benstyree

All four corners of that intersection are in desperate need of a wrecking ball and tower crane. It's an embarrassment that that prominent of an intersection is surrounded by a shady CVS, an even shadier Subway, and two gas stations.

NC eats asses for lunch?

Agreed 100%. A paint job for the rounded concrete "corners" and replacing the awful looking windows/cladding would do wonders for the aesthetics of the building. I would hate to see it come down. Rather, I'd love to see it sold to a developer who builds its long lost twin on the northern end of the parking garage, although preferably a fraternal twin...

I had to read that a couple times lol

While Alaska would be great, I’d rather see Delta add a route to their hub there. When’s the last time a legacy carrier added a route from RIC (other than the recent restoration of the MSP route)? Delta would give direct connectivity to a few Asia routes, of course in addition to a ton of western domestic cities.

My wife flew out of RIC earlier today and texted me, “I’ve never seen the airport this packed! I don’t feel like I’m in Richmond.” Love to hear it!

Looking at future schedules, it seems like Breeze is increasing their frequency to 5x/week starting next month!

I agree that the smaller shops should have Broad Street frontage, but I don't think what we're discussing is mutually exclusive. I would love to see a large mixed used building fronting the entire block of Broad where the Firestone building currently is. There could be a pedestrian entrance for Kroger there as well, perhaps on one corner (and a second, probably larger, entrance on the other side of the store where the parking structure would be located), and the smaller retailers could fill up the remaining parcels along Broad Street. This doesn't require the big box to be "set back a block". What I'm really talking about is something like this Giant in DC, but where you see the awnings down H street here would be smaller retailers like the ones currently in the little strips in front of Kroger.

I think it's crucial to have a legitimate grocery outlet in that area. It serves VCU, near northside, downtown, and a large portion of the Fan. I'd hate to see it moved out to the Diamond District. What I would love to see is the existing setup turned into an urban footprint with structured parking instead of a huge parking lot with the store set back way off of Broad. This would include knocking down the old service station/Dollar Tree/Foot Locker and the little strips which now front Broad. Those stores could be integrated into the ground floor of a new development. Something like the Carytown Publix, but with 8-10 floors of apartments above it. The fuel station can stay where it is. Then reconnect Clay Street behind the new development and behind Lowe's (it looks like a right-of-way may still be there) to establish the grid. This would leave the current footprint of the Kroger available for a second residential mid/high-rise. After that's done, do the same thing with the Lowe's lot and turn the old Sear's building into a Target.

I think this is your answer: https://www.wric.com/news/local-news/richmond/westbound-lanes-of-west-broad-street-closing-in-scotts-addition-this-weekend/?utm_campaign=socialflow&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=referral&fbclid=IwAR0AGvcvWg0Wy-_pPCjGAaX2WgTPDuyPU8dJDenTxyHP4Y0YRZgDUeQIEoc

Every corner of that intersection needs to be redeveloped into mixed use. There should be something 5+ stories on each of those 4 corners. Two gas stations, a crappy CVS and an even crappier Subway are about as far from highest and best use of those parcels as you can get.

Pretty pumped for this. I live in the neighborhood across Broad from this area, so pass through here quite frequently. The Westwood area has SO much more potential than it's being used for right now, and I'm glad to hear about developments like these that will help reach it. If we could only get some of the projects on Broad underway (and some more announced), like the Motley's site, the building on the south side of Broad next to the 7-11, etc. Broad could look so much more visually appealing with just a little lipstick.

On the grocery topic, has anyone heard any intel on the new “mystery grocer” at Willow Place in the old Food Lion space? I was by there recently and the space for the new HomeGoods is completely gutted and there’s significant work going on with the rest of the center. I live pretty close to here so curious who’s coming in…

How did we get here…

I just went to Street View to confirm which building this is. I'm no structural engineer, but....buckling brick panels can't be good, right?? And this was from 2019...the sooner this goes down, the better.

100% agree on Southwest. I'm not sure what their strategy is at RIC, if they even have one. But speaking of Allegiant, that's another airline that I'm surprised hasn't really expanded operations much at RIC. They have operating bases in Austin, Cincinnati, Fort Lauderdale, Indianapolis, Vegas, LA, Phoenix, and Pittsburgh. Yet, they only fly from RIC to Nashville and a few airports in Florida. I've only flown on Allegiant once (back when they offered JAX) and the flight was fine. I'm not sure of their RIC growth strategy either, but I'd like to see them expand operations here and offer some additional destinations (at least give us Austin!).

DON'T YOU DARE BESMIRCH THE NAME OF MR. SUBMARINE!

I hate all of this.

I don't hate the overall design of this concept, but I really can't get my mind behind the giant serpentine park snaking through the entire development. Aside from the unlikelihood that it will be properly maintained, as others have mentioned, it just creates an unnecessary divide between the two sides of the neighborhood. I'm all for appropriate green space, but I think this would better suited by multiple smaller park areas, perhaps 1) a plaza with a water feature and benches/tables, 2) a nice playground for kids of varied ages, 3) a skate park/basketball courts for older kids and younger adults, and/or 4) a larger green area where people can picnic, toss a frisbee, etc. These don't all have to be the same park, nor should they be. These smaller areas would also lend themselves more to a traditional street grid. As best I can tell from the rendering, there is only one through street across the park - this seems like a nightmare with all of the anticipated new residents, office workers, etc. (not to mention game days). This concept seems like the developer realized they needed to include some green space, so just took a green highlighter and went down the middle of the page.

It looks like this flight is coming back on Sept. 11. As best I can tell right now, it will only fly on Sundays. I might be wrong about that, and that isn't ideal, but at least it's a start!

Obviously this isn't something that would be publicly available, but I would be interested in seeing the most popular international route (or domestic routes, for that matter) by travelers with Richmond-metro zip codes. I would bet that at least each airline has that data, if not the DOT or FAA.

https://richmond.com/news/state-and-regional/govt-and-politics/u-s-money-for-new-customs-facility-at-ric-opens-window-for-international-flights/article_def252dc-99c0-5674-9dad-fb1c58d7cfd7.html#tracking-source=home-top-story HUGE for RIC! Federal funding approved to build a new customs facility for international routes. Construction is supposed to be finished by this time next year, and most importantly the spokesman indicates that airlines are already showing interest in international destinations from RIC. This could be a game changer.

HUGE missed opportunity to make it look like it is built of LEGOs.

Well it appears the LAX flight has either been yanked or further delayed. I was scheduled for 9/17 and got an email this morning reporting me via Boston. I looked around my scheduled date and then a few dates later in the year and didn’t find any nonstops. Huge bummer if this route was canceled AGAIN. ETA: based on further search, nonstops appear to be showing up again starting in January. In any case, sucks for me ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Soda Flats site has been cleared!