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With 3600 Centre becoming apartments, that little corner of Scotts Addition will be getting a nice population boost pretty soon. I bet we see a few eateries soon after.

That area looks amazing. What a transformation!

I'm certainly not excusing the 'vagrant' for urinating in public, but the fact of the matter is that most simply don't have a choice. There simply aren't any public restrooms in that area. Zero. None of the business owners in that area allow for public use of their restrooms (especially for individuals that look homeless). Subway (around the corner) allows use of their restroom but I've heard the manager there tell people they had to spend at least $3 in the store in order to use the restroom; no homeless person can afford that. The closest public restroom would be at the Library Main Branch, several blocks away or all the way in Monroe Park. Walking all the way to Monroe Park to use the restroom just isn't feasible for most people. The next closest thing they have to a publicly accessible restroom is McDonalds and Starbucks (which is why homeless people tend to linger around those restaurants in the city). This isn't just a problem for Richmond; it's a problem faced by most bigger cities (There's a 2011 NYT article that explorese this problem in NYC and a quick Google search shows articles from almost every major city).

I have to say I'm extremely disappointed that we'll be losing the West Hospital on MCV campus. I understand that the building needs renovation and MCV needs more space, but really there has to be an alternative. We should learn from other cities that have torn down beautiful, historic, (even monumental) buildings that it almost always leads to regret. Maybe they can turn that building into student housing for medical/health professional students. Or even expanded lodging for visitors (patients' families). It would really be a shame to lose that building. I imagine if it were in any other location it would be fit for luxury housing. Times like these I wish I were a billionaire.

Stay safe Burt!

It looks like the Richmond region has added another multi-millionaire to it's ranks. The winning Powerball ticket for the $217 million drawing was sold in the Richmond area. http://www.timesdispatch.com/news/latest-news/richmond-area-powerball-ticket-big-winner-in-million-drawing/article_a689f8ae-710a-11e2-82f6-0019bb30f31a.html The ticket is worth about $136 million as a lump sum.

And sold out, might I add.

Yeah, it may be unlikely. If the developer does ever decide to go for something 15-stories, I'd hope it goes through a re-design. I'm not the biggest fan of those two.

At one point, there were plans for two 12-15 story buildings; I wonder if those are still in the plans. They say this is a decade-long, multi-phased project, so I would say it's possible.

I'm hoping for 21! I'm hoping for 21!

It looks like they started demolition work rather quickly. As of 12:15pm, the rear section of the red building (3 West Grace) is all but completely demolished.

Today as I was getting home from work I noticed that several buildings on Grace St had been enclosed in a chain link fence with a sign that read "Caution: Demolition by [Company Name]" Does anyone know anything about this? For reference this is on Grace St downtown between Foushee and Adams. These are pretty cool looking buildings and look like they would be prime for small a small restaurant, deli or cafe, though they're obviously in horrible condition at the moment. I had hoped to one day see these rehabilitated/renovated but judging by the large excavator on site, they may be headed for a full demolition. If that's the case, I can only hope they're replaced by something more than a parking lot. Maybe someone who is more handy at scouring the city websites for work permits (that I assume would have been file) can look into this; these buildings are in the first block of West Grace St (street numbers 1 to 99). They are on the south side of Grace meaning they would have an odd numbered address.

I'm not sure if this has been posted or not, but apparently a Waffle House will be opening on West Broad Street near VCU. It will occupy a vacant retail space at 1309 W. Broad Street next to the new 'Crave' froyo shop. For reference, this is about 1 block west of the Siegel Center (on the opposite side of Broad) and directly across from the VCU athletic training facilities. http://www.richmondbizsense.com/images/waffleedit.jpg

It appears that the latest residential component of the Shockoe Valley Heighs project, the approximately 80-unit building named Trolley Commons, is now largely complete. Though the ground floor retail remains completely empty, it appears that residents have moved into many of the buildings apartments judging by the lights, TVs and even Christmas decorations visible through some of the large windows. If there rental website if correct, the building is 100% leased as there are no available units at this time.

Quick question, and maybe it's been answered: Does anyone know what is being built on the north side of the 4300 block of West Broad Street. This site was previously the home of C.A.R.R.S.S. LLC, a car customization garage owned by former basketball player Cory Alexander (UVA, San Antonio Spurs, Denver Nuggets, Roanoke Dazzle [NBDL]). Interestingly, there was actually a regulation-sized outdoor basketball court right in the middle of the parking lot. It can be seen in satellite imagery of the property. Cory Alexander originally purchased the lot to eventually sell or lease to a national retailer (Wal-Mart and WaWa were mentioned as possibilities). He's had some financial problems recently and I can only assume he no longer owns the property. I noticed a couple (maybe 3) concrete/cinder block building/elevator cores have been constructed with some scaffolding and it appears to be a couple of stories high... Any idea what this is? PS: apologies for spelling and grammar. I'm at work and I'm typing fast while doing other tasks. Edited to add: I stopped by today and the building has 5 cores rising and (judging the the number of openings in the core) is 3 stories tall.

Does anyone know if there will be any ground floor retail or other "public use" spaces for the new Children's Hospital? The stretch of Broad between The National all the way east to the McDonalds at 18th and Broad is almost completely devoid of any kind of street-facing retail. I think a lunch counter or small bistro would work well there (plenty of office workers between the State Capitol, City Hall and MCV) or even something like a CVS or Walgreens where patients could fill their prescription cheaper than at the hospital pharmacy.

Interesting that you note that it looks like the building on Broad near Lombardy as I believe it was the same architecture firm that designed both projects.

A small residential (perhaps mixed-use) project taking shape at 113-115 E. Broad St. The front and rear glass curtain of the building has been removed and interior framing is seen going up. This is a shot of the rear of the building in it's current condition (as of 8/5/2012): A brief history of the building can be seen at There/Here I haven't heard any plans for the space but if a new glass curtain wall is installed I think it will make a great residential space with the floor-to-ceiling windows. The neighborhood is certainly up-and-coming with pretty much nothing on that block.

Why are they moving in so early? I remember when I lived in the dorms I moved in only about a week early. August 1st seemed more like move-in day for all of Richmond (with so many students living around the city's core). Almost every block in the Fan was partially obstructed with a moving truck. And parking is noticeably more difficult to come by around my residential building as students begin to trickly back to town. The easy parking was fun while it lasted!

The new School of Medicine turned out better than I expected, to be honest. My two wishes are that it were a little more glassy on the Marshall street side and that it were perhaps a few floors taller to allow it to stand out above it's surroundings a bit. I agree. If I have time tomorrow I will snap pictures around VCU including the nearly completed addition to the Broad and Belvidere dorm and the nearly completed dorm at the corner of Shafer and Grace. Also, it appears VCU is renovating the West Grace Street Student Housing (the Honors dorms at 701 W. Grace St). I can't find any plans for what they're going to do but they have ripped up the sidewalk and are reconfiguring the front entrance/driveway. It also appears they are somehow altering part of the facade, though it's too early to tell what exactly is going on. For reference the West Grace Street Student Housing that I speak of is the grey cross-shaped building at the South East corner of Laurel and Grace that was formerly some type of medical facility. The new dorm at Shafer + Grace is officially "West Grace Street South" or ASPiRE (Academic Scholars Program in Real Environments). I would presume that the new dorm starting construction opposite of that will be West Grace Street North. Additionally, the new classroom space on Floyd Ave , next to the library is topped out and appears to be in a coat of fire-proofing/insulation and ready to receive it's final exterior treatment.

Not the best picture as it was shot with a cell phone from a moving vehicle but here's a shot of the new VCU/MCV School of Medicine.

Not 100% sure because I didn't bother to try to find or look at the statistics they used, but I would guess the 15% vacancy rate is taken from the entire Richmond metro rental market. The downtown sub-market is certainly much tighter. Just off of the top of my head I would say 4-6% to be conservative but maybe even lower than that.

Richmond- 7474 votes. The next closest competitor is Hood River, OR with 2605 votes.

It looks like your predictions were spot on. Sears Holding Corp has announced that the Glenside Drive store is closing. http://www2.timesdispatch.com/business/2012/jun/29/kmart-glenside-drive-closing-ar-2023083/

The "Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet" text is just typical placeholder text. It's used in place of real text during the website creation/formatting process. It's actually considered a bit unprofessional to fully launch a website with the latin placeholder text on display. My guess is someone just forgot about it. It should probably just be replaced with something like "Coming Soon". I love the "Italianate" building. I can only guess with it's prime location and the fact that it only has 20 units, it will be fairly expensive by Richmond's standards.