Richmond Developments

[eandslee]

Oh, one more...the construction of The Pulse BRT. I know it's not a building, but it is very significant for Richmond and the future of mass transit in the area. 

[jbjust]

Does anybody have any further intel on Kanawha Plaza?  I'm watching this right outside my window and I have two questions:

1)  Are they going to build the stage at the NW corner of the park or leave that incomplete because of lack of funds?

2)  What's up with the fountain?  The renderings show it staying but they appear to be demolishing the SW section of it pretty significantly.  I have a guess that maybe the fountain will be tiled or something like that, but it is impossible to tell with the renderings I've found online. 

[RiverYuppy]

It looks like more apartments will be going up in South Richmond off Jahnke Road.  It will be good to continue getting more tax money out of the South side of the river.

[meegwell]

23 hours ago, jbjust said:

Does anybody have any further intel on Kanawha Plaza?  I'm watching this right outside my window and I have two questions:

1)  Are they going to build the stage at the NW corner of the park or leave that incomplete because of lack of funds?

2)  What's up with the fountain?  The renderings show it staying but they appear to be demolishing the SW section of it pretty significantly.  I have a guess that maybe the fountain will be tiled or something like that, but it is impossible to tell with the renderings I've found online. 

 

 

Here are my thoughts on what I see (don't have actual info).  On the stage, it appears they have begun to build a foundation wall where the back of the stage is planned to be so this may be an indication that the stage (which seems to be a small part of the overall project if we are talking only a "stage base":

 

 

 

On the fountain, it looks to me that they may be repairing crumbling concrete - see the crumbling corner of the tall part of the fountain in the second pic:

 

 

 

 

 

 

[jbjust]

I don't think that's where the back of the stage would be.  Here is the most recent rendering I can find, FWIW:

 

 

Edited July 29, 2016 by jbjust

[meegwell]

1 hour ago, jbjust said:

I don't think that's where the back of the stage would be.  Here is the most recent rendering I can find, FWIW:

 

 

 

 

Your pictures are flipped - your top picture  the same view I am showing - the stage is supposed to go in the northwest corner - which is what is in my picture.  I previously posted the architectural plans - maybe you've seen them - but here is a wider view from the north side - its only a few hours after the previous pic so you can see the wall I spoke of in relation to the fountain:

 

 

 

 

 

[jbjust]

I know it's flipped, but I flipped it back in my head :).  That wall you're showing is perfectly perpendicular to Canal Street.  The stage in the drawing is catty corner to Canal.  There is a short wall in that area according to the drawing, probably to accommodate the elevation drop there.

Don't get me  wrong, I hope you're right. 

[drayrichmond]

I don't know if you guys have seen this, but VUU is looking to restore and reuse this old building for an Art Gallery. This would go a long way in improving Richmond's image from I95. It's currently boarded up and pretty bad looking, so getting it all cleaned up and lit up would be awesome.

http://www.styleweekly.com/richmond/how-virginia-union-university-is-re-purposing-an-industrial-era-landmark-to-showcase-art/Content?oid=2352772

This is how it currently looks from the interstate:

 

Edited August 1, 2016 by drayrichmond

[Marcus Squires]

The south side apartment complex is starting to take form on Janke Road. 

 252-unit apartment complex in South Richmond

http://www.richmond.com/business/local/article_ebb78161-3101-50a6-abb2-5189ca3f817f.html

[RiverYuppy]

I saw that on my bike ride to work the other day.  Hopefully someone snatches up that adjacent land and develops something there as well.

I know Jahnke road is supposed to get improved (apparently with a bike lane!), so hopefully the new development will spur some tenants to take up shop in that shopping center across the street as well.

With the Boulders office park and the Chippenham Hospital right there, we should try to entice the workers to live in RVA rather than chesterfield.

[jbjust]

This is really off-topic, but there really needs to be a serious effort to make a bike lane to better connect Southside/North Chesterfield to the city. I live in the Bon Air area, and if I want to bike to work I can risk my life in one of three ways: (1) bike up the narrow shoulder-less Cary Street (past the ghost bike commemorating a dead cyclist); (2) bike over Chippenham via Forest Hill Avenue, which is scary enough in a car; or (3) press my luck on Jahnke, which is basically a country road with no shoulder between Buford Road and Chippenham Hospital.  

 

[blake_p]

1 hour ago, jbjust said:

This is really off-topic, but there really needs to be a serious effort to make a bike lane to better connect Southside/North Chesterfield to the city. I live in the Bon Air area, and if I want to bike to work I can risk my life in one of three ways: (1) bike up the narrow shoulder-less Cary Street (past the ghost bike commemorating a dead cyclist); (2) bike over Chippenham via Forest Hill Avenue, which is scary enough in a car; or (3) press my luck on Jahnke, which is basically a country road with no shoulder between Buford Road and Chippenham Hospital.  

 

Good news, VDOT is starting work on the Huguenot and River Rd. intersection near UR:

http://www.virginiadot.org/projects/richmond/intersection_improvements_at_huguenot_road.asp

This should make it easier to get from the Huguenot Bridge to the old road (Gambles Mill) between UR and CCVA, then you can cut up through the neighborhood to Three Chopt and Grove.

Richmond also has plans in the works for a shared use path on Jahnke:

http://www.richmondgov.com/PublicWorks/JahnkeRoadImprovementProject.aspx

So in a couple of years, things should/might be better.

[drayrichmond]

1 hour ago, jbjust said:

This is really off-topic, but there really needs to be a serious effort to make a bike lane to better connect Southside/North Chesterfield to the city. I live in the Bon Air area, and if I want to bike to work I can risk my life in one of three ways: (1) bike up the narrow shoulder-less Cary Street (past the ghost bike commemorating a dead cyclist); (2) bike over Chippenham via Forest Hill Avenue, which is scary enough in a car; or (3) press my luck on Jahnke, which is basically a country road with no shoulder between Buford Road and Chippenham Hospital.  

 

There looks like there's a lot of space available for a dedicated bike trail that would connect that area to the city (something like the capital bike trail). A dedicated bike "highway", I do see on the bicycle master plan for the city there is a planned shared bike lane for Jahnke Road. But beyond that a spoke wheel system of bike trails from the suburbs to the city center would be awesome

[Wahoo 07]

A dedicated bike path needs to be built on River Road from Three Chopt to its terminus with Route 6.  Cars and bicycles commingling on River is dangerous.  Not sure how it would be accomplished, but a solution is needed.

[jbjust]

1 hour ago, RiverYuppy said:

 

12 minutes ago, Wahoo 07 said:

A dedicated bike path needs to be built on River Road from Three Chopt to its terminus with Route 6.  Cars and bicycles commingling on River is dangerous.  Not sure how it would be accomplished, but a solution is needed.

I agree and think that it would be very attractive to build a westward-stretching version of the Capital Trail all the way to Charlottesville.  I've started a new topic to talk about this sort of thing here:

 

 

[Blackbird Fly]

Here are some photos of the new Bank of America facade. It will definitely improve the attractiveness of the building. 

 

[Icetera]

How they described the new BoA facade I was expecting more shine like city hall but still a big improvement.

[blopp1234]

3 hours ago, Blackbird Fly said:

Here are some photos of the new Bank of America facade. It will definitely improve the attractiveness of the building. 

 

The difference is huge!! I absolutely love how much better it looks. Yes it would be cooler if it was more of a white, not a gray but hey, it still looks better than it used to.

[eandslee]

21 minutes ago, Icetera said:

How they described the new BoA facade I was expecting more shine like city hall but still a big improvement.

I'm sorry, but I don't see much difference (very little difference).  No one is going to see a difference after the work is done. I was hoping for something a bit more sleek looking.  Oh well, I'll take it. 

[wrldcoupe4]

I think there may be a couple coats. The first coat was to provide a smooth finish over the rougher aggregate exterior. The final coat will have some kind of glittery specks in it. It will have a gray tone for the ground level and white above. It's not a total wow, but looks a heck of a lot better than what's there. 

[evanf]

Hey all,

I saw some construction fencing up at the old Pleasant's Hardware on Broad. Anyone have current information on the Sauer development that will include a Whole Foods? Timeline or any other details?

[Icetera]

21 hours ago, eandslee said:

I'm sorry, but I don't see much difference (very little difference).  No one is going to see a difference after the work is done. I was hoping for something a bit more sleek looking.  Oh well, I'll take it. 

Once they get to the opposite side I should be able to watch the transition from my window so we will see how it looks on the skyline.

[drayrichmond]

Progress is being made on the Fay Towers project. Phase one was just completed, phase two is the new construction in Jackson Ward, so hopefully we'll start seeing some movement on that soon.

http://www.nbc12.com/story/32676551/phase-one-of-fay-towers-development-project-near-completion

[Marcus Squires]

Here are some more shots of the Bank of America Tower from the SunTrust Building 

[Wahoo 07]

Update on Roseneath in Scott's Addition

http://richmondbizsense.com/2016/08/04/new-look-unveiled-for-proposed-scotts-addition-towers/