Jump to content

Proposed: 700 Centre Redevelopment

wrldcoupe4

By wrldcoupe4
in Richmond

Recommended Posts

wrldcoupe4 Metropolitan Area

wrldcoupe4

Posted
Posted

Happy New Year. To kick things off, I thought I'd start a new thread for a project which should kick off this year.

A developer has recently closed on the acquisition of the 700 Centre located at 700 E Franklin ( http://www.richmondbizsense.com/2010/12/31/pipeline-commercial-real-estate-round-up-for-12-31-10/ ). Currently, this is an office building with attached parking deck. Plans call for converting the historic tower, built as the Virginia Electric Power Co. HQ in 1913, into residential units and upgrading the annex building which will remain office space. My guess is that the 1st floor retail will remain as well.

A couple photos of the building

Richmond11-25-2005028.jpg

Richmond5-30-2007100.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 20
  • Created
  • Last Reply
wrldcoupe4 Metropolitan Area

wrldcoupe4

Posted
  • Author
Posted

I hope so Brent... I think we'll see one or two more conversions in the CBD announced this year that will convert office to residential or hotel space. This will also positively impact the office market as vacancy rates will drop due to the smaller inventory or Class B/C spaces.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
burt Megalopolis

burt

Posted
Posted

If development occurs as anticipated, the conversion to residential of the former VEPCO "Electric Building" at 700 East Franklin Street will be diagonally across from the block-long new State garage on the south side of East Franklin between 6th and 7th Streets, AND, directly across 7th Street from a proposed transportation center and parking deck in the entire block of East Grace, East Franklin, North 6th and North 7th Streets.:)

Link to comment
Share on other sites
burt Megalopolis

burt

Posted
Posted

I thought the developers behind Genesis Properties were the purchasers...

http://www.genesispr...evelopment.aspx

Side note: Frequent contributor 540_804 lives in the building at Adams and West Broad Streets which is the second picture under Hunt Investment. He revealed that when I brought up BISTRO TWENTY SEVEN recently in the Dining Out thread.

Can you pinpoint your apartment in the photo, 540_804? :camera:

I noticed some construction going on in the building just to the left of BISTRO TWENTY SEVEN.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
540_804 Whistle-Stop

540_804

Posted
Posted

Side note: Frequent contributor 540_804 lives in the building at Adams and West Broad Streets which is the second picture under Hunt Investment. He revealed that when I brought up BISTRO TWENTY SEVEN recently in the Dining Out thread.

Can you pinpoint your apartment in the photo, 540_804? :camera:

I noticed some construction going on in the building just to the left of BISTRO TWENTY SEVEN.

Yes, that is in fact my building.

The construction that you saw is actually part of the city's new street-scaping project. New concrete sidewalks with decorative brick detailing. Its a vast improvement over its previous state.

The article posted above states that Fair Hills Apartment, LLC purchased the building but wlrdcoupe4 suggested that Hunt Investments, LLC may be behind the project. I have to wonder if its possible that F.H.A., LLC is just a 'shell' company of Hunt Investments.

Often when developers purchase/develop a property they establish a stand-alone LLC. This can help limit their financial liability should something go wrong. If the project fails, the new corporation is liable and not the central business. If the new company goes bankrupt or folds, the original business is untouched.

I haven't been able to find much information on Fair Hills Apartment, LLC online. This is all just a theory, of course.

If Hunt is behind this project, then I'm sure everything will come out really nice. I've had the opportunity to live in 3 of their developments (2 were temporary before I moved into the building I'm in now) and have viewed/toured 3 others, including their offices in Manchester. They do really good work, especially in their newer developments; each project seems to get better than the last.

However, their management arm, aka Genesis Properties, has a fairly poor reputation in the city.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
540_804 Whistle-Stop

540_804

Posted
Posted

I guess anything is possible at this point.

But its also important to remember that any talk of there being a link between Fair Hills and Hunt is pure speculation at this point. We could be completely wrong.

Disregard the above! I found some interesting news.

Something interesting I found:

Fair Hills Apartments was sold last year for ~$5.9 million. The sale (or transfer) of the apartments occurred April 30th, 2010. Interestingly Fair Hills Apartment, LLC is listed as grantor (seller) and another company Fair Hills LP is listed as the grantee (buyer/receiver).

So, presumably, whoever purchased 700 Centre is not the owner of the Fair Hills apartment property. Which makes it less likely that Fair Hills will be redeveloped.

In short, I have found no real evidence that links Genesis/Hunt Investments to Fair Hill or 700 Centre.

Again, disregard the marked through text.

I just searched Fair Hill Apartment, LLC's articles of incorporation and discovered that the registered agent is none other than....................Ronald H. Hunt!

So yes, it appears that 700 Centre is a Genesis/Hunt Investments project.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
burt Megalopolis

burt

Posted
Posted

Happy New Year. To kick things off, I thought I'd start a new thread for a project which should kick off this year.

A developer has recently closed on the acquisition of the 700 Centre located at 700 E Franklin ( http://www.richmondb...p-for-12-31-10/ ). Currently, this is an office building with attached parking deck. Plans call for converting the historic tower, built as the Virginia Electric Power Co. HQ in 1913, into residential units and upgrading the annex building which will remain office space. My guess is that the 1st floor retail will remain as well.

A couple photos of the building

Richmond11-25-2005028.jpg

Richmond5-30-2007100.jpg

While reading the story I just posted under Richmond History about the Richmond/Ashland Railway I learned that Jay Gould, scion of the wealthy New York Gould family, owned The Virginia Railway & Power Company and built the 12-story headquarters building at 702 East Franklin Street in 1913.

Gould sold his interest in The Va. RR & Power Co to Stone Webster in 1925 and the name of the company (and the skyscraper) was changed to Virginia Electric and Power Co. (VEPCO.)

If and when it is converted to residential, another 100 or so apartments will come on market within 2 blocks of 230+ units at The John Marshall Residences.

Jay Gould died in Paris in 1956.

An architecural note: When I was a kid, each of the "bumps" along the roofline held an illuminated electric stanchion.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
wrldcoupe4 Metropolitan Area

wrldcoupe4

Posted
  • Author
Posted

Here's a BizSense story on the project...

http://www.richmondbizsense.com/2011/01/17/we-want-to-be-part-of-the-resurgence-occurring-downtown/

Hunt & Associates and Armada Hoffler are teaming up on this project, which is anticipated to kick-off in August and take 2 years to complete.

Hunt said he and Armada Hoffler are planning on converting the 12-story building into 115 units made up of studios and one- and two- bedroom apartments. The building was originally built in 1912.

Hunt said that their target demographic will be people working downtown, including young professionals.

The project is expected to cost about $24 million and will be funded by a combination of bank financing, historic tax credits and new market tax credits, Hunt said.

The property also includes an attached five-story annex that was added in the 1950s. Hunt said the top three stories of the annex will be converted to apartments, while the bottom two floors will continue to be office space. The building has 10 commercial tenants.

“Ideally we’d like to move the existing tenants into the annex, which we’ll renovate with all new stuff and make it real pretty,” Hunt said.

Both buildings combined cover more than 175,000 square feet.

Hunt said the developers plan to start work in August and will likely take two years to complete the project.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
wrldcoupe4 Metropolitan Area

wrldcoupe4

Posted
  • Author
Posted

John Marshall is vacant. This owner has to deal with existing tenants that occupy the tower and will need to be relocated in order to commence work on the conversion. If they move them to the annex building, they'll need to retrofit space for the tenants first... More moving parts on this one.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
  • 2 years later...
  • 1 month later...

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

Go to topic listing

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

By using this site you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.