RiverYuppy

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.

I'm with y'all on the being pro-RIC. I have that seem feeling for the Richmond over the counties though. One thing I hate the most for connecting flights are airports that require require you to go back through TSA for another terminal. Generally I don't have to go through TSA for the connecting flight, but sometimes the lounge or restaurant I want to go to is unfeasible because of how the terminals are set up. I think when RIC combines the terminals to be in the same security area, it's going to be a huge win, hopefully convincing a chain to come in past security. While I generally hate chains, I think they are the best thing in airports. A Chick-Fil-A sandwich in an airport is generally the same as one outside and without being double the cost! Also when searching it looks like over 70% of passengers at CLT are transfers who are neither going to nor coming from Charlotte.

August 2025: "We were only one month off. I said April to June-ish, not which year!"

A couple months ago I was working in my office when I noticed a group of people out front with a drone. I walked out because I was curious what they were doing. They said they were with CoStar and they were putting together footage of neighborhoods for Homes.com. If you go to the Homes neighborhood explorer, you can see every neighborhood in Richmond as well as pictures, and a video with drone footage with information about the neighborhood (house prices, schools, interesting places, etc.). I think they did a great job with it.

One of the developments approved for Lombardy in the VUU/Chamberlayne area popped up on LoopNet. The add states that they already have a special use permit to build the building but are looking to sell it to someone who will finish the project. Very similar to what was going on with the Dawn St. apartments across from Tabol. Hoping it doesn't get scrapped.

It looks like it is going to be a 6-7 year horizon, with the ABC HQ being the last domino to fall. I really do hope they add an educational building as well. While this will look so much better than what is there now and really transform the Hermitage corridor to Brookland Park Boulevard, it will limit density. At least having some extra employees in the area would help.

I love the idea of food halls, but in practice I haven't really been the largest fan of the food of ones I've been to. Some of the restaurants I wonder if they make it not because of their food, but just because they secured a spot in the food hall. I would much rather see something like an Arts District lined with restaurants on Broad as the food destination.

Next to the church being redeveloped on Brookland Park, there was another abandoned church behind it. Unfortunately it caught fire recently, so I grabbed some pictures of it and the one being developed. I'm hoping the burnt church doesn't sit there for ages and some sort of redevelopment happens sooner than later. The fire was so big that when walking to it I could see debris of burnt wood wafers 6 inches long as far as 5 blocks away from it! Also I meant to get more pictures for y'all elsewhere today but it was so cold my hands were freezing up operating the drone.

I was messing around with my drone today and noticed I had a couple pictures of a development off Mechanicsville Turnpike from September 24th. Here is the Richmond BizSense article about it. There are two pad sites available for commercial space. One currently has a building being erected (not sure what is going in) and the other is still empty. Additionally there was a small sub development that had been underway just across the turnpike. RBS article here. Here is a picture of it.

Good catch. I believe I pasted the wrong link. I went back to loop net to find the correct one and the listing appears to no longer be up. I was able to find the listing here on LongAndFoster.com. Also some more looking indicates that 711 Dawn St. was in foreclosure back in March/April. I would love to see the project come through. I've been waiting for years.

Boy am I happy to eat those words! It looks like the VUU/Chamberlayne area really is about to start to kick off! This will have a multiplier effect for Brookland Park as well, as it is what people mostly see when traveling to BP. Some recent developments. It looks like permits were pulled for the mixed-use apartments across from the abandoned church -> apartments renovation on Brookland Park. I also saw some permits pulled for the five-story building set to replace the old animal motel. Unfortunately the lot where the planned five-story building across from Tabol Brewing is now up for sale. I will try to get out and get some pictures soon. There is also an abandoned church that caught fire (next to the one being rehabbed into apartments) recently. It was such a massive fire you could see burnt debris from it a quarter mile away. It will be interesting to see what comes of it, as it is on a pretty substantial lot.

I think this is absolutely great. Why is a major region news outlet all the way out in Chesterfield instead of in the capital? This will incentivize workers to live in higher density housing in the Arts District, or even in neighborhoods like Church Hill, Manchester, Scott's Addition, The Fan, Northside, etc. It will also mean their lunch outings will create demand for new restaurants in the Arts District. Plus the various people who would want to visit the VPM HQ (such as for interviews, collaborations, live events) will add to demand for hotels entertainment in the Arts District. Now if only other significant companies would move downtown... I would love to see Capital One make a significant investment in the city like CarMax did.

I was visiting the museum of history and culture to see their NASA exhibit. I saw a cool painting of the model tobacco building that I thought y'all might like.

I have talked previously on how the number of people in a housing unit can impact the population numbers. I thought I could provide some RVA examples. I noticed a house sold recently in my neighborhood that used to be a duplex. Here you can see the old duplex on Google Maps. Here you can see the renovated SFH on Zillow. Here is an older example of a duplex to SFH. Here is the google maps of the duplex. Here is the Zillow page with the renovated pictures. While each of those houses had well into the six figures poured into renovating them, it would be seen as a negative hit on population. Those houses went from 6-8 people living in them to 2. However, I think there is a lagging positive population boost. Investments like these spur other investments, such as the nearby previously abandoned Barton Mansion that was renovated into 17 apartments. Or the 66 unit conversion of an abandoned church to apartments. Or 12 new apartments over commercial units where an abandoned car wash stood. Also I find it interesting that in both cases despite renovating it back into being a SFH, they kept both the doorways for when it was a duplex.

This made me curious, so I looked it up. Indeed 3 of the units purchased have been purchased by investors. Certainly not a significant amount though. There is a dearth of quality housing for VCU students though. I remember paying $650/person for a 4 bedroom that couldn't stay over 68 and had the roof eventually collapse when I rented in the fan in 2012. These new builds with quality finishings are renting for only ~$200 more than what I paid in 2012 are a great addition to options for students who need housing. And hopefully it will put pressure on fan slumlords.

* Wish: A coliseum redevelopment project gets announced -- with Gilpin Court redevelopment included in it! * Hope: The old bank building that was embroiled in a years long boondoggle gets sold by the RRHA to a developer. * Prediction: The Brookland Park Theater purchased over 4 years ago by a developer has a plan for it announced. * Prediction: The old animal motel on Lombardy set to be redeveloped breaks ground * Hope: The VUU redevelopment of the old motel on Lombardy gets started * Hope: Legends announces a high-rise building * Prediction: We see a major development on Broad in the Arts District that isn't linked to VCU * Prediction: As so much student housing comes online, the demand for Fan house rentals declines and we see more houses near VCU sold to home buyers. * Prediction: Obama elementary begins to be seen as a "preferred" school, increasing the "preferred" elementary schools from 4 to 5. Two of them being in Northside.

I think this is key. However, I think an integral part of it is that the employer have positions in Richmond, not Chesterfield/Henrico. People who work all the way out in Chesterfield/Henrico don't want to live in a tall building downtown with expensive parking. Anecdotally, my friends who work in Downtown, The Fan, Scott's Addition, and Manchester also live in one of those same neighborhoods. My friends who work in West Creek live in Powhatan, Goochland, and Midlothian and haven't even been in Downtown proper in years. I know many people think rising tide lifts all boats. But it's hard for Richmond to grow UP if it is sprawling out instead.

I would say that even Richmond proper's west end does not have good post-elementary schools after the rezoning. Albert Hill Middle is now below the state average in reading, writing, math, and science.

I think one thing that holds Richmond back is schools. Where can you live within 15 minutes of downtown and send your kid to a decent public school. Literally nowhere. That makes it hard for a company to put an HQ downtown when so many of their employees have school-aged children. Hopefully that will change soon.

I moved here back in 2017 ... boy was it different then. I think Northside is going to drastically change in the next decade though. After the 2020 rezoning it's the only area in the city that has a decent shot of having a quality k-12 pipeline. It went from having 3 elementary schools that were below division & state average and one that was just below state average to 3 elementary schools above the division average and 1 above the state average. It went from the middle and high school being fed by one of the worst elementary schools in the city to only being fed by the 4 in Northside that are doing so well. This will make the jump from elementary -> middle -> high school much easier to do for parents since they don't have to worry how things are going to change with a completely different set of students. Once Northside gets seen as a good school district, it will be a self-fulfilling cycle. Just like Linwood Holton has done for Bellevue area. Except parents won't feel forced to sell before 6th grade. I'm excited to see the results from the 2023-2024 school year to see how much things have changed in just 3 years!

Come check out Highland Park and Chestnut Hill. There are still some affordable houses to be found. While there are some going for $500k+, there are still a lot of great finds. Take a look at this one that sold for only $325k and has a third floor terrace.

I can also confirm this was the case. Currently in RIC -> DFW -> LAS. The RIC -> DFW was delayed and many of us had tight connections. One lady was flying to Calgary and I asked her if she had to go through customs first. She said it was at the destination. Also about 300 people from Capital One IT departments flew from RIC -> LAS for the Amazon AWS conference. So I'm mooching off my fiancee's free work hotel It would be nice if we could snatch up another Capital One/CoStar, especially if they locate inside of Richmond like CoStar did.

Tomorrow I'll be flying RIC -> DFW -> LAS. My GF is going to an Amazon conference, so I'm going to tag along. American (who I usually fly) seems to have a lot of flights to DFW. DFW makes sense for flying to LAS, but it was inconvenient for flying to Europe. I'm excited for RIC to keep growing so we can continue to get more convenient routes. I managed to convince my future parent-in-laws to move to Charlotte -> RVA--doing what I can to increase the population. I know they would appreciate a consistent direct RIC -> MSP to visit their son out there. Not having that was one of their hesitations for moving here.

Interesting sliver of land for sale in the Diamond District. It's right abut the highway. It's marketed as being a good place for self-storage. I wonder what other things could be done with that land?

It will be interesting to see if they say the debate is in Richmond or Petersburg. According to their website Hotel Petersburg should be open by spring 2024. That's great timing for Petersburg as the hotel selection nearby is really lacking. Especially since Fort Lee opened a 1k room hotel on base, meaning a lot of people no longer have to rent rooms outside the base.