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3 hours ago, RiverYuppy said:

http://richmondbizsense.com/2016/05/09/james-center-looks-ahead/

I really hope that the James Center gets renovated to attract new tenants and doesn't just end up like the CNB was.

Yeah, and contrary to the article's claim that there isn't much demand for downtown office space, I was under the impression that there had been a recent shift toward more businesses moving downtown creating a greater demand for office space downtown.  Was I wrong in my assumption or was I misinformed?  Or is the media just hyping this whole movement toward downtown thing?

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So I think a lot of this downtown revival talk is still largely residential. A lot of people are moving to downtown and a lot of people are coming into downtown for events and dinner. So basically there are a lot more people around downtown. However I think a lot of companies are still scared to move there because of parking. I hear about a lot of small companies moving to downtown but large companies that would be renting out vast amount of space in places like the James Center aren't exactly flocking to there. Thats my opinion anyways.

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I was in the James Center last spring and it definitely needs a massive renovation.  Failing this, I don't see how it attractions the type of tenants who lease Class A office space.  Hopefully, the owners recognize this and restore the James Center to its prominent position as a premier Richmond business address.

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I actually did a paper on this not long ago, and it's nice to see my math wasn't that far off; we have over one million square feet of downtown office space available. It's a very soft market and we need some big clients to move downtown to absorb it, which we are not seeing, it sucks and I'm not sure about a solution. Given basic supply and demand this should put downward pressure on the price of office space which would hopefully attract more businesses downtown. On the bright side we do have an increase in small office space leasing downtown, like Carmax taking up a little space in the canal district, but it's not enough to absorb all the vacancies or really put a dent into it.

Basically we need a big client to move to RVA, like a large bank, financial institute, or something looking for a regional or east coast headquarters. That or what's already here would have to expand and grow in the city. Both of these I think are absolutely feasible in the near future, we just need our city to lobby for companies to move here and stay here.

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34 minutes ago, drayrichmond said:

Basically we need a big client to move to RVA, like a large bank, financial institute, or something looking for a regional or east coast headquarters. That or what's already here would have to expand and grow in the city. Both of these I think are absolutely feasible in the near future, we just need our city to lobby for companies to move here and stay here.

This is so very true.  Actually, Richmond has large institutions in town, they just prefer to be in the burbs.  Having a downtown office has to carry a level of prestige to make them come downtown and downtown Richmond just isn't there yet.  Downtown would need to become like a downtown Austin or Charlotte to draw companies from the burbs.  Like you said, Richmond also has to make the price of being downtown fiscally attractive as well. With so much available space and not that much prestige, the price per square foot should be slashed and not be the highest in the metro (at least initially as an incentive).  The city government and its ineptness doesn't help either...nor does the murder rate, the poor schools, poor public transit...etc.. Downtown has to morph into something more attractive than the suburbs...sound impossible?  It's not, but a lot of things have to change. 

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http://www.richmond.com/business/local/article_3a31f46f-fe9b-5a3b-a1cc-3027b98f2bec.html

It looks like Carmax is going to be renting even more space out of the building on Canal Walk.  Previously it was going to be the IT department there, but RTD mentions it is going to have marketing positions there as well.

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16 hours ago, RiverYuppy said:

http://www.richmond.com/business/local/article_3a31f46f-fe9b-5a3b-a1cc-3027b98f2bec.html

It looks like Carmax is going to be renting even more space out of the building on Canal Walk.  Previously it was going to be the IT department there, but RTD mentions it is going to have marketing positions there as well.

Yeah I think we're going to see more and more like this as the newer generations enter the workforce, young people don't want to work way out in the suburbs, they want to be in a city; lets hope this pattern continues.

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http://www.richmond.com/news/local/city-of-richmond/article_ff2f0986-d04f-501d-82bc-c3701d67adc8.html

"It also would need a new headquarters building of up to 100,000 square feet of office space and conference rooms, though one of the decisions facing the state is whether to keep the headquarters and warehouse together."

It would be nice if they moved the warehouse to South Richmond and took 100,000 square feet of office space off the market downtown!  South Richmond really needs more middle class jobs and Downtown really needs more office space to be rented.

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  • 3 weeks later...

based on the map of station locations, the biggest problem I have is that the regularly underserved East End remains underserved with this layout and plan. I hope that this is successful enough to expand the system into the East End and more into the neighborhoods cut off by the Downtown Expressway and the Interstate. 

Besides that, I'm looking forward to this, it's good for locals, good for tourists, and looks good to businesses looking at the Richmond market. 

PS: definately gonna need those electric assist bikes with these hills, these hills kill me haha

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The proposed second phase map shows alot of new stations in the same service area for Phase 1, the exception being approx. three or four phase 2 stations in the bottom and two in Manchester. I wish there was some public involvement in station selection tor really expand the service area in phase 2, but I haven't heard of public meetings out there to shape the program.

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Wong Gonzalez Restaurant Opens Tonight On Grace Street.  It's nice to see another place downtown being transformed from an empty boarded up building to a nice restaurant that attracts people.

Here is a google map picture from February showing the building boarded up with graffiti.  Below is an image of the place now.

 

5762b74f8711d.image.jpg

 

Hopefully we'll continue seeing this trend on Grace and Broad.

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  • 2 weeks later...

This is one list I'm glad Richmond did not make:  The Top 50 Worst Cities to Live In (in the US).  It is sad reading the conditions in some of these cities...cities you probably would not imagine being in really poor condition. Wow, reading this makes Richmond look on top of the world! Richmond frustrates me sometimes and a lot of the time, doesn't have its ducks in a row, but at least it's not as bad as these cities. Can you guess what the worse city to live in is?  It might surprise you!  Check it out here:

 

http://247wallst.com/special-report/2016/06/28/the-worst-cities-to-live-in/

Edited by eandslee
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25 minutes ago, eandslee said:

This is one list I'm glad Richmond did not make:  The Top 50 Worst Cities to Live In (in the US).  It is sad reading the conditions in some of these cities...cities you probably would not imagine being in really poor condition. Wow, reading this makes Richmond look on top of the world! Richmond frustrates me sometimes and a lot of the time, doesn't have its ducks in a row, but at least it's not as bad as these cities. Can you guess what the worse city to live in is?  It might surprise you!  Check it out here:

 

http://247wallst.com/special-report/2016/06/28/the-worst-cities-to-live-in/

Really surprised that Miami is at the top, I knew that it had some bad areas but I didn't know it was that bad.

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The Dock St/Main St project over in the Rockett's thread just had me a little interested in the city's public works dept. I found this pdf of planned/upcoming/active road projects in the city. Never knew about some of these, some look interesting (like Cannon Creek Greenway).

http://www.richmondgov.com/PublicWorks/documents/UpcomingActiveConstructionProjects.pdf

 

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So, I have been on vacation the last two weeks and it looks like I missed quite a bit of discussion.

Anyway, my wife and I have officially lived in Richmond for one year as of July 2nd!

Wanted to share my thoughts about development and other things about the city that I've seen/learned over our first year. I've broken it down in a sort of cons/pros list but don't think of it so much like that, just needed a way to organize it.

Pros:

One of the biggest things I've seen in Richmond which I rarely if ever saw up in NYC, is the amount of public input/involvement in development around the city. You don't get that in new york, developers just kind of do what they want. So, it's nice to see that the public has somewhat of a say in how things are built and that developers somewhat listen. 

This city has some really nice density, especially for a southern city. It's very walkable and has a lot of character, you can see that Richmond has been a city for a long time unlike a lot of its southern counterparts (a wide selection of high-rise architecture, unlike newer southern cities with almost nothing but modern high-rises). 

For a city this size (220k city, 1.2m metro) there is a lot to do, there is seriously a lot to do here for its size. Tons of restaurants/bars, museums, parks, etc.. I mean it's really comparable to larger cities with the amount of stuff here. 

Growth, we may get frustrated with the state of development from time to time on this forum but we can't deny the city is growing, population is increasing, I think they've really started running out of buildings to restore/reuse and we're starting to see new construction.

Murals, uh closest thing to the murals covering Richmond in NYC is a wall with way to much graffiti. Murals are a great way to deter graffiti and I have been pleasantly surprised at the low amount of graffiti in this city and the high number of murals.

Reuse, since I've lived here I've heard time and time again that you can't throw a rock without hitting something historic. It's true, and because of this Richmond doesn't seem to really tear anything down. The old buildings here are restored and reused, in NYC they're torn down and a new modern building is put in its place (4/5 times). Sometimes this annoys me though, like how is a windowless warehouse historic?

Beer, had to include this, the beer here is so much better than NYC, we had like one decent brewery in the city, here I have three good breweries within a ten block radius of my apartment. 

Cons:

Just like in the pros section, the amount of public input/involvement in development around the city can be a little much. It's awesome that the public has this option, but damn, sometimes I wish they'd just let the developer do their thing. 

There's a lot to do here but I just wish Richmond could get a good zoo (I know metro richmond zoo, but it's pretty far away from the city and isn't certified by AZA which is a must for modern zoos) and aquarium (I've been thinking the river front would be a cool place for an aquarium). 

I've said it many times before but I gotta say it again; Public Transit! Its pretty bad to non-existent in the city. We are building the rapid bus line, which is a step in the right direction, but we've got a long way to go. I long for the days where I didn't own a car because I didn't need one. 

Schools, I really hope the city can get a handle on its schools, it's a difficult situation but if the city wants to keep all of us young professionals who moved into the downtown area they're going to need to improve the schools, because when we're ready to have kids thats something we'll be looking at. 

Almost forgot to mention, what is up with the City not being able to annex and what is with counties and the city barely being able to work with each other? The annexation thing is probably weirdest thing I've learned about this city, and from what I've seen with how the city and counties work together in the time I've been here I'm surprised the roads line up correctly on the border. 

 

There is a lot more I could say but these are the big things that make Richmond stand out to me and differentiate it from the other cities I've live in over the years. Been here for a year now and I'm pretty sure we're going to stay here for quite awhile based on how much we like it. 

So I guess I can call myself a Richmonder now?

Edited by drayrichmond
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