Williams Mullen Center

[Brent]

The sign looks fantastic too (did exactly what I hoped it would, good font too). I saw it at lunch today. So far just the east side has the sign. looks like the north side gets it this evening. I didn't see any activity on the west side of the building but guess it wont be long...

[calwinston]

Williams Mullen Center has just finished construction and in mid June will have the first tenants plus Williams Mullen law firm move in.

http://www.virginiab...id-june/204469/

As usual RTD behind the ball! But here is a more indepth article.

http://www2.timesdispatch.com/rtd/business/local/article/B-MULL25_20100524-213804/346637/

[burt]

The move-in of 275 Williams Mullen employees will leave 110,000 s/f of vacant space across the street in James Center, if I read the news story correctly.

The building is described as a 16-story tower, but is actually only 15 stories high because there is no 13th floor according to a previous RTD article.

[calwinston]

The sign looks fantastic too (did exactly what I hoped it would, good font too). I saw it at lunch today. So far just the east side has the sign. looks like the north side gets it this evening. I didn't see any activity on the west side of the building but guess it wont be long...

Here is a picture of the sign going up from todays Ricmond Biz Sense!

http://www.richmondbizsense.com/2010/05/28/williams-mullen-sign/

[Brent]

Here is a really blurry photo of the east side of the building...

[calwinston]

Move in date June 14, 2010 for tenants! :shades:

[calwinston]

Williams Mullen Center is officially open for business!

http://virginiascan....y.aspx?id=54858

http://richmondcitywatch.com/modules.php?name=gallery2&g2_itemId=125404

[burt]

Williams Mullen law firm officially christens its new 16-story tower (which because of superstitions about #13 is really only 15 floors high.)

If the Governor's comment in third paragraph from the bottom weren't so prescient some could enjoy the joke without wincing.

From today's new-style RTD:

http://www2.timesdispatch.com/business/2010/jun/22/b-mull22-ar-227870/

[calwinston]

This Style Weekly article talks about how the new Williams Mullen Tower does not have a great architectural design but it is a welcome change to the lower financial district landscape of suburban office park feel to more urban feel like East Main St in the upper financial district!

The project deserves high praise for reviving a forlorn but strategic stretch of 10th Street that had long been hampered by being on the backside of James Center and near the gaping ditch of the Downtown Expressway. The lower financial district has always been divided in two by that recessed road — Riverfront Plaza, Riverside on the James and the Federal Reserve Bank complexes on the south and the James Center to the north.

Over the decades, valiant attempts have been made to bridge the divide. First, a park, Kanawha Plaza (designed by the Sasaki Dawson DeMay Associates landscape firm) was built across the expressway immediately north of the Fed to soften things. Some years later, in the block to the east, a Richmond Metropolitan Authority parking deck and small park (currently in deplorable condition) were built atop the expressway filling three-quarters of the block bounded by Ninth, 10th, Canal and Byrd streets: Aesthetically, both were lifeless. This part of the financial district continued to look and function more like a suburban office park than a core of a thriving, pedestrian-oriented downtown legal and business district. Too many workers proceed from roadway to parking deck to workplace without ever setting foot on a city sidewalk.

The urban design problems in the lower financial district can’t all be blamed on the expressway. There are issues of scale from too many traffic lanes connecting the Manchester Bridge with the city street grid. And, nearby, there’s a perfect storm of urban design “don’ts”— relentless embankments of parking decks with no street-level amenities; too much surface parking; buildings set too far from the curbs; and a Dominion Resources office tower perched atop a high podium that essentially kills an entire city block. Also, the lower financial district (in sad contrast to the elegant, lively, architecturally top-shelf East Main Street), offers little to engage the eye and relieve the visual monotony other than the James Center’s decorative and melodic clock tower and goofy statue of naked canal boatmen hoisting sails, both on East Cary.

http://styleweekly.com/ME2/dirmod.asp?sid=&nm=&type=Publishing&mod=Publications%3A%3AArticle&mid=8F3A7027421841978F18BE895F87F791&tier=4&id=AB474383B4424400B9C53D56BB1899D4

[jbjust]

I have a well-placed source that tells me that "a French Bistro" will be going into the Williams Mullen building. Don't know timeline, but the deal is supposedly done.

[burt]

I have a well-placed source that tells me that "a French Bistro" will be going into the Williams Mullen building. Don't know timeline, but the deal is supposedly done.

Thanks, jb. Good news! Will it be like the French named take-out place that is (or used to be) in James Center Atrium?

Maybe it will be part of the "Au Bon Pain" chain.

A full-service French bistro at that location will have some stiff competition from BOUCHON a block away in The Slip.

NOTE: On my screen it indicates that I posted this at 2:51PM when it was really 4 hours earlier at 10:51AM. My Urban Planet clock is waaaaay off and I don't know how to fix it!

[jbjust]

You now know exactly as much as I know Burt. My initial reaction was Au Bon Pain as well, as the folks that work in that building currently have no choice but to get wet if the weather outside is awful at lunchtime.

I personally was hoping for a Baker's Crust, which very nearly came to the James Center a few years ago before the deal fell apart over disagreements as to who would pay for the necessary improvements.

[burt]

JB, do you know where in the Williams Mullen building the new restaurant will be located?

And was Baker's Crust negotiating for the space in James Center atrium that I recall as a French-named take-out?

[jbjust]

No, you're thinking of the space that was formerly Vie de France that is currently Arby's (the owner of Vie de France also owns the local Arby's franchise). My understanding was that they were negotiating for the now-empty space in JC2 that is beside the Arby's.

No more info on the WM building.

[wrldcoupe4]

Burt,

The 1st floor commercial space is approx 5,000 s.f. and is at the corner of 10th and Canal primarily along the Canal Street face of the building.

[burt]

Burt,

The 1st floor commercial space is approx 5,000 s.f. and is at the corner of 10th and Canal primarily along the Canal Street face of the building.

Sounds like an ideal space. Plenty of square footage and great exposure.

[krazeeboi]

I think this building turned out really great. It looks better than the rendering, which is rare.

[jbjust]

Looks like my source was correct regarding the first floor restaurant:

La Parisienne, which is locally owned, will take about half of the available first floor retail space. Construction should begin soon on the space and the café will likely open around near the end of the first quarter 2011.

Biz Sense Story