RiverYuppy

I think one of the biggest issues is our schools. There isn't a single public high school in the city that's well performing. If you locate your office downtown, Glenn Allen is about the closest you can reasonably expect a family to live. In my opinion, that's the biggest thing holding RVA back from being in the next tier. In most other cities, it might be expensive, but it's at least possible for employees to live in a good school district in the city.

The senior living community Westminster Canterbury will be building on a chunk of concrete desert near 95 in Henrico. Nothing huge, but I'm glad to see some of that area be developed as it looks awful!

RTD released a pretty cool article on home sale prices and values in RVA. Where property values (and tax bills) are shooting up in Richmond, Chesterfield and Henrico

RTD did an article today: Richmond's real estate market is on fire: Low inventory is causing multiple offers and homes selling above asking price in some areas

The Richmond development map is up there now!

If you scroll down to the very bottom of the page there is a "Contact Us" link. That's what I used to get in contact with them and they responded very quickly.

Also, it looks like the number of house sales and median home prices are continuing to rise. I messaged the moderators. They said Who owns the map on google again?

Real estate investor beefs up portfolio with $3M deal. The majority of those are in Northside, so I'm hoping they'll flip a bunch of those.

I actually met some people downtown at City Dogs during the Gymboree bankruptcy. They're generally lawyers that are making a fortune off the bankruptcy. As such they're very happy and more than generous. Interestingly, RVA has become a sort of bankruptcy haven.

I believe there is already an LDS location in Monroe Ward. They either rent it or own the building, but it doesn't at all look like a traditional church. Other than that, anecdotally a former Mormon coworker of mine lives in Hotel John Marshall. Perhaps there are already a lot of locals in the area. I would love to see them build it in Monroe Ward, as long as there is no surface parking.

Here is a cool infographic of where people moving to RVA are coming from. It seems the majority are from the surrounding counties. Also, never in a million years growing up did I think I would be excited for a census!

An abandoned church is being turned into an apartment building in Highland Park. The church looks very nice (if you ignore the whole being abandoned part), so I wish they would keep more of the facade. However, I still think what they're putting up is going to look decent. Regardless it looks much better than the cluster of abandoned buildings that make up the future development site. Here is the proposal PDF if anyone is interested.

I saw a pretty cool report on the Richmond real estate market for 2017. The median price for Northside went up a whopping 23%!

Arena or no arena, I'm very pro that area being redeveloped. Regarding housing, I don't see the downside of having housing there. More demand in the city is always a good thing. Regarding the arena, I really see it as competing with Charlottesville and Norfolk for concerts/attractions. A minor league hockey team would be nice, but that has no guarantee. I see a professional team as very unlikely. If we aren't going to build something that outcompetes Charlottesville and Norfolk, then I don't see the point of us wasting such valuable land. Perhaps a partnership with VCU would be good too. VCU Basketball, high school & university graduations, concerts, and other special events could keep it going year 'round.

I was a bit bummed that many of my friends moved away to DC after university. However, after a few years many of them are trying to find work in RVA so they can move back. A big part of it is that they are priced out of the areas they would want to live and relegated to the suburbs. What RVA offers for its affordable living cost is extremely good. One of my friends living in a nice apartment in DC is paying almost triple what I pay for my mortgage. If you have the money to do that without having to be a workaholic, DC is a blast. Otherwise, RVA looks very enticing.

Hourigan buys big on the Southside. Hopefully it will improve the curb appeal of South Richmond from 95 and provide some new jobs for the area.

Seminary apartments site work underway; second lawsuit dismissed. This is going to be great for Northside. Another 300 units will help add to the density. This combined with so many of the apartments on Chamberlayne being renovated will help the area.

I don't think we should give up hope on some towers yet. You have to look at Richmond as a whole. Neighborhoods like Manchester, Scott's Addition, and Shockoe Bottom have been slinging apartments and office space on the market at an unprecedented pace. Building tall buildings is expensive. If you're a developer, you're probably looking at the hundreds and hundreds of apartment units coming on the market in Richmond that are taking advantage of lucrative tax credits or (now prime) land that was bought for close to nothing. Do you really want to be the van guard of high-rise apartments when we're unsure at what point the absorption rate will slow down? When all of your competition is working on significantly better margins than you? Also, while not big brand new buildings, within the last 5 years the 15th (First National Bank) and 13th (Central National Bank) tallest buildings in RVA both were completely converted to apartments. We also had The Edison Apartments (> 10 floors) come on the market recently as an historic rehab. If I were a high-rise apartment developer, I wouldn't want to compete with those for unsure market absorption. The same goes for office space. You have Manchester and Scott's Addition slinging out new office space continuously. Especially if you're cobbling together tenants rather than renting to one who has needs that could not be met by an office in Scott's Addition, Manchester, The Fan, etc. The good news is that abandoned warehouses are drying up quick and there is no more land near downtown to be had for pennies. Once this happens, the prime place to add more units and office space will be downtown and the only way to financially justify building on such high valued land will be to build big and tall. EDIT: To give an example, the rehab of the 23 story CNB cost ~$20m + ~$5m purchase to get ~200 apartments. They also get historic tax credits. This new 12 story apartment with ~240 apartments is going to cost ~$60m not including accusation fees. The square footage is probably a bit different, but you see what new development has to compete with right now.

While anecdotal, housing seems to be going well too! Every block of my street has a house under renovation. The same is pretty much true for the two streets parallel to mine. On my block there are three being renovated! I was walking over to Ann Hardy Park to read a book when I noticed an abandoned hardware store was under full renovation mode. I talked to the developer and he said he was planning on turning it into a boutique house. He said he has been renovating houses in Northside for 25 years and is close to being priced out on even abandoned houses that go up for auction. That, combined with RRHA finally auctioning off a lot of its empty properties (especially in Maymont, Church Hill, and Northside) that we're seeing renovated. Also, we're seeing Church Hill really push up against the public housing. I used to live in "luxury apartments" two blocks from Mosby. Even 9 mile road is being redeveloped with a new grocery store. The end of vacant houses North of the river isn't here yet, but it certainly seems in sight. It's going to be interesting to see what happens once the only thing left is infill and redeveloping the housing projects.

It allows for more options for those who are in JSRCC. In high school I took classes at TCC. If I couldn't find the class I wanted at the Chesapeake campus, there was a good chance I could find it at the Norfolk or Portsmouth campus at a time I wanted. It also distributes classes better so someone far east doesn't have a huge disadvantage to someone who is more west.

Ideally it would be mixed use and have mixed-income housing. Just because it is residential doesn't mean it can't be commercial too. I would not call that area a "food desert." It is right near the BRT which takes you to multiple grocery stores. There is fast food within walking distance (at MCV). You have tons of restaurants as soon as you cross Broad as well. The more square footage we can get out of the development the better, in my opinion. What I would like to see included is some regional cooperation to expand the community college campus downtown, which is located very close to this development.

Another thing to consider is that downtown is leasing up square footage even while Scott's Addition and Manchester absorbs a small chunk of the market. I saw an article today about Barber Martin opening a new "quick turnaround video division." It would be nice to see them expand into a larger advertising agency! They leased up 10k square feet in Scott's Addition after moving from Chesterfield not long ago. That's space that would have potentially been taken up downtown. As Scott's Addition and Manchester start to feel the squeeze more I think we'll see a surge downtown and investors will view RVA as a more diverse & healthy market.

I went to a community last night and heard a lot about development in Northside. Approximately 160 homes ($175k-225k) are to be built in the Northside/Chestnut Hill area. That's on top of the ones that are going on the Southern Tip. They're also going to add a new trail along the Richmond-Henrico Turnpike and reopening the Ann Hardy Park.

Old Herod Seeds warehouse eyed for development This is amazing news for Shockoe Valley.

It looks like a bunch of the apartment buildings on Chamberlayne are going to get rehabbed.