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Carver District / Newtowne West / Allison District


whw53

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3 hours ago, eandslee said:

I’d like to see them do a project that’s more than just a few stories tall. This location is virtually downtown, so I think it could use a little height. If memory serves, I don’t think there was anything too vertical in the master plan, unfortunately. 

Unfortunately, I wouldn't expect anything much over 4 to 6 stories. Sauer doesn't seem to be into anything on a grand scale height-wise.

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EDIT: It looks like the POD was last year not this month. I got the years mixed up :(

EDIT 2: It looks like a new one was indeed submitted this month. I also found this article from earlier this month that says they plan to start demolition of the old buildings this May 2023.

Of course I love density as well, but this will lead to density. 

It wasn't long ago that Hardywood was just some brewery in a sea of lifelessness. Now there are apartments across from it, nice condos surrounding it, Now there is going to be a nice mixed-use development instead of a sketchy looking metal yard between those apartments and Whole Foods.

The more the major corridors to and from the Diamond District become gentrified, the more comfortable developers are going to be building height there. 

This is what happened with Scotts Addition. 

Speaking of the Hermitage Corridor, height, and development. Breeder Construction submitted a POD this month for the $53m mixed-use development RBS covered in 2021.

image.thumb.png.e9031184ee7d983f25d4d067e9510345.png

The Architectural plans says 7 floors. 01. Arch Plans.pdf
 

After this and the Sauer development are done, that section won't feel like a lifeless area that developers might want to test the waters with. it'll feel like a vibrant area that it's time to bet big on.

Edited by RiverYuppy
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24 minutes ago, RiverYuppy said:

EDIT: It looks like the POD was last year not this month. I got the years mixed up :(

 

Of course I love density as well, but this will lead to density. 

It wasn't long ago that Hardywood was just some brewery in a sea of lifelessness. Now there are apartments across from it, nice condos surrounding it, Now there is going to be a nice mixed-use development instead of a sketchy looking metal yard between those apartments and Whole Foods.

The more the major corridors to and from the Diamond District become gentrified, the more comfortable developers are going to be building height there. 

This is what happened with Scotts Addition. 

Speaking of the Hermitage Corridor, height, and development. Breeder Construction submitted a POD this month for the $53m mixed-use development RBS covered in 2021.

image.thumb.png.e9031184ee7d983f25d4d067e9510345.png

The Architectural plans says 7 floors. 01. Arch Plans.pdf
 

After this and the Sauer development are done, that section won't feel like a lifeless area that developers might want to test the waters with. it'll feel like a vibrant area that it's time to bet big on.

Agreed. The densification of this part of town will lead to more, bigger, better. Love this building. The whole area is really blowing up!

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  • 1 month later...
12 hours ago, whw53 said:

Once these neighborhoods are knit together maybe we can knit together all these gdam threads...yesssss yes i know it was me.. shhh...

Sent from my SM-S908U1 using Tapatalk
 

To make it worse, I moved this piece over to the proper thread :)  I would really love to combine SA, Diamond/Hermitage/Ownby, and Newtowne/Carver in the future.

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1 hour ago, whw53 said:

Here's a couple more snips - look like POD was approved late March of early April.  First one is looking across Allen from the south( looks like Clay is to be reconnected thru here)..the second one is from the Allen, Leigh intersection. These are from that lastest POD approved (version 3) - looks like the architecture has changed some,

 

 

Allen900_fromClay.jpg

Allen900_fromLeigh.jpg

Interesting. They must've really changed up the design. I like the earlier rendering (with the brown brick) a LOT better. (Is that brown brick rendering for this particular project?)

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  • 3 weeks later...

Carver Station moving forward, ore emphasis on retail , food then i think was stated in a previous concept for the space. rendering looks similar though. This is the old Dominion facility at Harrison\Clay

https://richmond.com/news/local/business/real-estate/food-hall-featuring-local-dishes-planned-for-vcu-area/article_5990f800-2ca6-11ee-8336-6f9ded061f6e.html#tracking-source=home-top-story

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4 hours ago, RVA-Is-The-Best said:

Breaking from RBS:

Sauer Center Phase 2 has officially been announced, which entails quote "2 million square feet of new construction planned for the 37 acres the firm owns between Hermitage Road, West Broad Street and North Allen Avenue." Essentially as they explain, building a new neighborhood from scratch on what is mostly (at present) vacant or underutilized land. This will take around a decade to build out per the article.

https://richmondbizsense.com/2023/07/31/this-place-has-to-be-unique-master-plan-unveiled-for-next-37-acres-of-sauer-center/

Easily the most exciting part of the development is the planned centerpiece: a new 12-story, Art Deco-style building inspired by the CNB, which "Sauer wants to be visible from surrounding highways and be a beacon of sorts for the activity in the area."

There seems to also be a special emphasis placed on quality placemaking, which to me is just as important as the density and height of some of these planned buildings. Big emphasis placed on inspiration drawn from classic European plazas or squares in the master planning.

The first component to this phase will be breaking ground imminently per the article -- the 4 story office building that's been in the plans for about 2 years now.

sauer-rendering-1-scaled.jpg

So yeah. Exciting stuff, and a major hole in the urban fabric will be filled.

One 12-story art deco tower…I like that…and certainly some good features mixed into this development, but doggone - would love to see more density in this part of town. Hopefully, they see demand for more and dense-ify (is that a word?) this development up a bit more. Overall, doesn’t look too bad though…and the tower was a surprise. 

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8 hours ago, RVA-Is-The-Best said:

Breaking from RBS:

Sauer Center Phase 2 has officially been announced, which entails quote "2 million square feet of new construction planned for the 37 acres the firm owns between Hermitage Road, West Broad Street and North Allen Avenue." Essentially as they explain, building a new neighborhood from scratch on what is mostly (at present) vacant or underutilized land. This will take around a decade to build out per the article.

https://richmondbizsense.com/2023/07/31/this-place-has-to-be-unique-master-plan-unveiled-for-next-37-acres-of-sauer-center/

Easily the most exciting part of the development is the planned centerpiece: a new 12-story, Art Deco-style building inspired by the CNB, which "Sauer wants to be visible from surrounding highways and be a beacon of sorts for the activity in the area."

There seems to also be a special emphasis placed on quality placemaking, which to me is just as important as the density and height of some of these planned buildings. Big emphasis placed on inspiration drawn from classic European plazas or squares in the master planning.

The first component to this phase will be breaking ground imminently per the article -- the 4 story office building that's been in the plans for about 2 years now.

sauer-rendering-1-scaled.jpg

So yeah. Exciting stuff, and a major hole in the urban fabric will be filled.

Now THAT'S what I'm talkin' about!!!

FAN-FREAKIN'-TASTIC!!!  image.png.a4b48da28a0301b631e42ad5b19e2ed0.pngimage.png.9d9514237d25dc2bc6a368e25f72f67c.pngimage.png.43c062e0c77b4a0ea16bbca61a8ba0e1.pngimage.png.08e7111733f85ea411dd5fb32e2e7901.pngimage.png.e7dc492ba9af76fa26347aacdb8b8da0.png

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I wonder if there is a schematic map rendering of what's proposed in the master plan? Is Sauer's making the plan public?

Absent that - just doing a little process of deduction and looking at the rendering (above) - I think the gorgeous art-deco tower will rise on what is now a parking lot on N. Meadow Street between Marshall and Clay streets - just north of where Hermitage Road veers to the northwest. See below.

ALSO - I LOVE Ashley Peace's approach going forward with the overall plan and particularly the tower portion, which is clearly being viewed as the centerpiece of the development. From @RVABizSenseMike's Mike's reporting:

Hotel, luxury residential and office uses – or some combination of the three – are on the table for that signature building. 

“I think that’s the beauty of the master plan: that it can be continuously changed or modified to meet the market demand as the development evolves and the city grows,” Peace said. 

Call me nuts, and I know the traditional RVA/UP rule about Occam's Razor, HOWEVER - this sounds VERY promising to me - MEANING, I don't think she views this development as necessarily "limited" to TOD-1 zoning and a 12-story height limit. Referencing changing market demand and the growth of the city says to me that she would not be at all averse to upwardly-revising the plan for a taller, larger building. And it's not a huge leap to think that, give than this is Sauer we're talking about -- and it's their property - getting either up-zoned beyond TOD-1 -- or -- more likely, an SUP, would be almost a given.

Screenshot (379).png

Edited by I miss RVA
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Same here, @rjp212... it looks to me like the gorgeous Art-Deco building isn't the ONLY high-rise building envisioned for this stretch of land - nor does it look to be the tallest - unless I'm misreading the tea leaves. Definitely looks like there's more to the Sauer's redevelopment than originally meets the eye.

Let's do a little bit of speculative visual analysis:

Below is the screen grab from the video - with the ADDITIONAL taller buildings labeled, as well as the Art Deco building - showing their relative location on the overhead of the Sauers property taken from RBS. If this IS, in fact, what Sauers is looking to build - then we're potentially in for something EPIC here with TWO high-rise buildings essentially AT Meadow and Broad (one would be directly ON Meadow Street while the other directly front Broad. And, the third of the three "mystery buildings" looks like it would front Leigh Street just east of the intersection with Hermitage Road.

Check it out:

Screenshot (384).png

Screenshot (385).png

Edited by I miss RVA
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5 hours ago, I miss RVA said:

Same here, @rjp212... it looks to me like the gorgeous Art-Deco building isn't the ONLY high-rise building envisioned for this stretch of land - nor does it look to be the tallest - unless I'm misreading the tea leaves.

I think you're reading too much into that frame. That's a very generic - and ambitious - rendering "selling" the concept of the development.  Even the street level drawing is pretty generic, the only thing they specified they do want to do is the art deco building.  Everything else right now is just a general concept for the area, not a firm plan.

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