Chamberlayne / VUU / Northside

[RiverYuppy]

I figured I would kick off the Chamberlayne thread.   I'll try to post updates to Northside in general here.

Brook Road recently got repaved and has a new bike lane.  You can't tell from the picture below (BikeWalkRVA photo cred) but the car to the right is parked, which makes riding on in the bike lane feel super safe.  No cars veering into it.

 

There were also over 300 apartments that went up on Brook road recently.

 

A bit older, but one of the first in the VUU area was the Spectrum on Brook Road.

 

A new 224 unit apartment complex is on the books to go next to it.

 

On the other side of the Spectrum, VUU is planning on demolishing an old motel and building a mixed use structure.

 

A few blocks down the road, an old recycling yard is being developed into a 200 unit apartment complex.

 

There is also a 152 unit apartment building under construction at School Street and Chamberlayne

 

 

A smaller, but neat project that is not too far from Chamberlayne is the Barton Mansion rehab.  The abandoned mansion was turned into 17 nice apartments with $3.2m in renovations.

A before and after

 

Also right up the road there is a smaller business corridor on Brookland Park Boulevard that has undergone some major (for its size, but minor relative to RVA) changes.  I'll try to get some pictures of the improvements and line them up with old google maps street photos.

Edited August 11, 2020 by RiverYuppy

[RVA-Is-The-Best]

Man you really put in work here. Outstanding

[Brent114]

I’m very excited about North Side growing again.  It’s such a cool part of Richmond (especially Brooklyn Park Blvd).  

[whw53]

Thanks for kicking this off. Note that the rendering for the recycling yard project - 'The Foudry' is an older one - the updated site plan is below. They've reoriented the buildings and cut them in half so 4 buildings instead of 2 long ones.

 

[Shakman]

Great thread!  I need to venture out to the northside more often.

 

Thank God for the surface parking.  What a genius idea.  People need places to park.  Perhaps the City can convert all sidewalks into parallel parking spots.    

Edited August 11, 2020 by Shakman

[flaneur]

Nice new thread. I drove home to see family a few weeks ago and my brothers and I went safe distance exploring all over Northside. Wow! We got takeout wings and fried rice from the very New Orleans vibe Manchu that we ate at Tabol Brewery outside (felt safe), then toured Barton Heights, Brookland Park, Highland Park, and walked the main commercial strip--so much interesting development underway. We ended with takeout drinks and dinner from Fuzzy Cactus, which was AWESOME!!! I hope more folks will explore this part of the city and it can continue its evolution in a way that adds new vitality without displacing a bunch of folks or small businesses. And if you're looking to support local businesses, I highly recommend all the takeout we tried in the area. I look forward to a future visit.

[Brent114]

Fuzzy Cactus is great.

[I miss RVA]

Thanks for creating this sub folder! It's needed - and it's SO great to see the near North Side really starting to take off and boom. Scott's Addition, Manchester, downtown, the riverfront and the VCU campuses rightly get a lot of ink - but this part of town is really zooming ahead as well. SOOOO glad to see!

[whw53]

2 dozen of the aging apartment buildings - almost 500 units -  along Chamberlayne Ave have changed hands. This is to an investment group that 'invests in office, retail, residential and hotel properties to be improved or redeveloped."   Hopefully more of the latter!

https://richmondbizsense.com/2020/08/18/23-chamberlayne-apartment-buildings-totaling-nearly-500-units-sold-to-new-jersey-buyer-for-27-5m/

[whw53]

More info on the 2nd phase of Highland Grove from Richmond Free Press - looks like we could be seeing the first units of the 122 called for rise about this time next year.

http://richmondfreepress.com/news/2020/oct/29/new-single-family-homes-townhouses-be-developed-hi/

I don't know much about the area but it seems this subdivision will would better tie together the Chestnut Hill neighborhood to the Barton heights area. When project was first announced there were 3 similar site plans so I am not sure which one they went with here. All 3 are pics in the development map, only difference is the site plan along Dunn Ave it seems - I think the first one is the most urban as it maintains street frontage - 2nd one divys these lots off along cu-de-sacs yuck and the 3rd is an option if for whatever reason they are not able to make the connection to Dunn Ave into Green Park neighborhood which would also be unfortunate.  The link on the map where the images originated is broken though but I may dig into this later. A formal announcement is being made at 2pm today per the article so in the coming days maybe we will here more.

 

Edited October 30, 2020 by whw53

[I miss RVA]

34 minutes ago, whw53 said:

More info on the 2nd phase of Highland Grove from Richmond Free Press - looks like we could be seeing the first units of the 122 called for rise about this time next year.

http://richmondfreepress.com/news/2020/oct/29/new-single-family-homes-townhouses-be-developed-hi/

I don't know much about the area but it seems this subdivision will would better tie together the Chestnut Hill neighborhood to the Barton heights area. When project was first announced there were 3 similar site plans so I am not sure which one they went with here. All 3 are pics in the development map, only difference is the site plan along Dunn Ave it seems - I think the first one is the most urban as it maintains street frontage - 2nd one divys these lots off along cu-de-sacs yuck and the 3rd is an option if for whatever reason they are not able to make the connection to Dunn Ave into Green Park neighborhood which would also be unfortunate.  The link is broken though but I may dig into this later. A formal announcement is being made at 2pm today per the article so in the coming days maybe we will here more.

 

This is exciting news! Glad to see another "donut hole" about to be filled with residential development. The more this happens across the city the better!

[whw53]

Update on the Highland Grove site plan here - this is a 4th version and it differs from prior 3 options in that the area along east side of Dunn will be a parking lot for the Overby Sheppard school. It is too bad that they are not extending Dunn Ave through to Green Park - this would be a great connection point. It looks like there will be a trail instead.  Too bad that a new parking lot is replacing what could have been additional housing units, but outside of that one area we got alleys, thru-streets, no cul-de-sacs....this should be a great development for the area

https://richmondbizsense.com/2020/11/03/city-builders-kick-off-35m-final-phase-of-highland-grove-redevelopment/

I'm glad that this area will include a lot more smaller single family houses - the 4-plexes in phase 1 aren't my favorite as they designed them to pose as single family houses- not my favorite aesthetic and would rather have had larger apartments blocks or real looking blocks of rowhouses there instead if we wanted to go higher density. 

 

 

 

Edited November 3, 2020 by whw53

[I miss RVA]

More apartments coming to the Northside! Catholic Charities and the Catholic Diocese of Richmond are planning to build. From Richmond BizSense:

https://richmondbizsense.com/2020/11/17/catholic-partners-planning-dozens-of-income-based-apartments-in-northside/

[whw53]

A rezoning was filed last week for a parcel of land at 711 Dawn St. The applicant is seeking to rezone the land from M1 Industrial to B-7 Mixed Use District.

 

[whw53]

Nice piece of land for sale along Lombardy - almost 1 1/2 acres in heart of what Chamberlayne plan calls for an urban village. Would be great to get a sizable, attractive project here to start that urban momemtum. Flier notes this as a 'redevelopment opportunity'.

https://partnercre.com/properties/2423-n-lombardy-st-richmond-va-23220/

 

 

The VUU Chamberlayne Neighborhood Plan plan was adopted in 2015 as an amendment to the city's old master plan. From what I understand, as with all amendment plans, Richmond 300 carried over this plan or sub-plan into the current master plan context.  It's a good read and has some nice renderings, illustrations. 

http://www.richmondgov.com/PlanningAndDevelopmentReview/documents/MasterPlan/VUUChamberlayneNeighborhoodPlan-November2015.pdf

 

Edited December 21, 2020 by whw53

[whw53]

Development team applied for commercial building permits yesterday for the Sphere Apartment project along Brook Road. Should be last permit piece needed to move forward with this project.

https://energov.richmondgov.com/EnerGov_Prod/selfservice#/plan/eaad621e-81ac-47b0-b0e8-322bf3291b04

 

Edited December 30, 2020 by whw53

[rjp212]

Case study for the Six Points Innovation Center property in Highland Park.

Source: https://www.hksinc.com/what-we-do/case-studies/the-benefield-building/

[whw53]

A plan of development was filed this week along the Brookland Park corridor, comprising 2 vacant lots on the north side of the 300 W block. It looks like project will extend and fill in the commercial corridor to the west while also adding some housing on above levels. It will be great seeing some apartment units right on BP - I could see this corridor with a massing somewhere between Carytown (embarrassingly no residential) and the older portion of Hull in Manchester. There is not a lot of space for large multifamily in Barton Heights\Brookland Park so racking up units in smaller projects will need to happen if we want housing diversity here. Look forward to seeing this one - I believe will be first ground up project in some time along here? Hopefully encourages more small commercial owners to think towards mixed use redevelopment. 

 

Edited January 15, 2021 by whw53

[Icetera]

2 minutes ago, whw53 said:

A plan of development was filed this week along the Brookland Park corridor, comprising 2 vacant lots on the north side of the 300 W block. It looks like project will extend and fill in the commercial corridor to the west while also adding some housing on above levels. It will be great seeing some apartment units right on BP - I could see this corridor with a massing somewhere between Carytown (embarrassingly no residential) and the older portion of Hull in Manchester. There is not a lot of space for large multifamily in Barton Heights\Brookland Park so racking up units in smaller projects will need to happen if we want housing diversity here. Look forward to seeing this one - I believe will be first ground up project in some time along here? Hopefully encourages more small commercial owners to think towards mixed use redevelopment. 

 

I believe this popped up a few years ago so glad to see signs of movement.

[whw53]

11 minutes ago, Icetera said:

I believe this popped up a few years ago so glad to see signs of movement.

Was this where that brewery was proposed a year or 2 ago? On the carwash portion at least. 

Edited January 15, 2021 by whw53

[Brent114]

New crane, who this? 
 

[eandslee]

14 minutes ago, Brent114 said:

New crane, who this? 
 

Sweet!  Is this for the apartments that are being built along I-95?  I’m trying to place where this is. 

[wrldcoupe4]

Think so.

[I miss RVA]

We're going to see quite a few of these cranes (and maybe some boom cranes) popping up over the next few months as all these new projects get underway.

[Icetera]

21 hours ago, eandslee said:

Sweet!  Is this for the apartments that are being built along I-95?  I’m trying to place where this is. 

It is.  I snapped some shots this weekend and that development is well under way.  Will add in a few.