Richmond off-topic postings

[Wahoo 07]

http://www.richmond.com/entertainment/from-humdrum-to-happening-lonely-planet-names-richmond-a-top/article_aa8b5c87-d56f-56b3-9c4e-f4c6ea6a591e.html

Lonely Planet anoints Richmond one of its top ten US destinations for 2018!

[eandslee]

I love the fact that Richmond is making all of these Top 10 Lists, but I wonder how much it is helping the flow of tourists?  Honestly, I've never even heard of Lonely Planet, but maybe I'm just out of touch.  I'd like to see the tourist statistics for Richmond covering the past decade.  I'm sure the tourists numbers have increased, but I wonder by how much?  I know people come to Richmond for all sorts of touristy reasons - case in point - I was on a flight from Jacksonville, FL to Richmond once and the folks sitting next to me were coming to Richmond solely to observe its arts scene (namely, they were coming to visit the VMFA and other art sites around town.  They were also staying at the Crown Plaza, now called Delta).  It was cool to actually come in contact with people who were truly coming to Richmond to tour what it has to offer.  Love that!  I think Richmond is beginning to establish an identity for itself (what is Richmond really known for?) and that leads to people coming to see what Richmond is all about.

[Icetera]

1 hour ago, eandslee said:

I love the fact that Richmond is making all of these Top 10 Lists, but I wonder how much it is helping the flow of tourists?  Honestly, I've never even heard of Lonely Planet, but maybe I'm just out of touch.  I'd like to see the tourist statistics for Richmond covering the past decade.  I'm sure the tourists numbers have increased, but I wonder by how much?  I know people come to Richmond for all sorts of touristy reasons - case in point - I was on a flight from Jacksonville, FL to Richmond once and the folks sitting next to me were coming to Richmond solely to observe its arts scene (namely, they were coming to visit the VMFA and other art sites around town.  They were also staying at the Crown Plaza, now called Delta).  It was cool to actually come in contact with people who were truly coming to Richmond to tour what it has to offer.  Love that!  I think Richmond is beginning to establish an identity for itself (what is Richmond really known for?) and that leads to people coming to see what Richmond is all about.

This is pretty cool.  Lonely Planet is quite significant, in fact, I reference them a lot when travelling abroad for things off the typical tourist path.

[eandslee]

3 minutes ago, Icetera said:

This is pretty cool.  Lonely Planet is quite significant, in fact, I reference them a lot when travelling abroad for things off the typical tourist path.

Dang it!  Then I AM out of touch!

[Brent114]

They publish travel guides and have a television series (has been on PBS for 20 years or more maybe?).   It’s like Anthony Bourdain Unknown Parts but predates it by a few decades.  

[Brent114]

Just looked them up...

 Apparently they are the world’s largest publisher of travel guides. 

[eandslee]

Richmond is going to have to really get on it if it is to ever hold the title for having the tallest building in Virginia.  Looks like a developer in Tyson’s Corner is proposing a 48-story tower.  He has already purchased the land!  Tower will be 615 feet tall! Wowsa!

https://www.bisnow.com/washington-dc/news/land/developer-buys-part-of-tysons-site-for-proposed-tallest-tower-in-dc-region-84663

[georgeglass]

I would love to have that building in our skyline. In Tyson’s Corner, it’s just a giant suburban office complex.

Though I like all the building that has happened downtown since around 2010, I have wondered what we could have had in terms of a new tallest if for example....the Dominion Tower, Towne Bank Tower, Williams-Mullen Tower, and Co-Star / Westrock buildings were combined into 1 very significant building.

[Wahoo 07]

1 hour ago, georgeglass said:

I would love to have that building in our skyline. In Tyson’s Corner, it’s just a giant suburban office complex.

Though I like all the building that has happened downtown since around 2010, I have wondered what we could have had in terms of a new tallest if for example....the Dominion Tower, Towne Bank Tower, Williams-Mullen Tower, and Co-Star / Westrock buildings were combined into 1 very significant building.

I get what you are saying, but I think that it is better to have several really good projects than one  really tall one.  The buildings that you mentioned replaced vacant lots or dilapidated structures.  Density has increased and the CBD feels far more urban.  Visually,  a new tallest would be great (and I have not given up hope on one happening in the next five years), but projects on the scale that you mentioned significantly improve the city.  If only City Center on Grace could advance... 

[eandslee]

3 hours ago, Wahoo 07 said:

I get what you are saying, but I think that it is better to have several really good projects than one  really tall one.  The buildings that you mentioned replaced vacant lots or dilapidated structures.  Density has increased and the CBD feels far more urban.  Visually,  a new tallest would be great (and I have not given up hope on one happening in the next five years), but projects on the scale that you mentioned significantly improve the city.  If only City Center on Grace could advance... 

Yeah, City Center would be awesome to see rolling again.  It's a prime piece of property and anything that goes up there will be very prominant in the skyline.  It would definitely make a statement for sure! 

Call me super optimistic or visionary, but I hold out a lot of hope for one major downtown Richmond resident company that has the potential to build really tall if all goes well.  That company is Union Bank & Trust.  They are already considered a major bank now (no longer of the Community type because of its size), but that bank has the potential to easily outgrow its current home at James Center III and need a home of it own with a prominant logo and a commanding presence that can only be achieved by building a new tower.  I'm closely watching every move they make to see what effect, if any, it will make on its downtown presence.  Really, all it needs to do is buy out another fairly large bank and either expand its operations or bring new workers to its downtown HQ (totally within the realm of possibility)...and it could happen quickly!  The flip side of that, of course, is that Union needs to avoid being bought out itself, which would leave Richmond again, stripped of any prominant bank HQs.

All of this still doesn't include any new companies that might want to relocate to downtown Richmond or other companies currently residing downtown that might want to expand (CoStar?).

Finally, another possibility is what Tyson's is doing - mixed use!  15 stories of office space, another 10 of hotel space, several floors of residential, 1-2 floors of retail...suddenly, you have a 35+ story building!

[blopp1234]

I think our best option is mixed use, with say 10 floors office, ground floor retail, a 4 story podium parking garage, a 10 story hotel and 15 stories residential. That could produce a huge tower and it is usually a guaranteed success for developers as the don’t bank solely on a single market to attract. I believe that this could be what we start seeing more of in the case no more major companies decide to move large operations downtown and we continue to see smaller companies moving in.

[eandslee]

Is this the calm before the storm of major announcements?  Things have been quite dead since the start of the new year.  Don't get me wrong, there have been some devlopment news, but nothing significant.  I'm holding out that there will be more details and a major announcement about the new arena.  Tomorrow (9 March) will mark 30 days since the proposal was submitted by the Farrell team.  Surely details should be coming out any day now...right?

[Brent114]

So I just noticed that the neon rings on the Wells Fargo building (Janes Center) are illuminated for the first time in about ten years.  Not sure when they came back on but tonight was the first time that I’ve noticed.  The dark rings have long been a pet peeve of mine.  I’m pretty happy about this development. 

[blopp1234]

Speaking of the James center, the massive planned renovation has begun and will eventually lead to a redesigned lobby. As far as the calm before the storm, I think it will be a big spring. I think VCU and the Squirrels will finally end the ballpark debate once and for all and announce plans to build a stadium at the old ABC warehouse. The Farrell proposal will probably be released in the coming weeks. There will also probably be a few more projects proposed, which could be very interesting, in terms of size and scope. I guess we will have to wait and find out what happens, but it feels like something big is going to happen in the coming weeks.

[Wahoo 07]

21 hours ago, blopp1234 said:

Speaking of the James center, the massive planned renovation has begun and will eventually lead to a redesigned lobby. As far as the calm before the storm, I think it will be a big spring. I think VCU and the Squirrels will finally end the ballpark debate once and for all and announce plans to build a stadium at the old ABC warehouse. The Farrell proposal will probably be released in the coming weeks. There will also probably be a few more projects proposed, which could be very interesting, in terms of size and scope. I guess we will have to wait and find out what happens, but it feels like something big is going to happen in the coming weeks.

Love the optimism!

[Brent114]

The apartment building under construction on Marshall street as a tower crane base installed  

[eandslee]

43 minutes ago, Brent114 said:

The apartment building under construction on Marshall street as a tower crane base installed  

Pics coming?!  Also, I’m having difficulty remembering what project this is. 

[Brent114]

Yes.  That one. 

[eandslee]

10 minutes ago, Brent114 said:

Yes.  That one. 

Ah, now I remember this one!  Looking forward to seeing another crane in the skyline!  Thanks again for the heads up!

[Downtowner]

Just saw this article about Amazon HQ2 going to the DC Region but whats still unclear is will it be in NOVA or inside the District or in Montgomery county MD.

http://time.com/money/5187986/amazon-hq2-favorite-city-frontrunner-washington-dc/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=forbes

[blopp1234]

Hopefully NOVA!

[drayrichmond]

On 3/11/2018 at 9:13 PM, blopp1234 said:

Hopefully NOVA!

I think if it lands anywhere in the DMV Richmond will feel the affect of it, that being said I hope NOVA too!

[eandslee]

Even though this is development related, I thought I’d post this here because it isn’t about a specific development.  Anyway, found this on this snow day and thought of Richmond. If Richmond developers are not building mixed use, then they are not necessarily on the cutting edge...at least not in the sense of building tall.  As a few of us on this board have already mentioned, our next tall building will probably have to be mixed use, if it’s to be tall at all. I think developers in Richmond need to embrace the mixed use concept and hopefully, one day, one will come up with Richmond’s signature tower:

 

[tparkerzut]

Looks like we have new census estimates! We are up to 227k now, they also revised last year from 223k to 225k. All in all we are about 4000 people higher than last years original estimate was so I'm pretty happy with that!

https://factfinder.census.gov/faces/tableservices/jsf/pages/productview.xhtml?src=bkmk

[eandslee]

1 hour ago, tparkerzut said:

Looks like we have new census estimates! We are up to 227k now, they also revised last year from 223k to 225k. All in all we are about 4000 people higher than last years original estimate was so I'm pretty happy with that!

https://factfinder.census.gov/faces/tableservices/jsf/pages/productview.xhtml?src=bkmk

Yeah, I noticed that Richmond was the fastest growing (population wise) of all other counties in the region at 11% increase since 2010.  What a turn of the tides!  Chesterfield had less than 9%, Henrico had almost 7%, and Hanover had 6% growth since 2010.  Nothing can touch the Northern Virginia statistics though...Loudoun County at 27% growth since 2010!  Wowsa!  My county, Fairfax County, only grew 6% since 2010, but has 1.15 million people...and most days, it feels like it!  Despite the population influx up here, the county has done a good job of preserving green spaces for parks, trails, etc., which makes living up here a bit more manageable.  The traffic on the other hand...that is a different story.

Congrats to Richmond!  Here's to even more growth in the city!