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Dominion Resources: New High-rise Building Planned for Downtown


TBurban

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Hey guys... Long time UPer who lived in Richmond years ago but still follow the happenings here. I just wanted to clarify, the Duke Energy Center in Charlotte was not built by Duke. It was actually supposed to be Wachovia's new HQ prior to the financial crisis in 2007/08. Wells Fargo finished it as it was under construction at the time of the Wachovia/Wells merger. They ended up leasing about 20 or so floors in the building to Duke and gave them naming rights. Duke is the largest electric utility company in the US and they probably would have never built something of that scale by themselves. If memory serves me, Dominion is pretty conservative as well so I really don't see them building something that large, though I could be wrong. Power companies are typcially monopolies in the local they serve and I think the last thing that would want to do is build some shining behemoth. That just sends the wrong message (Hey, my electric bill just went up 15%, but you have your shiny new toy!, etc). With that said, I certainly think Dominion will come up with something architecturally significant. Good example is PNC's new building in Pittsburgh. About 550 feet tall and 33 stories. It's a conservative company, by banking standards. Something along those lines would look pretty sweet in Richmond's skyline IMO. 

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Why is everyone assuming a single tower? 

So maybe you can help with this. If you had to 'guess' ... could the project have a mix of uses going vertical ( in different buildings ) or is this more of a multibuilding campus setting? I'm assuming a ton of structured parking and some street level commercial space in either scenario. 

This is all hypothetically speaking, or course. 

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Not gonna happen...

I think you mean "in my opinion it's not gonna happen..."

which I agree with - 40 is too tall.

The "more than one building" thought comes from the fact that the One James River Plaza building - according to the article - is the problem while they have the Richmond Plaza building sitting vacant with a huge footprint (the building takes up a full city block).  The 8th and main building (the one that used to have the Merryl Lynch name) can be used for overflow.  In the past Dom has put Innsbrook up for sale - keep that in mind -  you may recall an attempt to build another building at the Tredegar St campus that was met with big objections from Oregon Hill - around the time they were building the trading floor.

Speaking of Tredegar, note that Tredegar is the Corporate headquarters, not any of the towers in question.  Who knows if that will change with the new tower...

 

Here are two other similar company's headquarter buildings, one old one new.  I would expect all the latest green tech like the Baltimore one:

 

New Exelon tower in Baltimore (FYI, this is basically the old Constellation Energy, which bought Baltimore Gas & Electric, then was bought by Exelon):

http://www.exeloncorp.com/environment/strategy/greenoperations/overview.aspx


AEP Corp. Headquarters (built in 1983) 31 story 813,639 sq. ft. in Columbus, OH:


http://facilitymanagementresources.com/article.cgi?type=Sustainability&title=American Electric Power's strategy to achieve LEED%26reg%3B Gold&pub=USGBC&id=40998&mode=source

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I think you mean "in my opinion it's not gonna happen..."

 

No, actually, that's not what I meant.  

The article is pretty poorly written.  The writer seems to think that One James Center Plaza is a different building than the structure at 8th and Main.

 

We all have opinions....but just like you claimed "One James Center Plaza" is not different than "the structure at 8th and Main" [quote above]....sometimes we accidentally come across as holding factual knowledge when in fact it is just our opinion, or best guess, or educated guess based on some info not yet confirmed and possibly open to change....as the June 4th poster corrected, there is no such thing as "One James Center Plaza" and "One James River Plaza" is in fact a different property than 8th and Main, and also different than the Richmond Plaza building - the likely location of the new tower...or at least one of  the  new towers.

 

This site is great because we all share our best guesses.  Blunt  statements ["Not gonna happen" as one example] telling someone their guess, opinion, or hope is flat-out wrong with no backup or reasoning, and then  doubling-down by saying you didn't mean it as an opinion (i.e. re-enforcing that it is fact - again with no further information) just doesn't fit the vibe of this place...but hey...this is just my opinion....you can obviously say whatever you'd like! 

As stated, I share your thought/opinion/guess that it wont be near 40 stories....

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Instead of the two of yall arguing would either of you think this could be a mixed use tower making it 40 floors kinda similar to pnc plaza in Raleigh having both office space and residential condos and maybe retail space and parking having an above ground parking garage at the bottom of the tower.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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Thanks wrldcoupe, it's pretty rough to be accused of being some sort of dream-killer when I'm only trying to share reliable information I've come across (and frankly sometimes feel like I shoudln't share anyway).  I will admit that I lose track of the names of these downtown buildings sometimes -- can we please put a moratorium on the use of "James" or "Plaza" in any future building names?

Edited by jbjust
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To many buildings with "James" in them, makes them to hard to remember. Also I agree that we maybe getting alittle to excited about the height of this tower. However, if this building does reach around 30 stories, it could encourage some mid and high rise development in Monroe ward(notice all the parking lots).

image.jpg

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I would assume the new highrise wouldn't be as tall simply because I imagine they don't need office space in two towers (One James River Plaza and the new tower) and if they vacated 1JRP it would leave a glut of vacant space in the office market. Does anyone know whether One James Center has filled in at least some of the former McGuireWoods space since Gateway Plaza opened?

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Thanks wrldcoupe, it's pretty rough to be accused of being some sort of dream-killer when I'm only trying to share reliable information I've come across (and frankly sometimes feel like I shoudln't share anyway).  I will admit that I lose track of the names of these downtown buildings sometimes -- can we please put a moratorium on the use of "James" or "Plaza" in any future building names?

JB, thanks for you're input and as I've said at least twice, I agree on your height assessment (won't be near 40).  You are certainly not killing my dream. 

I am curious about his - What is the elevation change from the Gateway Plaza to the Richmond Plaza (again, another naming issue - ugh!  Moratorium on Plaza also please - but to be clear the Gateway Plaza of course the new tower and the Richmond Plaza the ugly building at the core of this story that sits west of the Dominion Tower One James River Plaza or "OJRP").  From a skyline perspective, we have some elevation changes downtown that I would assume impact the skyline - i.e., if the Federal Reserve building sat where the Holiday Inn Express is (I think that's what brand it is - near Cary and Foushee) - how much of an impact does that have on the skyline?

I ask because I walk the hill everyday at least once - a tower of x feet would seem to make much more of a skyline impact if it were more west (say Richmond Plaza, north west corner vs. OJRP  - or on the parking lot west of the north side of the Richmond Plaza - which I believe but do not know for sure - Dominion also owns (managed by a third party) vs. where OJRP sits now or centered on the east or south/east corner of the Richmond Plaza block...?

That probably all sounds confusing but I guess another way to state the question is what is the elevation as you travel west (against traffic) on Cary St from OJRP up?

Note this also - I'm specifying different locations within the Richmond Plaza building as potential site for new tower because it's footprint is the entire block and as you can see from the aerial above you could fit several OJRP size footprint towers within that footprint.

 

 

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I would assume the new highrise wouldn't be as tall simply because I imagine they don't need office space in two towers (One James River Plaza and the new tower) and if they vacated 1JRP it would leave a glut of vacant space in the office market. Does anyone know whether One James Center has filled in at least some of the former McGuireWoods space since Gateway Plaza opened?

One James Center still has quite a bit of vacancy, though Dixon Hughes & Goodman took up or will take up 2 floors I think when they move in from Innsbrook. 

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I would assume the new highrise wouldn't be as tall simply because I imagine they don't need office space in two towers (One James River Plaza and the new tower) and if they vacated 1JRP it would leave a glut of vacant space in the office market. Does anyone know whether One James Center has filled in at least some of the former McGuireWoods space since Gateway Plaza opened?

I thought there was some talk from Dominion that they may consider selling their tower at One James Center (perhaps suitable to rehab it for residential) and move all their employees out of that building and into the new tower they will build.  I just remember that being an option. Just not sure they will do it. I guess it depends on what studies say, but I'm pretty sure they wanted to get out of that building altogether and not spend the money to refurbish it for office space again. So keep that in mind when thinking about the height of this new tower. I guess we will see what they decide to do in the upcoming weeks/months. 

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Dominion won't care about dropping a glut of office space on the market. Riverfront and James Center still have a ton of vacancy to backfill. There likely will be other large block space(s) coming back to the market soon...

It's interesting because the trend nationally is that CBD markets have tightening vacancy, rising rents and new construction due to demand. Unfortunately, Richmond is bucking the trend. I'm sure the gross receipts tax that is triple the rate charged in the counties has nothing to do with it...

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It's interesting because the trend nationally is that CBD markets have tightening vacancy, rising rents and new construction due to demand. Unfortunately, Richmond is bucking the trend. I'm sure the gross receipts tax that is triple the rate charged in the counties has nothing to do with it...

Interesting, I guess appearances are deceiving. I was just driving through downtown this morning noting how many buildings are being renovated. Definitely seems like money is being put into the CBD but maybe stats say otherwise.

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Interesting, I guess appearances are deceiving. I was just driving through downtown this morning noting how many buildings are being renovated. Definitely seems like money is being put into the CBD but maybe stats say otherwise.

Most of those renovations are for apartments, believe it or not.  

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Yeah a ton of class B and C buildings have been converted. James Center and Riverfront have huge blocks of space. Our downtown class A has higher vacancy than the suburbs which is a contrast to many other markets nationally. Maybe if the gross receipts tax wasn't 3xs higher in the city than the counties...

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