Blackbird Fly

Here is a cool map showing Richmond metro's expansion each decade since the 1940s.

Here is my Op/Ed recently published by RTD: http://www.richmond.com/opinion/your-opinion/letters-to-the-editor/article_1dc9e1b3-a70a-5808-b5ad-8c00f3bee83c.html I'd love to hear what you guys think of this idea.

It could end up looking like two of these with different heights. If so, they would make great additions to the skyline!

Here is an RVA art scene highlight I had to share: http://youtu.be/4RAUzAfhRxA

http://www.citylab.com/commute/2016/03/virginia-beach-light-rail-millennials/472308/ Virginia Beach's treasurer, John Atkinson, says young people seeking a light-rail “freebie” should look elsewhere. This is a bad look for VB--hopefully this guy's position is up for vote soon.

I think an ALDI would do great in Manchester as well, they would definitely get shoppers from downtown proper and east end.

It is tough for Richmond to develop its own retail presence when Henrico has the most retail per capita in the US. They also, almost as a rule, have placed their large retail centers and big box stores right at the border of the city at every major thoroughfare to loot tax dollars out of the city. I can't wait until the tides change and the premier retail is in the city instead of the suburbs, but it will probably take years to gain steam.

Time for a VCU endowment update: Here is the most recent report from the National Association of College and University Business Officers and Commonfund Institute, http://www.nacubo.org/Documents/EndowmentFiles/2015_NCSE_Endowment_Market_Values.pdfIt has VCU at number 56 (of all institutions/university systems US + Canada) at $1.638 Billion It has MCV foundation at number 206 at $399 Million If they were considered together, VCU would have >$2 Billion endowment and would rank number 44 overall.

I was more excited for Uphoff's tower on Grace and Belvidere. Does anyone have any word on that project?

+1 I remember approaching OKC on the 40 thinking it looked like a big middle finger. I'm not sure what it says about OKC; I think it just says that they have one really successful oil/energy company and maybe the rest of their economy is floundering.

No matter how tall it is, it won't look as bad as Devon Energy Tower in OKC!

Here is a quote from our "James Center Expansion" thread back in 2006: Quote The dynamics of the area are changing," he said. His plans for the James Center, which include adding 700,000 to 1 million square feet of space: # Add 12 stories to the 14-story Three James Center. "It was built structurally to handle that. It has elevator shafts and everything ready to go," he said. If a tenant can be found, the addition could be done in two years. One tenant could be MeadWestvaco Corp., the packaging and paper company that is relocating its corporate headquarters to the area this year. "We have chatted with them and we are chatting with them," Jerome said. # Turn a surface parking lot between state Route 195 and Canal Street into a 20-story office tower with 300,000 square feet. # Build an office building of up to a 26 stories on land where there is a pedestrian plaza at 10th and Cary streets, basically in front of 22-story Two James Center. The new building could have 400,000 square feet to 450,000 square feet. "This is a long term project," he said of his plans. "I would say it would take three to six years to do all of the development." The 21-story One James Center was completed in 1985. The other buildings opened in 1987. _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________ This is interesting, I have never heard of this. I am very interested to see architectural renderings of adding 12 floors to 3 James Center.

Richmond's music scene continues to gain attention. Check out this Rolling Stone highlight of a local up-and-comer: http://www.rollingstone.com/music/pictures/10-new-artists-you-need-to-know-january-2016-20160125/lucy-dacus-20160124. Among the 10 artists highlighted, only 6 are from the US and their origin cities are: Los Angeles (2), Miami, NYC, and Milwaukee. Additionally check out this new song from two of the other artists putting Richmond on the music map: There is so much to be excited about in this town. I love the cultural renaissance this city is experiencing. I really need to proclaim that Richmond is the best city of its size--it's been fun living here the last few years!

All of the BioTech buildings are west of 7th street. They will be demolishing a very outdated dorm to make space for the new Allied Health building. I'm not sure how much of the space they currently occupy in BioTech will be consolidated into the new building. My guess is that this building will be mostly classroom space/sim center-type facilities. Here are the departments within the school: Clinical Laboratory Sciences Gerontology Health Administration Nurse Anesthesia Occupational Therapy Patient Counseling Physical Therapy Radiation Sciences Rehabilitation Counseling Virginia Center on Aging Ph.D. Program in Health Related Sciences Dean's Office

Good point! Also, thinking about it; if they are going to dig for underground parking that will take an eternity--just like it did for VCU Health's outpatient peds facility (that project has taken 3 years).

I think the 3+ year build timetable is very encouraging for a tall tower. Anybody else have thoughts on what could take so long if it wasn't going to be much taller than these recent buildings we've seen go up in <2 years? Also, I just added the estimated completion time to Richmond's Tallest Buildings wiki page.

That's going to be between 8th and 9th and Leigh, it is the block directly southeast of the downtown campus of J. Sergeant Reynolds.

The MCV campus of VCU and VCU Health have some big projects forthcoming. The MCV campus is adding a very large school of Allied Health which will be a ~$200 million facility and it will replace some of the mid-rise dorms that are currently at Leigh and 8th street. VCU Health's next capital developments (after completion of the outpatient peds facility on 10th and broad will be an additional tower added to the main hospital to add beds to the medical floor there and word is they are moving forward with an inpatient pediatric hospital somewhere on the MCV campus. I've heard the timeline for completion of these two buildings would be over the course of 8 years.

Agreed, a hotel would make the canal walk so much livelier and would be a terrific asset to people coming into town for our big events like Folk Festival and RiverRock, et cetera. Expanding businesses fronting the canal walk should definitely be a focus of any future development in that area; it serves to make the apartments/hotel more desirable if canal walk was a place more locals hung out. Hopefully they will be good stewards of the precious parcels they own, and push our this district forward.

I really love your idea for that plot! Is that entire parking lot owned by The Locks' property developers? I feel like I have seen plans for 3-4 small apartment complexes fitting into that space much like Gate V which is just to the west of this image.

I recently reformatted the 'Tallest Buildings in Richmond' wiki page to make it more attractive and added the Gateway Plaza to our list; so I am probably the main person who edits that page. I added the Locks at 321 to the approved/proposed section earlier today, but I did not put the 45-50 stories estimate. Hopefully someone in the know did so.

This is a big one; nonstop flights from RIC to Denver International. http://www.richmond.com/business/article_f31961b1-878e-52c6-acce-6eb90781ea71.html

Also, don't forget that the CNB building is finishing renovations and there is still much vacancy on Broad St. yet. I would rather see the vacant buildings we already have put to use before building too much new stuff. Once our stock of vacant buildings is occupied you'll begin seeing more building, but for now it is more efficient for builders to use the tax credits and rehab our current buildings. Remember our city once had a population of 250,000+ and it's not until we begin exceeding that level, that we really need many new buildings. I'm excited for the new buildings as well--they will come!

11-story building proposed for the eastern end of Tobacco Row. Church Hill NIMBYISM prevented a similar iteration last year. For what it's worth it looks much better than the previous renderings for the site. http://chpn.net/news/2015/09/08/eleven-story-building-proposed-for-cary-and-pear-streets_45327/ http://www.churchhill.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/CHA-request-2.pdf

I found this update for the Reynolds South Development project on the C-D forum: http://richmondbizsense.com/2015/09/07/developments-manchester-transformation-underway/