Capitol / Financial District / Shockoe Slip

[I miss RVA]

4 hours ago, Shakman said:

Don't forget Three James Center can support additional floors.  Full build out will be double the current height. 

 

What I Miss RVA posted has incorrectly labeled Three James Center as One James Center.

Yep - I was wondering about that, too. Bit of a fumble there by Google Maps.

[whw53]

Ok got a doozy for us. 

Two sites controlled by Dominion - 707 East Main. & 620 E Cary. - highlighted in image. 

check out these ZCL's filed earlier this week-

 

707 E. Main

 

**EXPEDITED REQUEST** Existing use: Office Tower. Proposed use: High Rise Apartments and Ground Floor Retail/Office. The buyer is proposing a conversion from a office to multifamily up to 300 units, potentially with retail, office, or both on the ground floor. The proposed plan is to use historical credits to preserve and renovate the existing building into apartments.

https://energov.richmondgov.com/EnerGov_Prod/SelfService/richmondvaprod#/plan/c6fad4ee-7058-4e6d-b6ad-6d86b8c3f647

 

620 E Cary St.

 

**EXPEDITED REQUEST** Existing use: Parking Garage. Proposed use: High Rise Apartments and Ground Floor Retail/Office. The buyer is proposing a conversion from a parking garage to multifamily up to 300 units, potentially with retail, office, or both on the ground floor. The proposed plan is to reinforce the existing parking and build up to 300 apartments on top of it- an engineer gave us a preliminary opinion that this is possible. It would have commercial (non-multifamily) if necessary by zoning.

https://energov.richmondgov.com/EnerGov_Prod/SelfService/richmondvaprod#/plan/c50420ed-58a7-4816-93cf-cf43bf37545c?tab=locations

 

 

 

 

wow looks like upwards of 600 residential units could be coming to the heart of the financial district on top of a lot of the momentum we are seeing now just around the corner at the Douglas and Mutual Building projects. Take that with the upcoming Canal walk projects and i think we are going to start seeing downtown really mature service and amenity wise in the next 5 years. it was inevitable but projects in this sector and all the new found momentum in Monroe Ward has me revising down that time-frame. Big win for downtown if these conversions and new construction move forward in short order.

 

Dominion willing to go big here makes me hopeful for an even grander plan for their pit. I wonder about this Genesis Property group listed though - they don't really have the portfolio to match these types of projects. Hopefully the right people are brought in. 

https://www.genesisproperties.com/development/

 

 

 

Edited May 26, 2022 by whw53

[blopp1234]

That will be a large apartment tower if it’s 300 units on top of existing parking. Huge news on an otherwise dreary Thursday!

[rjp212]

Every single one of those parking garages along Cary need to be revamped.    E Cary St should be an enjoyable walk into Shockoe Slip.

The other day, while having lunch at Potbelly's, I was looking at the little slip of land between 8th and 9th on Cary (currently on the market).  It  could easily accommodate a slim mid rise hotel and there would be no need to build new parking with the giant parking garage right behind it.

Edited May 26, 2022 by rjp212

[Icetera]

2 hours ago, whw53 said:

Ok got a doozy for us. 

Two sites controlled by Dominion - 707 East Main. & 620 E Cary. - highlighted in image. 

check out these ZCL's filed earlier this week-

I was not expecting DE to let that tower go.  I do wonder if 707 E Main is being submitted in case of denial for 620 E Cary rather than actually developing both.  Either way, still exciting.

Also, your link for the 707 E Main request is a duplicate of 620 E Cary.

[wrldcoupe4]

707 E Main with the accompanying parking deck has been for sale for a while. It appears that Genesis is the buyer and planning residential conversation. That's too bad in a way, it's not a functionally obsolete office building like others that have been converted. In thinking about the parking deck parcel... has Genesis done any highrise ground-up development ever? I'd love to see it, but their portfolio doesn't seem to promising there. 

[whw53]

15 minutes ago, Icetera said:

I was not expecting DE to let that tower go.  I do wonder if 707 E Main is being submitted in case of denial for 620 E Cary rather than actually developing both.  Either way, still exciting.

Also, your link for the 707 E Main request is a duplicate of 620 E Cary.

Good catch - i've edited.

[upzoningisgood]

This is great news! I think Bruce Milam had brought up how many downtown apartments would have to be built to service CoStar. I bet this is an example. 

[upzoningisgood]

If I had to bet, probably 14-16 stories above the parking deck. So 16-18 total. 
 

Honestly it’s a weird project. I’d be interested to see the underwriting. Hope it works out—it would be cool to see an actual high rise apartment downtown.

[I miss RVA]

Holy WOW!  I'm not sure which if these two surprises me more. I've been wondering lately how long it would be before the 8th & Main (former Wheat First Securities HQ) tower would be converted to residential. Jesus - I remember when that building was constructed!   But it makes me wonder - SO many buildings now in the old Financial District have converted over to residential - the old F&M at 9th and Main. The old Ross Building (8th and Main) has converted over, yes? What about the old Fidelity Building (9th and Main) - did it conver over?  And now the Mutual Building is in the process of conversion. The old 700 Building (where I used to work as a reporter/sportswriter for the Associated Press back in the '80s - on the 13th floor) has converted over to a hotel, hasn't it? So where are all the companies that used to be on E. Main Street now? Are they all a block over on E. Cary? SURELY not all those offices migrated to (gag!!!) Charlotte! (just kidding!)

True story (and little side bar): so our AP bureau was on the 13th floor of the 700 Building - and I watched the Main Street Center tower being constructed right outside our windows - directly across 7th Street. It was SO cool to watch the construction. Even through I was on the night desk (working sports meant working nights) and the nightside broadcast deck - so I rarely saw a lot of "activity" like you'd see in the daytime - I still kept track of the progress of the tower as it rose. Had the best seat in the house to watch it get built!

The parking deck coversion and build out of a highrise apartment building: PLEASE GOD - from our keyboards and from the letter filed with the city to God's eyes!! I've been saying as far back as the 80s - when the James Center was being constructed - that those drab, lifeless parking decks needed to go and be replaced with highrise development with integrated parking. Or - at least have highrises built on top of them if they could support it. Now - it looks like the first domino is about to fall -- FINALLY - after only 40 years!

Seriously, though - that the filing letter INCLUDES THE WORDS "HIGH RISE" to me is VERY telling. And 300 residential units on a quarter of a city block size footprint - I think @upzoningisgoodhit the bullseye - 14-16 stories above the deck - thus 16-18 stories in total - seems to be spot on. WOW! Now THAT is a project I'm salivating over and can't wait to see it get started. Crazy as it sounds, I think it could be one of THE MOST impactful projects built in downtown RVA if it comes to pass. This is one that NEEDS TO HAPPEN! Imagine if it's successful - perhaps other developers will line up and follow suit - there are a plethora of such decks up and down E. Cary - particularly going east. We could see us a VERY nice strip of highrise residential buildings rising along E. Cary over, say, the next 5 to 10 years if this one works out.

I'll add this - I particularly ilke the fact that these are expedited requests. They're not fooling around - and not letting any grass grow under 'em! VERY happy to see that.

Holy moly - it feels like the mannah is falling from Heaven! 

Edited May 26, 2022 by I miss RVA

[I miss RVA]

Okay - I wanted to throw this out to everyone. I've plugged in the now "knowns" and a little bit of history that I remember - and am posing the question of is there a legitimate chance that a new Cary Street "corridor" of high rises might be in RVA's future over, say, the next 10 or 15 years? (hopefully sooner - I'm not getting any younger)...

It accounts for the parking decks and vacant lots from 6th and Cary going east past 9th, stopping on the north side of Cary where the Truist tower stands. I have not labeled where the parking deck for the new state office building extends to 7th and Cary. So it accounts for:

- A possible 16-18-story residential building at 7th and Cary

- The discussed 14ish story state office building at 7th and Main

How many of these decks on the north side of Cary might be available for a developer to buy and replace with a large development of some kind? There was a proposal back in the early-mid1980s (around the time the James Center was under construction) to replace the vacant parcel behind the Ross Building as well as the deck at 8th and Cary with a 22-story office tower that would have had essentially the exact same white-and-mirrored horizontally striped walls at the buildings of James Center One & Two. Obviously that plan never happened.

I've included the strip on the south side of Cary on the north side of the Gateway Plaza building since I've seen in discussions on here that the plot is available for sale. If you look at how this COULD shake out if every parcel shown was developed with a high rise building of some height (not every building needs to be epic, signature, etc. - something minimially in double-digits) this is what I've talked about previously about the importance of the city pushing for not just people density, but also BUILDING density - the density of the number of buildings populating a limited amount of real estate. What I like to call "Manhattanization" - something that downtown RVA DESPERATELY needs to embrace! Stop and consider that - as shown below - if Cary Street were to be "Manhattanized" as I'm envisioning - we could see up to SEVEN high rise buildings on Cary Street itself - with an eighth building rising on Main (and extending down the hill toward Cary).

So it's a two-part topic. The fun part - speculating - what do we reasonably think could rise on those locations, provided they were available and developers came in, bought them and redevelopment. And - the serious part - do we have any insight regarding ownership and potential availability of those decks on the north side of Cary heading east?

Questions abound:

- Is the deck on the NE corner of 9th and Cary tied to (owned by) either the Truist tower or the James Center?

- What of the tiny vacant lot at 8th and Cary behind the Eighth and Main building? What of that tiny annex at the base of the tower?

- What of the deck at 6th and Cary? I can't help but think that if this proposal to build a 16-18 story apartment building at 7th and Cary is successful, it will be the first of many dominos to potentially fall in totally redeveloping this stretch of Cary Street. And if that were to come to pass - perhaps we would see the development begin marching west into Monroe Ward.

Have a look!

Edited May 27, 2022 by I miss RVA

[ancientcarpenter]

11 hours ago, I miss RVA said:

Okay - I wanted to throw this out to everyone. I've plugged in the now "knowns" and a little bit of history that I remember - and am posing the question of is there a legitimate chance that a new Cary Street "corridor" of high rises might be in RVA's future over, say, the next 10 or 15 years? (hopefully sooner - I'm not getting any younger)...

It accounts for the parking decks and vacant lots from 6th and Cary going east past 9th, stopping on the north side of Cary where the Truist tower stands. I have not labeled where the parking deck for the new state office building extends to 7th and Cary. So it accounts for:

- A possible 16-18-story residential building at 7th and Cary

- The discussed 14ish story state office building at 7th and Main

How many of these decks on the north side of Cary might be available for a developer to buy and replace with a large development of some kind? There was a proposal back in the early-mid1980s (around the time the James Center was under construction) to replace the vacant parcel behind the Ross Building as well as the deck at 8th and Cary with a 22-story office tower that would have had essentially the exact same white-and-mirrored horizontally striped walls at the buildings of James Center One & Two. Obviously that plan never happened.

I've included the strip on the south side of Cary on the north side of the Gateway Plaza building since I've seen in discussions on here that the plot is available for sale. If you look at how this COULD shake out if every parcel shown was developed with a high rise building of some height (not every building needs to be epic, signature, etc. - something minimially in double-digits) this is what I've talked about previously about the importance of the city pushing for not just people density, but also BUILDING density - the density of the number of buildings populating a limited amount of real estate. What I like to call "Manhattanization" - something that downtown RVA DESPERATELY needs to embrace! Stop and consider that - as shown below - if Cary Street were to be "Manhattanized" as I'm envisioning - we could see up to SEVEN high rise buildings on Cary Street itself - with an eighth building rising on Main (and extending down the hill toward Cary).

So it's a two-part topic. The fun part - speculating - what do we reasonably think could rise on those locations, provided they were available and developers came in, bought them and redevelopment. And - the serious part - do we have any insight regarding ownership and potential availability of those decks on the north side of Cary heading east?

Questions abound:

- Is the deck on the NE corner of 9th and Cary tied to (owned by) either the Truist tower or the James Center?

- What of the tiny vacant lot at 8th and Cary behind the Eighth and Main building? What of that tiny annex at the base of the tower?

- What of the deck at 6th and Cary? I can't help but think that if this proposal to build a 16-18 story apartment building at 7th and Cary is successful, it will be the first of many dominos to potentially fall in totally redeveloping this stretch of Cary Street. And if that were to come to pass - perhaps we would see the development begin marching west into Monroe Ward.

Have a look!

I've parked for years in both of those decks on the bottom left (purple and 620-yellow). They are small and desperately need of repair...and constantly wet too. I imagine whoever owns them has been buying their time and purposely putting Band-Aids on it for an eventual sale. 

[wrldcoupe4]

Yeah I would be worried about building on top of some of these older decks for everything you said but I am not an engineer. 

[ancientcarpenter]

28 minutes ago, wrldcoupe4 said:

Yeah I would be worried about building on top of some of these older decks for everything you said but I am not an engineer. 

The two I mentioned would most likely get knocked down... they're small 2-3, maybe max 4 story decks from what I remember. 

[I miss RVA]

2 hours ago, ancientcarpenter said:

The two I mentioned would most likely get knocked down... they're small 2-3, maybe max 4 story decks from what I remember. 

That's my thought about the 620 deck - since that's the site for which papers have been filed. I can't imagine they put 14-16 stories atop that old deck. Knock it down and replace it with a building with integrated parking? Yes! I'm imagining if there's any pushback from the city, it will be on safety concerns. HOPEFULLY the developer can -- AND WILL -- knock the old deck down, dig everything out - and build from the ground up. An apartment tower there would be a really sweet addition and a good start to converting that stretch of totally dead blocks on E. Cary Street.

[Brent114]

The new GA parking garage facade is going up quickly.  At first I was excited because I though the veneer was light grey.  Turns out it’s mostly sandstone which is unfortunate, IMO.  Looking west on Broad Street the GA, this deck, the federal courthouse and CNB all blend together.  A pop of colour (not that very really pops lol) would have been nice to break up this wall of beige.  That said, the deck is looking nice and is a great addition to this stretch.  This lot was vacant for too long! 

[eandslee]

Oh Bruce, Bruce, Bruce...please say more!  Interesting comments from Bruce Milam today in the comments section of today's RBS article regarding the 600 new apartments planned for707 E. Main and 620 E. Cary:

"...And there are a number of very large employers working with the EDA on relocating to our City. I expect more office to be built downtown very soon."

Wait, what?!  You can't just leave a cliffhanger like that!  I did see an article a few weeks ago explaining that GRP was working with an all-time high number of clients looking to move operations or an HQ here to Richmond, but I haven't seen any results...yet.  Are there some big announcements coming soon?  Will we see some new, tall, mixed-use developments announced that will include a good amount of office space for these "large employers?"

https://richmondbizsense.com/2022/05/31/dominion-energy-office-tower-parking-deck-to-be-converted-into-600-apartments/

[I miss RVA]

1 hour ago, eandslee said:

Oh Bruce, Bruce, Bruce...please say more!  Interesting comments from Bruce Milam today in the comments section of today's RBS article regarding the 600 new apartments planned for707 E. Main and 620 E. Cary:

"...And there are a number of very large employers working with the EDA on relocating to our City. I expect more office to be built downtown very soon."

Wait, what?!  You can't just leave a cliffhanger like that!  I did see an article a few weeks ago explaining that GRP was working with an all-time high number of clients looking to move operations or an HQ here to Richmond, but I haven't seen any results...yet.  Are there some big announcements coming soon?  Will we see some new, tall, mixed-use developments announced that will include a good amount of office space for these "large employers?"

https://richmondbizsense.com/2022/05/31/dominion-energy-office-tower-parking-deck-to-be-converted-into-600-apartments/

Allllllllllllllllllllright, RVA UP gurus -- you gentlemen who keep your ears to the ground and know each and every possible business rumble, even the slightest, that might affect RVA CRE. What does Bruce know that we don't (yet)?  "Large" employers about to relo to RVA? And apparently it will result in more office space constructed downtown? This would indeed be mannah from Heaven, to be sure - what's the 4-1-1 on all of this?

All I can say is - from Bruce's keyboard to God's eyes, PLEASE!!!

SPECULATIVE QUESTION: I wonder if Bruce's comment has ANY tie-in at all with the RFP that Dominion requested for the site of the form OJRP?

Edited May 31, 2022 by I miss RVA

[wrldcoupe4]

Maybe Bruce is just referencing that same article? 

[I miss RVA]

25 minutes ago, wrldcoupe4 said:

Maybe Bruce is just referencing that same article? 

Nothing in the article referencing companies relocating to RVA. Maybe this is more of a tie-in with the Mayor's statement last week?

[DowntownCoruscant]

Usual layman’s opinion aside, I can kinda see it. I know a software developer in Reston. Everything is exploding price wise up there, and they doubt they need/can viably keep their building. Flip side is they don’t know if they really need any office building or at least a substantial presence in one. But his is just one example. 

[ancientcarpenter]

1 hour ago, I miss RVA said:

Allllllllllllllllllllright, RVA UP gurus -- you gentlemen who keep your ears to the ground and know each and every possible business rumble, even the slightest, that might affect RVA CRE. What does Bruce know that we don't (yet)?  "Large" employers about to relo to RVA? And apparently it will result in more office space constructed downtown? This would indeed be mannah from Heaven, to be sure - what's the 4-1-1 on all of this?

All I can say is - from Bruce's keyboard to God's eyes, PLEASE!!!

SPECULATIVE QUESTION: I wonder if Bruce's comment has ANY tie-in at all with the RFP that Dominion requested for the site of the form OJRP?

Can someone email Bruce and tell him about UP  

I think it would be mutually beneficial!

[wrldcoupe4]

1 hour ago, DowntownCoruscant said:

Usual layman’s opinion aside, I can kinda see it. I know a software developer in Reston. Everything is exploding price wise up there, and they doubt they need/can viably keep their building. Flip side is they don’t know if they really need any office building or at least a substantial presence in one. But his is just one example. 

Oh it’s there. But not so much in a CoStar expansion kind of scale. 

[I miss RVA]

25 minutes ago, wrldcoupe4 said:

Oh it’s there. But not so much in a CoStar expansion kind of scale. 

Even CoStar wasn't at a CoStar expansion kind of scale (or even a CoStar height! ) when they first came here, no? Not that they showed up with a skeleton crew that could set up shop in a Broad Street storefront, but they didn't exactly bring the house like they are now. It took them what, a good six, seven, eight years? Maybe a decade?  Perhaps we make up for initial size of individual companies by sheer volume of companies who are in the process of relocating? Idk - I'm just "throwin' 'maters against the wall" (quoting YouTube weather personality Ryan Hall (Y'all) ) - but still. Apparently SOMETHING is happening - otherwise, I don't see Bruce, given his position and stature in the RVA CRE, just making wild, off-the-wall comments. Evidently he's got a foot on both sides of the curtain and he's seeing the Wizard pulling the levers of Oz. So SOMETHING is afoot here.

[wrldcoupe4]

Pretty sure the Mutual Building is on fire at the moment.