RiverYuppy

Friday at 09:26 PM

The WSJ ranked RVA the 11th hottest job market in the US.

Quote

Rankings are based on five attributes: average unemployment rate throughout the year; yearly labor-force participation rate; change in the average monthly employment and labor-force levels from a year earlier; and the change in average weekly wages, not adjusted for inflation, in the first half of the year from a year earlier, reflecting the latest available wage data.

Each attribute was ranked, and those rankings were added together to create an overall score. Large metropolitan areas are those with a 2022 population above one million.

April 23

A cool play by them since drones are increasingly becoming relevant in real estate.

Insurers are already using drones to check against incorrect info given in home insurance applications.

I wonder if cities could also use the technology to create AI assessors.

April 18

Why is the community college in Richmond so bad?

Take a look at TCC in downtown Norfolk. It's nestled into the fabric of their downtown, doesn't have obscene setbacks, is walkable from building to building, etc.

Compare that to the Reynolds RVA "campus." Imagine if you're 18 and grew up in the suburbs then you come to this for a class. The city would seem like a dreary miserable place to be.

On top of that the RVA Reynolds doesn't have many classes, where as the downtown Norfolk TCC you can get your entire associates from that one location.

I would love to see the region invest in a better central community college in the city.

April 18

I actually considered moving to Charlotte. My partner's parents were living there. We even rented a place there for just under a year to get a feel for it.

I hated it.

Did the skyline look cool? Absolutely! But "Uptown" (which really frustrated me that it wasn't called Downtown) really isn't anything like Chicago, NYC, SF, LA, etc. Outside of the 9-5 it is way less vibrant than what its size would indicate. The reason I want tall buildings downtown is to have a fun and vibrant downtown. Otherwise they're just for the skyline.

The housing stock there is absolutely terrible. If you want to live close to downtown you either pay over $1m for a 900sqft house or you're rich enough to buy that house, bulldoze it, and put up a $2m house on the lot. (I know there is the "Elizabeth" neighborhood, but it's small compared to RVA).

If you want to be in the "in" areas of RVA the housing stock is full of historic victorian era buildings built to accommodate families and last.

The Downtown in CLT didn't have great shopping either. The shopping was all in South Park which is essentially a pricier Short Pump.

What I do miss from Charlotte was some of the amenities. While I think that RVA punches above its weight for restaurants, the variety of cool places to eat, play, and shop in CLT was really nice. That is something that comes with size and a large professional workforce. There are many experiences I had in CLT that I wish I could have in RVA.

I think CLT does BIG in a way that is least enjoyable.

@I miss RVA will be happy to know I convinced my partner's parents to move to RVA. We'll poach CLT residents one couple at a time if we have to.

I want RVA to grow. I just want it to grow in a way that makes it more enjoyable to live and play in RVA. A new HQ in Short Pump where the workers consider The Fan/Scott's Addition "Downtown" and never enter the city does little to increase the demand for the types of amenities I want in the city.

I think the best mid-sized example of this is Norfolk. New developments in Virginia Beach or Chesapeake do more to suck development out of Norfolk than increase it.

I want RVA to do the reverse, suck the development out of the counties.

The Diamond District is set to include ~2k housing units, plus even more in the vicinity. That's more than Scott's Addition put up all together 2010-2020. That would be a vacuum pointed straight at Henrico to get residents into the city.

Having more people close to Downtown also create more incentive for companies to locate offices in Downtown RVA, creating the type of cycle that has built many of the great cities.

April 16

Reading that just made me more bitter about Navy Hill. It solved all those problems.

His points aren't wrong. I still support the development.

I'll leave it at that.

April 8

I think it looks pretty good.

I don't see any surface parking lots or buildings under 5 stories. I don't think that could be said for any stretch of RVA--even downtown.

April 3

20 hours ago, I miss RVA said:

What's the latest with the Cobb lumber site project?

I don't know. I was hoping RBS would drop a hint in the story about the condos. I drive by it every time I go to the grocery store with my fingers crossed that they have broken ground.

April 2

No NIMBY's in my backyard‽

The type of people who move into these condos are going to be the type of people hoping they're first movers in the next Scott's Addition. Nobody is going to be buying these condos for the charm of the neighborhood.

They're speculating the neighborhood is going to be a place lots of people want to live. These people will be actively pushing for the area to be more like Scott's Addition or Manchester. Also having a significant amount of stable homeowners in the area will hopefully make larger bets on the area more likely.

There are some great projects right near that will bring density to the area, we just need them to get off the ground. Just around the block Breeden Construction is planning a 6-story mixed use HQ & apartment. Unfortunately there hasn't been any movement since it was announced in 2021.

Right across the street from it a 5 story apartment building is supposed to replace a warehouse.

Just a bit down Overbook, there are some plans for places on Lombardy as well. These condos aren't setting the tone for the neighborhood, they're kicking the neighborhood off.

March 26

On 3/25/2024 at 10:30 AM, 123fakestreet said:

Well, unless they start demo in the next 4 days they have missed this Q1 deadline. Can't say I'm surprised.

The permit they pulled for the demo sort of indicates that it will start 4/4/24.

Also the auto shop right next to this lot listed for sale just a month ago. The listing reads "VUU buy this as part of this project," so if they're adding that lot it could add some delay.

If you look at it from google street view you can see it would be considered quite the eyesore to be directly abut VUU "Gateway" with "Great road frontage" as the listing says.

March 22

I was just trying to point out that perhaps OP was talking about treasury rates. Baseball statistics sounds confusing to me!

I'm still expecting some sort of drop in the federal funds rate this year. The treasury markets do too--just not as deep of a cut as they thought in February.

Either way some more movement in Manchester would be nice. I hiked the Buttermilk Trail last month and stopped on Hull Street looking for some lunch. I was surprised at how little has changed on Hull Street between Cawardin and Commerce. A lot of Manchester's appeal is the potential of that stretch.

Hopefully it isn't an issue with Hild drama.

March 22

While the feds have not changed their rates, bond yields change every day. The 10 year treasury yield is indeed up recently, especially if you track from its February 1st low. Though it is also down significantly if you track from its October high (the highest it has been in ~17 years). We can look at treasury yields as an indicator of where the market thinks the feds will go.

March 20

This is going to be an awesome addition and I'm excited to see the downstream effects of this. On the other side of Belvidere a 15 story apartment geared towards students is supposed to house ~500 people.

This new dorm is going to house ~1,250 people.

The Johnson Hall renovation is expected to bring another ~440 beds online.

That's nearly 2,200 beds coming online in the next few years. That's almost equal to 1% of the entire city's population!

This could lead to some pretty big changes in neighborhoods that are dominated by VCU students, such as Carver, Randolph, Jackson Ward, Oregon Hill, and The Fan (between Harrison and Lombardy).

It will open up those neighborhoods more to professionals looking to rent or buy in the city. It will bring more workers and businesses closer to Downtown. This will create more desirable spaces for professionals close to downtown, making it more likely for there to be demand for tall apartment/condo buildings in the Monroe Ward/Downtown. All this will be good for VCU too.

The only people who lose here are the landlords renting out dilapidated houses to students for $1k/month/room.

March 18

Great news for Petersburg. It needs all the jobs it can get. Also interestingly during the Atlantic 10 championship broadcast on CBS last night (RIP VCU NCAA chances), I saw a tourism commercial for Petersburg. It's too bad they couldn't include the upcoming boutique hotel in it yet.

Richmond region salaries were in Axios today. In many of the top paying positions in RVA the average is well below the national average. I was pretty shocked at how low they were. Hopefully with the rise of remote work, Richmonder's can start negotiating better salaries.

March 12

20 hours ago, 123fakestreet said:

The apartments on BPB. They cleared this site probably 3 years ago and it just sat. Maybe 1 year ago they poured the pad then it sat again. Haven't been by in a while but they finally started work, at this point it's nearing completion. And that block looks so much better now. Need to get 2-3 more of these going on BPB

About a mile away on the same road is the Church -> Apartments renovation which is coming along well.

I'm really excited to see what happens on BPB after these apartments go up. The guy building the ones in the pictures owns the abandoned theater and the big building on the corner of North Ave and Brookland Park. He plans on moving on to one of those after this project.

If you take a look at this post on page 3 of this thread, many of the changes you see across BPB are projects he has done and he's only gaining steam. After this development he plans on tackling the two largest buildings on the boulevard. I'm also confident they're going to be great projects, as he's got incentive to provide a value add to the other rentals and commercial places he has in the area.

Also we're starting to see the entrance of new commercial developers/independent businesses. Slay Burger took a century to open, but their new spot Die By Fry is flying along.
Photo of their sign is from reddit.

Within the last five years BPB has gained BOHO Fitness Studio, Diamond & Dutch dog groomers, Scrap RVA, Hand Thrown ceramic studio, Ruby Scoops, Mrs. Bees Juice Bar, Brookland Park Kitchen, Fuzzy Cactus, Manchu, Unkindness Tattoo, Manchu, Rag & Bone Bike Shop, Brookland Park Flowers, Alma's Art Gallery, Richmond Art Gallery, Hand & Mirror boutique saloon, Smoky Mug, Slay Burger, Ninja Kombucha, and a woodwork studio.

If we keep that same pace, BPB will be completely transformed in 5 years. However, I think it's going to speed up. We already have a new restaurant and art gallery lined up.

February 23

3 hours ago, I miss RVA said:

This is what's showing up on their website?

Hmmm... very interesting that Baskervill is showing THIS set of renderings, because this wasn't the proposal that was selected. The only thing I can think of is maybe it's in reference to changes to the ballpark design from the winning group?

Dunno... I'm scratching my head on this one.

Why didn't we go with that proposal? I would much rather have that one.

February 22

More apartments is a good thing.

But where we need affordable housing is in places with good school districts if we ever expect people to break generational poverty. When poorer parents are placed in good school districts with kids under 13, their children's future expected income doubles. It's a shame that affordable housing seems to mainly be built in the literal worst possible areas for their children.

February 19

Capital One is buying Discover Financial in a deal that would marry two of the largest credit-card companies in the U.S.

I wonder how this might impact the Capital One office in Goochland. One can only dream that they might expand into Richmond!

February 13

I'm happy about the dearth of available lots. I think it will help with pushing infill and density in the city. I've been seeing an uptick in empty lots in my neighborhood developed into houses. I have also seen an uptick in existing lots being split up to increase density.

When was the last time Richmond had a condo development the size of Riverside or The Vistas? Decades ago!

More SFHs in Powhatan where residents don't enter city limits for years are not what is going to convince someplace like CoStar that their executives would like RVA. "Sure you won't have someplace like Dupont Circle and there aren't really *any* upscale condos near shopping, but you're going to love the amount of Chipotle's going up 30-45 minutes from the office!"

February 12

Bon Secours will lease the bottom two floors of the new development with sports medicine, primary care, PT, and urgent care. Glad to see this staying in the city. This will make it easy for people to use the Pulse for routine checkups.

I noticed when RBS did a piece on their master plan, they said

Quote

Sauer Properties plans to generally build out the Sauer Center starting with the northern properties along West Leigh Street and work toward Broad Street.

If that is the case, the next development should be very close--if not next to--the 5 story, 300 unit apartment building that SpyRock is building.

This is going to be a huge change for Leigh Street!

February 12

It's supposed to be a five story 300 unit apartment.

Right now there is only the parking garage up.

February 8

It was a surface lot. Here is a google maps link, the 2019 version should show the surface lot.

February 8

The 15 story student apartments is coming along pretty well!

Also here is the lot for the planned VCU arts building.

February 8

It looks like the demolition is complete.

February 8

I got some pics from 02/02/24.

First up is everybody's favorite strip development on AA. You can see the planned 7 story apartment lot being used for temporary construction parking/supply storage.

Just down the road we can see the Novel Scotts Addition under development. We can also see the Greyhound which is slated for redevelopment.

These pictures are taken right next to the Diamond to give a reference point.

Also here is some pictures of Brewers Row. You can also see an old warehouse converted into apartments prior to 2020.

EDIT: Looking at the warehouse apartment conversion, it has quite a bit of solar panels, which is cool. glass roofs are for very cool open air courtyards.

And here is a picture of The Park RVA

January 31

It would have been amazing if they moved here. I wish they were planning on keeping a smaller footprint in NoVA and really building out RVA. A 37 story tower is a pretty big investment in NoVA.

My assumption is that executives didn't want to move here for a variety of reasons (airport, uprooting family, friends, amenities, etc.). If I had a multi-million dollar condo in DC, I wouldn't want to move to RVA either (*ducks and hides*).

This is why it matters that more development happens in the city rather than the continuous sprawl. If we had a vibrant and walkable downtown it might be more enticing to move here. The way for us to get a more vibrant and walkable downtown is to have more people live downtown. A new sprawling apartment complex in the counties does absolutely nothing to help with enticing an executive to move here.

At least they're way better than Capital One that gives us nothing more than a boring suburban office park that encourages everyone to live in Powhatan and encourages relocation hires to not live in Richmond.

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