RiverYuppy

I noticed what looks like is going to be a construction site at Hull/Midlothian & 27th. Does anyone know what's going on there?

It looks like Michael & Son's are renovating the old Wyeth Tower to be dorms for their company's trade school.

I think that land could be put to much better use. If it is possible, I think under the highway near main street station would be the best place. It would be near the BRT, Main Street Station, and allow us to utilize otherwise difficult to develop land.

It looks like Shockoe Valley View phase 2 is almost done. The leasing office says they expect to start renting it out in a month or two. It will feature a rooftop deck and some other amenities. There seems to be a wooden deck and some sort of concrete structure going up on the edge of the hill. I also took these picture while eating lunch in Jefferson Park the other evening (so they're a week old). A shot from behind the apartments. This is also behind the apartment complex. It appears to be the foundations for three townhomes. Also you can already see a crane from Jefferson Park!

Let's hope they aren't planning on shipping more employees out to the county.

I think schools are going to continue to be an issue. The amount of children enrolled in schools north of the river has plummeted over the past decade, despite our growth in population. All the growth in schools has been in South Richmond near the largely hispanic neighborhoods. So while the overall RPS student enrollment has stayed the same over the past decade, there has been a huge shift in concentration of the students from North of the river to South Richmond. Broad Rock and Oak Grove were built to help with the rise of enrollment in South Richmond. Those kids will eventually head to Middle and High school, so there might need to be another school in South Richmond to accommodate for them. Perhaps there are some schools north of the river that can be consolidated; however, the real issue is with handling the increase in population south of the river and it is hard to consolidate those schools with the ones far North.

I would like to see it in South Richmond near Phillip Morris rather than Manchester. I want Manchester to continue it's retail and population density boom. It would also be nice to get some jobs in South Richmond where people need them.

I think it really depends on how the schools and demographics change in the area. My old boss is moving out of Chesterfield because "their schools are slipping" in his opinion. If RVA can turn its schools around, I think that would be a 25-50k difference in population over a decade.

I had brunch at Pop's Market today and noticed the building across the street is being renovated to be a sandwich shop called the "Secret Sandwich Society." The area is really taking off, though I wish they would have picked something other than a sandwich shop since Pop's already has such amazing sandwiches.

New boutique hotel, Moxy, planned for downtown Richmond It would be great to see this help start fill in the gaps in Richmond's downtown nightlife. Hopefully Richmond can continue to attract empty nesters so we can stave off a population plateau before the schools finally get fixed.

Bad news for the east end redevelopment: Feds pass over Richmond for $30M grant critical to East End redevelopment

A million times yes. If NIMBYism destroys this, I'm going to be very disappointed in the city.

I don't get how that area hasn't been developed yet. It's prime real estate being so close to MCV and downtown.

I was biking back from lunch today and I noticed that the VCU building on the corner of Franklin and Harrison is finally being renovated. Even if they don't do much of an outside face-lift, removing the window AC units and adding new windows would do wonders.

Yeah, that section of Hull street is about to really start transforming. I really hope they can start filling up the corridor with new tenants and businesses.

I thought you guys might like the view from my new apartment. After leaving near the Fan area for a while, I decided I would venture into the Church Hill area to see how I like it. I'm hoping to move on buying a house soon and Church Hill is one of the places I'm looking. So far I'm really liking the area.

I agree the design looks amazing. It would look amazing from the Capital Trail as well as give more visibility to the trail. Plus the view from the restaurant would be great! I really hope this one comes to fruition.

I would suggest perhaps utilizing the layers for convenience. I really like having the transit on there, but it can make it hard to get a bird's eye view of the development. It would be cool if all transit was in its own layer and you could just hide/show that layer. Perhaps it would be good to also have some sort of removal process. I really like keeping the completed projects, but there are a few "proposed" projects on there that just don't seem as though they are going to happen. For example, city stadium is on there for a "proposed" development. Is that more of a "wouldn't it be cool if this happened" or is there an actual proposal in place? There is also the Shockoe Bottom baseball stadium...

I agree. I was surprised that this is happening so soon. I was expecting another decade before we would see one of those buildings on Jefferson Davis redeveloped. It is pretty bad on that side of town too. Council member Trammell for the 8th district (South RVA) was complaining to the police chief about the rampant public prostitution in the corridor about a month ago. It makes the area seem so much worse because the "crime" is so publicly visible. I really wish the city could devise a plan to clean up or get rid of those motels. I think that would go a long way in cleaning up the area.

Wow, that's pretty big. I'm surprised to see development happening so far down Jefferson Davis. I thought it would be another decade before I started to see anything down that far. I wonder how long it will be before some bars and grocery stores start popping up around the Hull St. Corridor.

It looks like VCU's Virginia Treatment For Children facility is well underway. That combined with the VUU Arts building will start making RVA look more desirable to people driving on 64.

Some of the best neighborhoods around the world have consistent heights, but small variation in design. I think the most important part is density and walkability, which has a lot to do with how they handle parking and setback.

I saw that on my bike ride to work the other day. Hopefully someone snatches up that adjacent land and develops something there as well. I know Jahnke road is supposed to get improved (apparently with a bike lane!), so hopefully the new development will spur some tenants to take up shop in that shopping center across the street as well. With the Boulders office park and the Chippenham Hospital right there, we should try to entice the workers to live in RVA rather than chesterfield.

I think it is good that RVA doesn't have enough rope to hang itself with sprawl.

It looks like more apartments will be going up in South Richmond off Jahnke Road. It will be good to continue getting more tax money out of the South side of the river.