skinsfan said:

Yeah . I’m not a fan.  They incorporate more unnecessary stoplights which I feel hurts traffic flow. If they would incorporate a right on red, than maybe.  I’m a fan of the traditional cloverleaf. 

The problem is cloverleafs take up an enormous amount of space and do not mesh well with any traffic other than vehicular.  DDIs have also been proven to actually have better traffic flow due to less points of conflict (no merge mess), at least outside of closed-highway interchanges.  A proper DDI has slip lanes to allow non-stop flow for right turning traffic off of the ramps, but for some reason our closest example at Zion's Crossing does not include this feature.

[blopp1234]

Clover leafs are also awful for pedestrians and cyclists. While not just a regular diamond interchange, this is better than a cloverleaf.

[skinsfan]

The Garrisonville  diverging diamond interchange is equally as bad. Now , I will say that there are a ton of folks who utilize the walkways along Gayton so a traditional interchange wouldn’t be ideal.  

[I miss RVA]

Big project already underway across I-95 from Green City -- and not the first blade of dirt has yet been turned for Green City, and already the county has a really nice, relatively high-density (600 units) residential project UNDERWAY!!

From Richmond BizSense:

https://richmondbizsense.com/2022/02/10/project-snapshot-hundreds-of-homes-rising-along-i-95-near-greencity-site/

 

[Shakman]

I wouldn't consider townhomes as dense development.  This can stay in the burbs.

[I miss RVA]

2 hours ago, Shakman said:

I wouldn't consider townhomes as dense development.  This can stay in the burbs.

Relative to single-fam/detached cookie-cutter houses on cul du sacs with ample front/back yards, lots of trees, etc. - it shakes out as higher density. Townhomes pack a bit more of a punch in a tighter area.

[I miss RVA]

Looks like the industrial sector of eastern Henrico is off to a blistering start to 2022 - keeping up the fast-and-furious pace from the end of last year. According to Richmond BizSense, Eastport Industrial Park in Varina sold last week for $139M. It's the second nine-figure deal seen in the county already this year - hot on the heels of the White Oak Apartment complex sale for $154M at the end of January.

Also: RBS is reporting that American Paper Converting, a Pacific-Northwest-based tissue and paper towel manufacturer is expanding their RVA operation and will be moving into the White Oak Tech Park. THIS comes on the heels of announcements that Mondelez is expanding their bakery operation at 6002 S. Laburnum Ave., which follows Coca-Cola's announcement that they will expand their manufacturing and distribution center in Sandston.

And this is in addition to Hillwood Development looking to rezone 530 acres for a big industrial/distribution set-up in Varina, and Ashley Capital's plan for a half-million sq ft warehouse in Varina.

From all of the business expansions occurring, I'm curious how many additional jobs are being created. It's hard to think it wouldn't be at least somewhat substantial (all of them combined) -- meaning, yet another component of the RVA economy is booming, and hopefully this will also contribute to continued metropolitan population growth.

From Richmond BizSense:

https://richmondbizsense.com/2022/02/11/henrico-industrial-market-off-to-busy-start-in-2022-with-nine-figure-deal/

 

[wrldcoupe4]

This is all a drop in the bucket relative to all the industrial deals occurring in the region. There’s too much to list. 

[Brent114]

Last week I was happy to see the massive distribution center along I95 (near Bells Road) finally taking shape.   The entire region is bursting  with new development.  

[eandslee]

Funny how history makes a full circle.  I remember back in the mid 1990s when Motorola planned a big semiconductor plant out at West Creek, which was to be a game changer for the area.  It never happened.  White Oak had a plant that finally closed it doors in 2009 and here we are again...needing microchips and Henrico is ready to go!  Could we see a new semiconductor in the Richmond area pretty soon?  I'm pasting this link to Reddit which has the RTD pasted in the comments section.  Pretty interesting read:

https://www.reddit.com/r/rva/comments/std8w7/were_ready_henrico_poised_as_white_house_pushes/

 

[I miss RVA]

11 minutes ago, eandslee said:

Funny how history makes a full circle.  I remember back in the mid 1990s when Motorola planned a big semiconductor plant out at West Creek, which was to be a game changer for the area.  It never happened.  White Oak had a plant that finally closed it doors in 2009 and here we are again...needing microchips and Henrico is ready to go!  Could we see a new semiconductor in the Richmond area pretty soon?  I'm pasting this link to Reddit which has the RTD pasted in the comments section.  Pretty interesting read:

https://www.reddit.com/r/rva/comments/std8w7/were_ready_henrico_poised_as_white_house_pushes/

 

I'm trying to remember why the whole Motorola/West Creek plant development went nowhere. I recall that Motorola was the manufacturer of the cpu chips (I think they also made the dedicated graphics chips as well) that drove the Commodore Amiga line of home computers, but that line of products had pretty much failed by the mid '90s, certainly in North America. It was still popular in Europe, but even then, sales flagged and eventually a German tech firm snapped everything up and as a computer line, it all pretty much withered away into oblivion.

Edited February 16, 2022 by I miss RVA

[wrldcoupe4]

On 2/12/2022 at 1:01 PM, Brent114 said:

Last week I was happy to see the massive distribution center along I95 (near Bells Road) finally taking shape.   The entire region is bursting  with new development.  

Case and point - Autozone’s new 800k SF distribution center in New Kent:

https://www.virginiabusiness.com/article/autozone-to-build-185m-distribution-center-in-new-kent/

[Downtowner]

Also rbs reported shake shack bringing first Richmond area location on broad street where the old Applebees is near willow lawn. I’m super excited about it as is my wife. Been to one In nyc. Super good. They better build a massive one with how many people are about to go to that place. 

[I miss RVA]

1 hour ago, Downtowner said:

Also rbs reported shake shack bringing first Richmond area location on broad street where the old Applebees is near willow lawn. I’m super excited about it as is my wife. Been to one In nyc. Super good. They better build a massive one with how many people are about to go to that place. 

YUM!!! 

[Shakman]

13 hours ago, Downtowner said:

Also rbs reported shake shack bringing first Richmond area location on broad street where the old Applebees is near willow lawn. I’m super excited about it as is my wife. Been to one In nyc. Super good. They better build a massive one with how many people are about to go to that place. 

Yes!!!  

[Icetera]

On 2/18/2022 at 9:44 PM, Downtowner said:

Also rbs reported shake shack bringing first Richmond area location on broad street where the old Applebees is near willow lawn. I’m super excited about it as is my wife. Been to one In nyc. Super good. They better build a massive one with how many people are about to go to that place. 

Wasn't there a Shake Shack in White Oak Shopping Center or am I mixing up similar names?

EDIT: I was thinking of Steak & Shake.  Apparently they opened one last Fall in VCU's Commons.

[I miss RVA]

2 minutes ago, Icetera said:

Wasn't there a Shake Shack in White Oak Shopping Center or am I mixing up similar names?

It wasn't a Steak N Shake, was it?

[wrldcoupe4]

20 minutes ago, I miss RVA said:

It wasn't a Steak N Shake, was it?

It was. 

[I miss RVA]

7 minutes ago, wrldcoupe4 said:

It was. 

Also YUM!! 

Okay... now I'ma hafta see if Uber Eats can snag me something from Steak N Shake for lunch... 

Edited February 21, 2022 by I miss RVA

[skinsfan]

18 hours ago, Icetera said:

Wasn't there a Shake Shack in White Oak Shopping Center or am I mixing up similar names?

EDIT: I was thinking of Steak & Shake.  Apparently they opened one last Fall in VCU's Commons.

I was thinking the same thing. 

[RiverYuppy]

The warehouse that was planned near the raceway is coming along and pretty massive.

 

[eandslee]

Thanks for the pic!  Seems small though, given the amount of land this facility is supposed to be using.  Surely there are other parts of this warehouse not shown in the photo, correct?

[Icetera]

38 minutes ago, eandslee said:

Thanks for the pic!  Seems small though, given the amount of land this facility is supposed to be using.  Surely there are other parts of this warehouse not shown in the photo, correct?

It looks like a lot of the land is lost in order to level such a large footprint on uneven terrain.  That still looks like a huge building.

[I miss RVA]

3 hours ago, RiverYuppy said:

The warehouse that was planned near the raceway is coming along and pretty massive.

 

Thanks for taking and posting the photo! Wow - it does have some size to it. Glad to see it's so far along toward completion. 

[HRVA]

2 hours ago, eandslee said:

Thanks for the pic!  Seems small though, given the amount of land this facility is supposed to be using.  Surely there are other parts of this warehouse not shown in the photo, correct?

Haven’t personally seen this one but the robotics facility in Suffolk is absolutely massive. This picture does not give the size any justice. Zoom in and see how tiny the construction equipment looks next to this behemoth.