Richmond Developments

[RVA-Is-The-Best]

Well good news on Opus for those worried it would eventually be scaled down due to pressure, as per an update in today's BizSense of yesterday's breaking news article:
 

Quote

 

Angelo said the building’s proposed height is based on what the anticipated TOD-1 zoning allows. He said it’s not a case of proposing big with the goal of ultimately building shorter.

“It’s not our intent to propose a big project and then scale back,” Angelo said. “We didn’t want to play that game.”

 

Also

Quote

Angelo said the firm is aiming to break ground this spring and finish construction by summer 2021.

https://richmondbizsense.com/2020/01/30/12-story-tower-proposed-at-broad-and-lombardy/

 

Edited February 1, 2020 by RVA-Is-The-Best

[wrldcoupe4]

This deal needs to happen as is.  If not, I think I give up. 

[vaceltic]

9 hours ago, Brent114 said:

Madison Square Gardens isn’t downtown.  Downtown Manhattan is dead (like really dead) after business hours.  Thanks for the example. 

London’s CBD is called the Wharf District. I’ve stayed in a hotel there on a weekend and it’s completely dead. 
 

What’s not dead on Richmond weekend evenings is shockoe bottom. I’m too old these days to want to be involved in any of that commotion though. 

Edited February 1, 2020 by vaceltic

[Icetera]

8 hours ago, vaceltic said:

London’s CBD is called the Wharf District. I’ve stayed in a hotel there on a weekend and it’s completely dead. 
 

What’s not dead on Richmond weekend evenings is shockoe bottom. I’m too old these days to want to be involved in any of that commotion though. 

I specifically left out the CBDs as in the example cities they are not at the core of the city. Wharf District is well east of London's core, while Midtown is the heart of Manhattan with the financial district deep at the southern end, and La Défense is not even in Paris proper.  It is fine if our Financial District, where all of the office towers are, is quiet at night (though still not ideal).  The issue is that the center of our city, where transportation converges (GRTC and main arteries), is nearly abandoned.  It is not just dead at night and weekends, but aside from parking, desolate during the workday.  Having a vast area that only functions 40 hours a week at the core of the city is not healthy.  We should be striving to repair the fabric of this area but we cannot do it organically due to city hinderance.

Monroe Ward also has its issues but they are not artificially restricted by city, state and federal roadblocks.

And Shockoe Bottom is a very different kind of life compared to theatres and arenas, we are not talking about club hours here.  It is nice to see restaurants really improving down there, especially around the Farmer's Market.

[Brent114]

Shockoe Bottom has train service and I95 and I 195.  The Boulevard has I95 and Greyhound.  

Midtown (Madison Square Gardens) is to Manhattan as the Boulevard is to Richmond.   Downtown Manhattan is dead.  And that’s fine... because NYC has the Village, Chelsea, Midtown....  Richmond has the Fan, Scott’s Addition, the Bottom.

We don't need to force a new entertainment district (at the expense of every other neighborhood) where Navy Hill once was.  There’s no value there.  It accomplishes nothing.   That neighborhood wasn’t hopping back when the Coliseum  was a destination because of the location, not in spite of it.  We’ve already tried a state of the art venue there.  It won’t work.  There’s nothing organic or interesting or hip about the location or what’s planned to go there. 

[wrldcoupe4]

What state of the art venue are you referencing?

[Brent114]

umm the Coliseum. 

[wrldcoupe4]

Wait. You are making a point that The 50 year old coliseum from a completely different era at a time when white flight was in full force and urban planning principles were awful is a reason why a project today won’t work?  Sorry I missed that originally. Makes total sense. 

[DalWill]

2 hours ago, Brent114 said:

umm the Coliseum. 

That was uncalled for. 

19 minutes ago, wrldcoupe4 said:

Wait. You are making a point that The 50 year old coliseum from a completely different era at a time when white flight was in full force and urban planning principles were awful is a reason why a project today won’t work?  Sorry I missed that originally. Makes total sense. 

Thank you for this clarification that was always in Richmond's face.

Edited February 2, 2020 by DalWill

[vaceltic]

City permitting office getting more help through third-party reviews. This should really advance developer interest across the city and speed up the construction process.

https://richmondbizsense.com/2020/01/31/city-permit-center-to-allow-third-party-inspections/
 

The articles comments are very telling, though, about the state of the city. Keep in mind, you must pay $500 annually just to have the privilege to comment on a bizsense article. I would presume most people who can have a membership are chamber of commerce members. 

Edited February 2, 2020 by vaceltic

[Brent114]

The Coliseum was built at a time when metro richmond was growing 20-30 times faster than it is now.   It was built to serve the metro (it’s interstate access has been touted as an advantage).   It was state of the art and there was a great deal of excitement around it.  
 

There wasn’t a  pall over Richmond at the time, in fact it was livelier than it is today.  Downtown  was going though it’s biggest  building boom of the 20th century.   

[DowntownCoruscant]

The Coliseum was built at a time when everyone else was doing it. You might say Dominion Energy Arena/Navy Hill likewise would be built at a time whenever everyone else is doing it except most did it 10-15 years ago. What inference to draw from that will be left to you.

[Brent114]

Getting help with plan review is good news. That takes weeks, months...

I don't know about commercial inspections but I schedule several building inspections every month and it’s an easy process and inspections happen the next day 90*% of the time. I’ve had nothing but positive and timely interactions with inspectors.
 

 

[eandslee]

33 minutes ago, vaceltic said:

 Keep in mind, you must pay $500 annually just to have the privilege to comment on a bizsense article. I would presume most people who can have a membership are chamber of commerce members. 

No you don’t!  You are misinformed again. I’ve posted comments on that site many times and haven’t paid a dime to Richmindbizsense.  I think this comment is also representative of the misinformation you have regarding the NH project.  Don’t just assume you have the right answer.  Do a little research. 

[Brent114]

I don’t think he meant leaving a comment on social media. 

[eandslee]

2 minutes ago, Brent114 said:

I don’t think he meant leaving a comment on social media. 

He meant posting a comment on the article...just like he said:

“ Keep in mind, you must pay $500 annually just to have the privilege to comment on a bizsense article”

I’m saying that posting a comment to that site is free!

Edited February 2, 2020 by eandslee

[vaceltic]

22 minutes ago, eandslee said:

He meant posting a comment on the article...just like he said:

“ Keep in mind, you must pay $500 annually just to have the privilege to comment on a bizsense article”

I’m saying that posting a comment to that site is free!

I might be wrong on this. When I go to register, this is what comes up:

 

Guess I am not as tech savvy as others here. But making a causal relationship of this mistake to my arguments against Navy Hill is...pretty weak. 

Edited February 2, 2020 by vaceltic

[RiverYuppy]

You don't have to register to leave comments.

You have to enter in your real name and email when making a comment.  Then a moderator has to approve you to start making comments.  

You also don't have to be registered to vote.  You can see comments against Navy Hill get downvoted significantly.

Edited February 2, 2020 by RiverYuppy

[Icetera]

23 hours ago, RiverYuppy said:

You don't have to register to leave comments.

You have to enter in your real name and email when making a comment.  Then a moderator has to approve you to start making comments.  

You also don't have to be registered to vote.  You can see comments against Navy Hill get downvoted significantly.

All this is true.  The commenting is awkward at first, though, so I can see where you may get the idea of it not being available.

[Icetera]

On 2/2/2020 at 10:03 AM, Brent114 said:

The Coliseum was built at a time when metro richmond was growing 20-30 times faster than it is now.   It was built to serve the metro (it’s interstate access has been touted as an advantage).   It was state of the art and there was a great deal of excitement around it.  
 

There wasn’t a  pall over Richmond at the time, in fact it was livelier than it is today.  Downtown  was going though it’s biggest  building boom of the 20th century.   

And the metro is now 3x the population as to when the coliseum was built, but yet now, we have no arena.  Downtown was transitioning into the office park it now is as all the residents moved into the suburbs (hence the large annexation to recover population).

Boulevard is not transit friendly, it is completely car-centric and greyhound does not have the regional commuting potential that Amtrak is actively working towards.  Plans for Shockoe Bottom have been tried and failed and the area is becoming a serious bottleneck (as much as I have argued in the past that it was not that bad).  I hope for the I-95 /15th-Broad St. ramp projects to begin soon.

What I am gathering, is that because the core of our city is referred to as "downtown" it should remain as a barren wasteland of parking structures that are only used 40 hours a week.  Rather than make full use of them, we should then have another large area of parking structures that are only used in the evening and weekends.  People should live outside of "downtown" and commute to the offices (of which the northern area of "downtown"  completely lacks) and they should be restricted to eating in the cafeterias and food courts of their complexes.  Instead of having hotels utilized for both the Convention Center  and a multi-use sports and performance venue, we should have two separate lodging areas each being used half of the time.  What a new concept that I am sure would work out brilliantly.

Edited February 3, 2020 by Icetera

[Ward Wood]

Well, is this the news we’ve been waiting for for the (other) stadium development?https://www.richmond.com/sports/college/plus/abc-headquarters-move-expected-to-clear-way-for-new-ballpark/article_b7a88916-77f6-5fbe-966b-9f4f161654e7.html

[wrldcoupe4]

Putting the cart before the horse. We should pump the breaks and study this!

[Shakman]

And hire consultants to audit our study.

Edited February 3, 2020 by Shakman

[Icetera]

19 minutes ago, Shakman said:

And hire consultants to audit our study.

At this rate, all of the abandoned private properties will be restored while the city and state properties are left to rot (ABC, Blue's Armory, Coliseum, Dept. Public Works, Fulton Gas Works, Intermediate Terminal Building, etc.).  Thanks city council!

[eandslee]

2 minutes ago, Hike said:

I remember when a baseball stadium was like the biggest project  I could imagine for us, wow, I thought, a new baseball stadium with new hot dog stands, big time we'd be.  Now , seeing this coming along, it's like a boobie prize, a disappointment.  I'm happy with this project, don't get me wrong,  I am.  VCU will do all it can to make this as good as it can , the surrounding areas will get some new retail,  some apartments, etc. go team. 

I agree!  Richmond has so much more now going for it...if politics don’t get in the way.