jbjust

The original location of Poseidon was supposed to be behind the Sam's Club on Midlothian Turnpike. I don't know what happened to make them abandon that location, but it was pretty far along when it happened.

You can be in the Fortune 500 and be privately held. For example, Koch Industries (which owns Georgia Pacific) is in the Fortune 25 and is privately held.

Why is it necessary for RRHA to receive a slice of the profits going forward? If they think the future revenue streams that they would get under a profit-sharing arrangement would be X, then they should just take the net present value of X, adjusting it by some factor reflecting the risk that those revenues are lower/higher, and build that into the asking price. Insisting on a cut of the future revenues is nothing but politics and I can see how a developer wouldn't want to be shackled with RRHA looking over its shoulder for the foreseeable future.

Apologies if this has already been mentioned, but I had lunch at Tarrant's for the first time in a few months and almost didn't recognize the place. The restaurant has more than doubled in size and was doing brisk business. The kitchen has been moved to the rear of the adjacent space, opening up more room for tables in the original section, and the restaurant has expanded the dining room into an adjacent space as big as the original restaurant. They appeared to be doing a brisk Saturday lunch business.

Looks like Alcoa is selling its Richmond businesses. Will be very interesting to see if they shut down the downtown manufacturing facility. Would hate to lose those jobs, but would love to see that plant torn down. Alcoa to sell Richmond Business Unit

I would be happy if there were any usable trains leaving Main Street Station. Leaving from MSS going north adds more than a half hour to your trip over leaving from Staples Mill. If you ask me, Staples Mill should be completely shut down.

I don't know if I've ever seen a McDonald's torn down and replaced by something else. Probably has something to do with the fact that McDonald's corporate owns virtually all of the real estate on which the local franchisees build their restaurant.

I was a little disappointed with Granny Wade's, to be honest. The food was good, but not spectacular. There are, however, two glaring deficiencies that have to be addressed before I will visit regularly: 1) Southern meals are supposed to have some sort of bread with them (e.g., biscuit, corn bread, yeast roll). There is no bread on the lunch menu at all, even if I wanted to pay extra. 2) The meals are served in styrofoam clamshell containers and with plastic utensils. Give me a friggin' break. They have fried chicken today, but I'm not going because I'm not interested in trying to tackle a chicken breast with a plastic fork. I could overlook one or both of these failings if it weren't for the fact that they charge $10 (including tax) for lunch. They are considerably more expensive than, for example, Peking where you get a waiter, real forks, and real plates. I hope they're reading this board, because I'm not the type to complain to somebody in person.

Any word on what is happening with the new Starbucks in the James Center. They could have built two from scratch in the time it has taken them to renovate the space.

That's a good idea lch4. I don't know if you've ever spent much time in Northern Virginia/DC, but the old W&OD line is a hugely popular network of hiking trails stretching from Alexandria to almost Leesburg. On the weekend, it's almost difficult to ride a bike on the trail because it is absolutely packed with people. My hope is that the Capital-to-Capital trail will be like that someday, but there is no reason the existing railroad lines couldn't be repurposed. There are some incredibly swanky houses off the W&OD whose owners are none to happy about the popularity of the trail (Daniel Snyder being one), but they haven't been able to limit its use.

Here is their website. Seems like they've mostly done projects in NC and Tidewater. I don't see any projects that they've done above 10 stories or so. Clancy & Theys

Maybe they've had to increase the height to account for the land the hold-outs refused to sell.

I'm thinking of the Millennium U.N. Plaza hotel on 44th. It must have been rennovated since I was last there because it's even grander than I remember on its web site. Sorry for the hijack.

My wife and I went down to the Bottom the day before Thanksgiving aiming to eat at the City Bar or Havana 59 and were surprised to see that the widely-touted lighting under the overpasses were all out and the parking area was extremely dark and scary. Was this a one-night thing or has it been out regularly?

Burt, there is a hotel where I stayed in NY 7-8 years ago that was up near the United Nations and was one of the main hotels that visiting dignitaries would use. Looking back, I can imagine Wytestone Plaza being reshaped into something like that. The UN hotel had a huge office-like glass front but was done quite nicely inside. I wish I could remember the name. I want to say Intercontinental, but don't really remember.

I was in Wytestone Plaza for a meeting once -- does that place even count as Class B office space? It also has one of the most depresseing facades/lobbys on Main Street. It is going to take some vision to turn that into a hotel anybody would want to stay in.

Just a nit pick, but this is a message board, not a blog. Newspapers make the same mistake all the time when they talk about something offensive or threatening said by a "blogger" when it was just a random post by some schmuck on a message board.

According to the GW web site, they're currently only open 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. but will be opening "soon" for dinner.

Granny Wade's is officially open and the menu is spectacular. There are only a few things on the menu (but it changes every day) so as to provide fast service. I'm definitely going tomorrow. Granny Wade's T H U R S D A Y ~ D E C E M B E R 6 t h ~ . ~ L U N C H Bar-B-Que on Roll Chicken-N-Dumplings Cranberry Chicken Salad Greeens with Hamhocks Cabbage Candied Yams with Pears Applesauce Cake Brownies

I drove by Granny Wade's the other night and it looked close to opening from what I could see. Still no word on their website.

Maybe these holdouts will turn out to be a positive if they push the building height to 30 stories. Isn't it the shortage of buildable land that justifies skyscrapers in the first place?

There is a Red Robin in the parking lot of SPTC. Extremely unremarkable, if you ask me. Pretty kid-friendly, though.

Has anybody heard any updates about Granny Wade's, the southern/Appalachian place opening up on the Slip? I am craving some chicken and dumplings.

Looks like United and Delta are back in talks to merge. I think that could actually help Richmond by opening up some more direct flights somewhere other than Atlanta. Delta/United in Talks to Merge

Maybe they'll use that building as their construction trailer