Monroe Ward / Oregon Hill

[I miss RVA]

2 hours ago, wrldcoupe4 said:

Filling vacant positions seems like a logical place to start. 

100% agree, Coupe.  And you'd think it wouldn't be that hard. What's the hiccup, I wonder? Budgetary? Surely they have enough baked into the city budget to cover beefing up headcount in the planning/permit offices, yes? It's pure suicide from an economic and developmental standpoint to just let a billion dollars of development sit idle in someone's inbox. The should be one of the Mayor's or the Council's top priorities.

Edited February 12, 2021 by I miss RVA

[whw53]

Speaking of 12 story apartment buildings....nice write up on the Douglas Development project at 629 E Main from the RTD. I am glad they switched this out to apartments instead of what would have been co-branded Hyatt hotels. The completed Stumpf project farther down Main is also discussed as is an unknown to me smaller 11 unit renovation on Franklin besides the Linden Row Inn. I don't believe that had come up here - I'll add to the dev map. 

Good to see Douglas continuing to renovate downtown - article mentions they have 20 properties, i may query from county parcel data at some point to get a clear picture of their holdings - I hope they revisit Broad Street next and fix up that stock around 2nd. Those buildings sitting there decaying are a gash in the heart  of the Arts District.

https://richmond.com/business/42-million-project-underway-to-convert-12-story-historic-building-in-downtown-richmond-into-apartments/article_2b8bccc2-d367-5229-9d85-f27355c3c0ef.html

Edited March 16, 2021 by whw53

[Icetera]

15 hours ago, whw53 said:

Good to see Douglas continuing to renovate downtown - article mentions they have 20 properties, i may query from county parcel data at some point to get a clear picture of their holdings - I hope they revisit Broad Street next and fix up that stock around 2nd. Those buildings sitting there decaying are a gash in the heart  of the Arts District.

I count 18 unique parcels (approx. 28 addresses) along Broad so E. Main must be the 2 outliers.

[wrldcoupe4]

They also own 411 E Franklin, 701 E Franklin, 100 W Franklin, the building next to Linden Row, 201 E Franklin, 10 S 6th St , etc.

[whw53]

First signs of formal permit activity this week for 2 projects in Monroe Ward - Pinecrest Tower & the Foushee Mews townhome development.

Team behind Pinecrest submits water\sewer utility plans 

• https://energov.richmondgov.com/EnerGov_Prod/selfservice#/plan/e8d7326e-d8b4-49dc-8896-f8ea26c9a658

Team behind Foushee Mews submits land disturbance and stormwater management plans

•       https://energov.richmondgov.com/EnerGov_Prod/selfservice#/plan/9ef93090-c4d2-43ed-acf8-5c6f6b8162d4
•       https://energov.richmondgov.com/EnerGov_Prod/selfservice#/plan/f6e2c6ba-8b93-4878-87d1-4ed838c835af

[Brent114]

Glad to see some Foushee Muse activity.  It has to have been two years or more  since this was announced right? 

[I miss RVA]

Glad to see things finally moving forward on these projects. I wonder then how far away any potential ground-breaking might be? Obviously, I'm particularly interested in the Pinecrest Tower - which should be a catalyst for other highrise residential developments in that part of Monroe Ward.

[eandslee]

I don't remember this Pinecrest Tower project.  Does anyone have any renderings?

[Hike]

36 minutes ago, eandslee said:

I don't remember this Pinecrest Tower project.  Does anyone have any renderings?

Link from bizsense. 

https://richmondbizsense.com/2020/12/07/thalhimer-sells-downtown-lot-for-2-5m-to-make-way-for-15-story-apartment-tower/

Edited May 2, 2021 by Hike

[eandslee]

40 minutes ago, Hike said:

Link from bizsense. 

https://richmondbizsense.com/2020/12/07/thalhimer-sells-downtown-lot-for-2-5m-to-make-way-for-15-story-apartment-tower/

Oh, I know which one this is now...sorry.  I just didn’t know it by the name Pinecrest Tower.  Thanks for refreshing my memory!  Yeah, hope this breaks ground soon!

[Ward Wood]

On 1/5/2021 at 9:19 PM, georgeglass said:

So this building had been posted about before a year or so ago probably. It is from architecturefirm. They did the Quirk in Charlottesville among other things. For a while, it wasn't on their website anymore, but now it's back with new renders. A while back I had messaged them through Instagram to ask if it was dead, and they said it wasn't...just on hold. With the update, I wonder if something will come to pass? I sure hope so because it looks great! The other buildings in the render I can't quite place, so maybe it's just to show a likeness. Still, from looking at maps, I am wondering if this would go at the parking lot at the corner of Broad and Madison??

https://www.architecturefirm.co/work-1#/rva-tower/

So I believe per biz sense this AM that this property was just purchased by Bank Street at 225 W Broad st (?): https://richmondbizsense.com/2020/05/21/developer-adds-to-downtown-broad-street-holdings/

This is based on my google maps investigative work to try to match the buildings from the architecture firm website in the "plane" mock-up to google maps - https://www.google.com/maps/@37.5485728,-77.4443534,301a,35y,180h,39.38t/data=!3m1!1e3

1 minute ago, Ward Wood said:

So I believe per biz sense this AM that this property was just purchased by Bank Street at 225 W Broad st (?): https://richmondbizsense.com/2020/05/21/developer-adds-to-downtown-broad-street-holdings/

This is based on my google maps investigative work to try to match the buildings from the architecture firm website in the "plane" mock-up to google maps - https://www.google.com/maps/@37.5485728,-77.4443534,301a,35y,180h,39.38t/data=!3m1!1e3

Oh man!  It looks like Bank Street and ArchitectureFirm have worked with each other in the past too!  (prob not news to a lot of you ha!).  Maybe this project is coming to fruition!!!

https://richmondbizsense.com/2018/01/31/redevelopment-add-apartments-cary-st-corner/

https://www.hotelmanagement.net/openings/second-art-focused-quirk-hotel-opens-virginia

[Icetera]

49 minutes ago, Ward Wood said:

So I believe per biz sense this AM that this property was just purchased by Bank Street at 225 W Broad st (?): https://richmondbizsense.com/2020/05/21/developer-adds-to-downtown-broad-street-holdings/

This is based on my google maps investigative work to try to match the buildings from the architecture firm website in the "plane" mock-up to google maps - https://www.google.com/maps/@37.5485728,-77.4443534,301a,35y,180h,39.38t/data=!3m1!1e3

Oh man!  It looks like Bank Street and ArchitectureFirm have worked with each other in the past too!  (prob not news to a lot of you ha!).  Maybe this project is coming to fruition!!!

https://richmondbizsense.com/2018/01/31/redevelopment-add-apartments-cary-st-corner/

https://www.hotelmanagement.net/openings/second-art-focused-quirk-hotel-opens-virginia

Nice digging!  This one would certainly change the game.

[Ward Wood]

28 minutes ago, Icetera said:

Nice digging!  This one would certainly change the game.

Well, I just realized the purchase actually occurred May 21st 2020 not 2021  .  Probably old news but hey - we know Bank Street and ArchitectureFirm work together!

[whw53]

Everyone's got their 'most want to break ground' project - this is far and away mine.

Sent from my SM-A600A using Tapatalk

[I miss RVA]

17 minutes ago, whw53 said:

Everyone's got their 'most want to break ground' project - this is far and away mine.

Sent from my SM-A600A using Tapatalk
 

Same here - this one, by far, is the one I want the most.

Right behind it is Rivers Edge II (the twin buildings in Manchester) and PortRVA2 (512 Hull Street).

 

Edited May 21, 2021 by I miss RVA

[RVA-Is-The-Best]

2 hours ago, whw53 said:

Everyone's got their 'most want to break ground' project - this is far and away mine.

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It used to be Opus and now it's this one for me too. Followed by the 12 story building at 200 E Marshall

edit: actually no! The one I want to break ground the most is the big Public Safety Building site redevelopment:

(followed by this one at Broad/Madison)

Edited May 21, 2021 by RVA-Is-The-Best

[eandslee]

4 hours ago, whw53 said:

Everyone's got their 'most want to break ground' project - this is far and away mine.

Sent from my SM-A600A using Tapatalk
 

Since we’re at it...mine is the, much anticipated, CoStar tower!  I know we don’t even know what it looks like yet, but hey - it’s probably going to be monumental!

[Hike]

1 hour ago, eandslee said:

Since we’re at it...mine is the, much anticipated, CoStar tower!  I know we don’t even know what it looks like yet, but hey - it’s probably going to be monumental!

Me too, I look almost everyday for a sneak peek accident of images on line like I found last time. 

[eandslee]

1 minute ago, Hike said:

Me too, I look almost everyday for a sneak peek accident of images on line like I found last time. 

Well, keep looking and keep digging.  One day you just might get lucky again!

[Hike]

1 minute ago, eandslee said:

Well, keep looking and keep digging.  One day you just might get lucky again!

I got lucky last time,  literally,  I saw them searching the project name in google images, downloaded them,  went back to look for more and they were gone. 

[I miss RVA]

Guys - here's something to think about:

I've been following Richmond's growth for about 50 years (yes, I was 8 years old and was already interested in what was happening and in love with the city) and watched the occasional project come to fruition... what we are seeing now is so unprecedented in Richmond's history (and certainly in the 50-year span I've watched what RVA has been doing) - that it just boggles the mind.

We all have our specific "pet project" we want to see get underway and rise in the city, whether it's in downtown or Manchester or Scott's or whatever part of town. We have a plethora of projects to choose from - almost a cafeteria smorgasbord of projects - and we can even rank our favorites because there are just SO many projects either underway, planned and announced, planned and awaiting some kind of action (zoning change, actual announcement by developers, etc.) or at least seen on the drawing boards of architects.

In my lifetime - this has NEVER happened in Richmond. And these are just the "biggies" - the highrise projects we want. It's not even counting the 5, 6, 7, 8-story projects that are becoming prolific in Scott's Addition, Manchester, Rocketts, the Northside, etc. - or the many infill projects that are happening.

It used to be RIchmond would get a big project - then it would be a few years before the next big one. Usually it was only one building. It was a really earth-shattering big deal when the James Center was announced and eventually built, although not to the specs that were originally designed. If there was more than one or two cranes (depending on the project) over Richmond at any one time, it was like sighting Halley's Comet - it was so rare. And residential buildings - particularly highrise - were few and far between.

But now? Now we constantly see cranes rising over various parts of the city. Projects are rising, more are announced, more are planned. And highrise residential buildings are becoming prolific.

Consider:

NOT COUNTING THE 5-to-8 story residential buildings:  If everything that we are aware of comes to pass in the next, say, three to five years, we could see as many as 12 highrise residential building built - 7 north of the river, 5 in Manchester. If the one down by the canal comes to pass, that would be 13 total, 8 north of the river.  Then there's CoStar - seems like they're definitely going to build something. And the Social Services block redevelopment, with the (hopefully still) 20-story office building and all the other buildings as part of an entire city-block redevelopment. (The last time I saw such a project was in downtown Chicago when "Block 37" was redeveloped soup to nuts.

If VCU health keeps adding on to their medical campus that could be two more highrises in far the northeastern part of downtown. Plus on the academic campus, another 12-story building for student housing at Laurel and Grace.

So in the coming years, we actually could see as many as 18 new highrise buildings constructed in Richmond over the next several years. Two of them (the residential building in Scott's and the Opus) are already underway. Richmond has never seen anything like this. We are witnessing history here. Let's chronicle this well! We owe it to ourselves and those who come after us to keep a good record of how the city is booming.

It's beautiful to see - and how fortunate are we to witness this.

Edited May 24, 2021 by I miss RVA

[eandslee]

You know, when you say it like you just did, it actually IS a significant amount of construction, growth, and expansion of the skyline.  I knew we had a “few” in queue to be built, but I had never sat down and counted the projects. 18 is a lot of high rises!!  Still not satisfied though - we want more!!  Thanks for quantifying what we are actually witnessing!

Edited May 24, 2021 by eandslee

[Hike]

Agree and after reading I miss RVA (which I hope you live here and don't still miss it) be like. 

 

Edited May 24, 2021 by Hike

[eandslee]

8 minutes ago, Hike said:

Agree and after reading I miss RVA (which I hope you live here and don't still miss it) be like. 

 

LOL!  Unfortunately, I think "I miss RVA" still lives in the Chicago area.    I can vouch for how he feels though - as someone in the military and have lived in many places around the country, I didn't realize how much I really loved RVA until I was no longer living there.  Richmond will always have a place in my heart - I was born there and I met my wife and started our lives together there (married happily for 23 years thus far)!  Seems that everything good in my life started in Richmond!  I'm not currently living in RVA, but I live very close...sometimes, just not close enough...and I still miss RVA!

[I miss RVA]

eandslee - you are correct, sir. I do still live in Chicagoland-- have been here for 20 years and counting.  And Hike - yeah, I really do miss RVA. I tend to live vicariously through the web - watching the city grow and boom makes me want to come home at least to visit. It's been a while since I was last there - too long in fact. Maybe in the fall or winter - as post-pandemic life starts to stabilize, I'll come for a visit.  I'm fully vaxxed - so it's not even the travel - rather, I'm no longer used to Virginia summers anymore - I was back in Virginia with the wife & kids a couple of years ago (in the D.C. area) - and I thought I was going to die. It was April and it was already in the upper 80s and that suffocating humidity I remembered so well from 38 years of living in RVA... ugh...  In fact - (even though I dropped to my knees and kissed the Virginia ground when we left the terminal at DCA and I found a grassy spot) - I told my wife - "Now I remember exactly why I left..." 

In truth, I've always preferred winter to summer and autumn to spring.  Chicago weather is MUCH more to my liking - the summers can get brutally hot & humid here - make no mistake - but they don't last nearly as long as RVA summers - we do get incursions of cooler air that will break up the hot days. And of course, I love cold weather and snow - so I don't complain at all, tbh.

But I do want to come home to visit - not so much people (there are a few friends and scattered fam) ... but to see the city. To reunite with my hometown. To see her as she's starting to shed the "old" Richmond I remember - and become the "new" Richmond I always hoped and dreamed she would become. I'm crazy proud of RVA and what's happening right now - and I just hope I live long enough to see this great city REALLY flourish and step up several notches on the 'big city' ladder. I can't wait to see what she'll look like in 3 to 5 years.