Richmond Developments

[Icetera]

Riverfront Plan: Public Forum on Lehigh Terraces Area Improvements to be held on March 3rd

http://rvanews.com/news/riverfront-plan-public-forum-on-lehigh-terraces-area-improvements-to-be-held-on-march-3rd/134821

[jbjust]

I wish they would post the source of their pictures.  It's so small that it's not readable. 

[eandslee]

13 minutes ago, jbjust said:

I wish they would post the source of their pictures.  It's so small that it's not readable. 

Word!  From what I can see, the plan looks right good!

[meegwell]

I believe the source of those pictures is the large riverfront plan .pdf (obviously not the 'original' source but definitely more readable).  I think I have it I'll check and maybe find a link.

[meegwell]

not exact but obviously the from the same 'batch' - see page 90+

 

http://www.richmondgov.com/planninganddevelopmentreview/documents/PlansOther/2011_1215_River_Public_Presentation.pdf

 

or this - PAGE 7 - you can zoom in:

 

http://www.richmondgov.com/planninganddevelopmentreview/documents/PlansRiverfront/11_Downriver.pdf

 

[jbjust]

Yikes!  Can't believe it's been almost 4 years since that plan came out.  We really haven't done very much with it. 

[drayrichmond]

I honestly don't like the plan for that part of the river. I think it should be opened to development to connect Tobacco Row with Rocketts Landing. That stretch of river front, while pretty during the day, is pretty desolate at night and makes it a little scary to walk between Rocketts Landing and Tobacco Row at night. There's nothing there, and making it a park will just make it a prettier scary stretch of the river. Developing it with apartments/townhomes/etc.. will not only connect the two neighborhoods but add security with the better lighting and presence that residential units bring. That could be just me, I like to walk everywhere I can (like the restaurants at Rocketts Landing), but I'm not going to walk through an empty stretch of sidewalk with virtually no people around at night, just asking for trouble there. 

 

Edit: Something I'd really like to see is some work on the plan for Chapel Island, Improving that would help a lot with the image the city has from I95.

Edited March 2, 2016 by drayrichmond

[Icetera]

27 minutes ago, drayrichmond said:

I honestly don't like the plan for that part of the river. I think it should be opened to development to connect Tobacco Row with Rocketts Landing. That stretch of river front, while pretty during the day, is pretty desolate at night and makes it a little scary to walk between Rocketts Landing and Tobacco Row at night. There's nothing there, and making it a park will just make it a prettier scary stretch of the river. Developing it with apartments/townhomes/etc.. will not only connect the two neighborhoods but add security with the better lighting and presence that residential units bring. That could be just me, I like to walk everywhere I can (like the restaurants at Rocketts Landing), but I'm not going to walk through an empty stretch of sidewalk with virtually no people around at night, just asking for trouble there. 

 

Edit: Something I'd really like to see is some work on the plan for Chapel Island, Improving that would help a lot with the image the city has from I95.

As someone who walks through there often I agree with you to a point.  With the Stone World Bistro going in I am ok with the Lehigh park plan but I certainly hope for development West of that.  The Capital Trail has certainly made the walk much more pleasant and the late night fishermen add some nice presence at the Western edge of the park.  Hopefully development North of Main St. will help connect as well.

[RVA-Is-The-Best]

The 2016 Downtown Development Forum was held yesterday at CenterStage. Hopefully a PDF will be released soon on Venture's website.

http://richmondbizsense.com/2016/03/02/downtown-developers-in-the-spotlight/

2,200+ apartments under construction/planned, and $1 billion+ in investment. Pretty good, RVA.

[eandslee]

9 hours ago, RVA-Is-The-Best said:

The 2016 Downtown Development Forum was held yesterday at CenterStage. Hopefully a PDF will be released soon on Venture's website.

http://richmondbizsense.com/2016/03/02/downtown-developers-in-the-spotlight/

2,200+ apartments under construction/planned, and $1 billion+ in investment. Pretty good, RVA.

There's usually a YouTube video of the presentation that is published. I'll look for one tonight and post it here unless someone else finds it first. It's always a good watch!

[eandslee]

4 hours ago, eandslee said:

There's usually a YouTube video of the presentation that is published. I'll look for one tonight and post it here unless someone else finds it first. It's always a good watch!

Doesn't appear to be on YouTube yet. I'll keep my eye out for it and will post a link when the video is up. 

[Wahoo 07]

Richmond needs to replace the coliseum -- and do it right.  A downtown location with 18,000+ capacity is ideal.  It would allow for marquee events, like the ACC tournament and NCAA early rounds, as well as higher profile music acts. 

[HopHead]

Reading that article, it sounds like the local authority was just given the rights to build a new arena, not necessarily build it now. Richmond needs a new arena way more than it needs a new baseball stadium though... If run correctly, it can be very profitable without a main tenant (see Kansas City). Though, I wonder if VCU wouldn't be involved in a new venue. Seems like a good opportunity to get a larger facility. 

[RiverYuppy]

41 minutes ago, HopHead said:

Reading that article, it sounds like the local authority was just given the rights to build a new arena, not necessarily build it now. Richmond needs a new arena way more than it needs a new baseball stadium though... If run correctly, it can be very profitable without a main tenant (see Kansas City). Though, I wonder if VCU wouldn't be involved in a new venue. Seems like a good opportunity to get a larger facility. 

Yes, I would much rather see us get a new coliseum than a new baseball stadium.  It would be a much better investment for the city and is our only chance of having any regional cooperation on building something.  

[meegwell]

6 hours ago, Wahoo 07 said:

Richmond needs to replace the coliseum -- and do it right.  A downtown location with 18,000+ capacity is ideal.  It would allow for marquee events, like the ACC tournament and NCAA early rounds, as well as higher profile music acts. 

YES, YES, and YES!

 

3 hours ago, hikendesign said:

The coliseum can be used for many types of events where the baseball stadium is not that flexible for multi-use.  The coliseum is overdue and hope this somehow moves up the wish list to the top.  As for VCU considering a new venue - I don't think that would happen.  The Siegel Center is a great venue and will likely go to 10K - I believe VCU wants the intimate, loud "animal" as it's called. Having gone to many games at the coliseum when it was VCU's home court, I prefer the smaller venue, no comparison.  At 12K, the existing coliseum didn't sell out, not even close, with the exception of the CAA tournament.  I think a new coliseum would be even larger - Even with VCU basketball popularity, I doubt that a regular season game on a Wednesday night, of which there are quite a few, it would be close to full. Not being full looks like a lack of interest and why present that.  Keeping it at the Siegel Center keeps the drive for tickets high and if a down season (noooooo!) and fewer begin to show up, then the issue of fewer fans in seats looks like less of an impact as well.  I think VCU has looked at having some key games at a new facility, a questionnaire was presented a year or so ago and that was a question, so that may be possible - but also may just be rent the coliseum for a game not an investment.   

 

I agree 100% on the VCU issue - They love the intimacy of the Stu and have said that - look at Duke's Cameron Indoor Stadium...there is a reason they never went bigger and obviously they could.  I too have seen several VCU games when the craposeum was home court.

Big ticket bands generally dont like to stop there because its not a nice place - the accommodations for big acts is not up to par with a modern facility - plus, the acoustics are terrible and many acts consider that a deal breaker.  Why not just move on to JPJ or Staples...as they all do.

Beyond the potential for the bottom line if it is an attractive venue and well run, it's a fantastic name recognition benny for RVA also.  Anyone who is into any major college or pro arena sports or big music acts know the cities with the venues and many of us have traveled to them for those reasons.

Im not sure exactly how this benefits the cause but it appears that it would reduce "local" red tape.  In the 2014 General Assembly session, legislation passed to equalize representation on the Authority’s Board increasing in Board membership from eleven to sixteen, with five members from each jurisdiction and one member appointed from the Commonwealth Transportation Board.  It definitely seems like the way to go to get more regional efforts done.  I think the problems in the past (the RMTA owned the diamond until 2014) was that representation was lopsided to the City.  I would love for someone in the know to explain this all better to me...hopefully concluding with "and this will get a coliseum built".

 

Remember news of this report sponsored by Dominion, MWV, Altria,Genworth...the folks running those operations know we need a coliseum, maybe this step has been in the works for some time.

 

http://www.richmond.com/news/million-arena-proposed-near-richmond-coliseum/article_22ce78bf-2b6f-533c-8700-3f8c0e13c170.html

 

 

 

[Wahoo 07]

I agree that a new coliseum vastly supersedes a minor league baseball stadium (wherever located).  I hadn't considering the brand-name recognition aspect that stems from hosting high profile events.  That's a compelling reason to build this arena.  It's exciting to watch the explosion of growth occurring in Richmond's city life.

[eandslee]

2 hours ago, meegwell said:

 

Remember news of this report sponsored by Dominion, MWV, Altria,Genworth...the folks running those operations know we need a coliseum, maybe this step has been in the works for some time.

 

 

 

Good gosh, I hope so.  I'm also in the camp that a new arena is far more needed than a new baseball diamond.  I don't know what this new legislation means (I hope someone in "the know" can explain what this means with relation to building a new arena soon), but I really hope there are already plans to build a new one -  plans behind closed doors that we don't know about. It is rather strange that this legislation seemingly came out of nowhere. 

[drayrichmond]

Here is an older article on the issue. Might give a little more context for everyone. 

http://www.richmond.com/news/virginia/government-politics/article_40251723-9563-5a98-8bcb-7fdde04e759e.html

[HRVT]

On ‎3‎/‎4‎/‎2016 at 4:41 PM, Wahoo 07 said:

I agree that a new coliseum vastly supersedes a minor league baseball stadium (wherever located).  I hadn't considering the brand-name recognition aspect that stems from hosting high profile events.  That's a compelling reason to build this arena.  It's exciting to watch the explosion of growth occurring in Richmond's city life.

No doubt about it IMO. Minor league baseball has a relatively ahem.. minor impact on the regions it is in. However, building a venue that can actually attract high-interest acts and sporting events (ie: Big name concerts, the ACC Tournament, NCAA Tournament games, etc) can have a very large overall impact and serve a number of uses (vs a minor league baseball stadium that serves essentially one use).

Presently, Virginia Beach is in the works to start building a new 16K seat arena (expandable to 18K) that may be able to attract an NHL team. If Richmond builds their own, I think Richmond would stand a good chance to get into those same discussions (with the "loser" pulling the AHL affiliate). I must say I am skeptical about VB's plan however and doubt it actually gets off the ground.

[TBurban]

A little develop-bit courtesy of recent updates to the Richmond Land Use Mapper: the 1903 E Marshall Street Apartments (pdf) development received approval from the city.

[RiverYuppy]

It looks like some "Luxury Apartments" will be going up on Jahnke Road.  

[varunner]

200 more apartments for Shockoe Bottom: 

http://richmondbizsense.com/2016/03/18/out-of-town-buyer-plans-nearly-200-apartments-in-shockoe/ 

[eandslee]

An update on the talk of a new arena in Richmond.  I'm encourage by the positive vibe and the fact that people are talking about it (not to mention legislation that could be key in solidifying its funding and construction).  Hope it happens sooner rather than later!

http://wric.com/2016/03/18/could-a-new-coliseum-be-coming-to-richmond-2/

[blopp1234]

5 hours ago, eandslee said:

An update on the talk of a new arena in Richmond.  I'm encourage by the positive vibe and the fact that people are talking about it (not to mention legislation that could be key in solidifying its funding and construction).  Hope it happens sooner rather than later!

http://wric.com/2016/03/18/could-a-new-coliseum-be-coming-to-richmond-2/

This is incredibly good news seeing how it most likely will be passed by mcauliffe. How long it will take to actually start building is another story, however, this is great news for Richmond and the rest of the metro area.

[Marcus Squires]

Personally I enjoy the architectural style of the current colosseum I think it would look more modern with an aluminum / chrome finish and an oculus that could open and close.