benstyree

It's awesome to see these numbers coming in. It sounds like the new Nashville route is doing well, happy to hear that and I hope it becomes permanent. Someone call Southwest and tell them they're missing a lot of potential at RIC. Also, does anyone know the reason for Jetblue's steep decline while all others grew??

Great! Really looking forward to this one. because I live about a mile away. I got worried I hadn't seen any dirt move and then didn't see Richmond as a "coming soon" location on their website (don't know if it ever was but several others are listed).

Has there been any update on the new Topgolf? I can't find anything online for the last six months and it doesn't look like anything has been done at the site. Really hope this didn't fall through....

My intel came from someone I know who at the time worked for Dodson Commercial. He said the plan was to build a ~15 story residential building on the site of those 3-4 dilapidated buildings. That's been couple years ago though, and he's no longer there. Maybe plans changed?

Whew maybe I'll finally be vindicated for the possibly-premature scoop on that 300 block of Broad development.

That's awesome news! I really hope that route does well and more flights are added, along with new routes to other cities. Looking at RIC's wiki page, it seems like the OneJet service to Pittsburgh has been eliminated? I see Richmond is still an option on OneJet's website, but didn't find any flights available with a couple searches - are they gone?

Could this finally be Frontier with some more routes to the west (like....Seattle )??? http://www.nbc12.com/story/36833163/ric-to-announce-new-airline-on-tuesday

I've noticed over the last week or so that extensive site work seems to be going on at the NW corner of Boulevard and Robin Hood (catty-corner from the Ashe center). I remember a while back (I would guess at least 2 years), there was news of a Wawa going in either at that corner or next to it where the abandoned BP gas station is now, but I'd assumed that project was dead as it's been so long. I don't know if this is that or something else, but there's a lot of activity going on.

I assumed the hotel that article referenced was the one tied up in this litigation: http://richmondbizsense.com/2017/05/11/developer-files-counterclaim-in-alley-scrap/ ...or is that a separate development?

When did the RIC-JAX route end? I wasn't aware of that. I flew it last October and it was full or almost full. That's really disappointing, I'm ready to see new cities ADDED, not removed...

Has there been any news on the Crowne Plaza conversion to the boutique Marriott brand, or the new hotel across the street from Penny Lane / John Marshall?

This is the same block from my post back in July, hadn't heard anything about it in a while, but glad it may be gaining some momentum. If my source was correct back then, they're considering a ~15 story apartment building there! I hope that pans out.

RIC seems like a great potential growth spot for Southwest, any idea why they haven't expanded here (and if I recall correctly, actually discontinued one of their routes a year or two ago)? They have a very small presence at Dulles and Norfolk, a slightly larger but not huge presence at Reagan and RDU, and of course their hub at BWI. I would think they would do well adding routes from RIC to Nashville, New Orleans, Austin, Las Vegas, Phoenix, San Francisco, and/or LAX. RIC is an excellent facility, but adding destinations would do wonders for the airport and the city at large. Southwest seems like a perfect match to do so, and I'm not sure why they haven't yet.

Taken a few minutes ago. Also noticed last night the cranes now have lights across the booms and the taller one has the Hourigan/Clayco logos lit up. Looks pretty sharp.

flack, I just took a quick look at the Raleigh and Richmond MSAs (44 and 45): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Metropolitan_Statistical_Areas. I understand there are a variety of factors that affect these sorts of things, of course Raleigh also having Durham adjacent and much less competition. That comparison was more of a tangent as I typed, my original intent was just to acknowledge the new PIT route. It's just frustrating to have a city which most would consider a peer of Richmond having nonstop air service to multiple European and west coast destinations. Speaking of, is there a list of former RIC destinations? You mention that there was a PIT route before 2008. I know that flights have gone from RIC to Toronto and Cincinnati before, along with the seasonal vacation routes, but am curious to see what other routes have formerly left from RIC that no longer do.

Announcement today that a new airline will be offering daily service from RVA to Pittsburgh. Awesome to see new routes and additional flights being added! I really wish that we could get service to Nashville, Las Vegas, and/or Seattle. It's frustrating to see the list of destinations from an airport like RDU, which serves a metro area only slightly larger, compared to those from RIC. I understand that we have the DC airports in relatively close proximity, but there's so much untapped potential and I'm happy to see progress like this being made. http://www.nbc12.com/story/33997595/airline-to-offer-direct-flights-from-richmond-to-pittsburgh By way of reference, I took a quick glance at the RIC and RDU destinations. Jacksonville is the only one RIC has that RDU does not. RDU flies the following routes that RIC doesn't offer: Toronto, Seattle, New Orleans, Fort Myers, London, Los Angeles, Cancun, Paris, Salt Lake City, Austin, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Columbus, Hartford, Indianapolis, Tampa, Trenton, Las Vegas, Nashville, St. Louis, Phoenix, San Francisco.

I've been waiting for someone to point this out, but the article indicates that SunTrust was vacating 187,736 sf. on Main St. to lease 53,000 sf. at 321. Right below that, it says that SunTrust now plans to lease 75,000 sf. through 2028, so this still creates a net loss of 112,736 sf. leased space downtown. Even if they were to build 321 as designed now with no tenant, there would be 165,736 of empty space between the two towers (112,736 vacated in SunTrust Center + 53,000 at 321), whereas if SunTrust moved as planned, it would be 187,736. In sum, SunTrust is vacating 2x the space in SunTrust Center than it planned to lease at 321 and the net change in empty space downtown is minimal between both scenarios...only leaving us without a new tower in the skyline. I'm still hopeful that it'll get built sooner rather than later.

Sounds like the wrecking ball is about to swing. Finally some progress! Four months for demo, hopefully construction will start soon after.

Buried about 2/3 of the way down this article is a line that says Fountainhead Development plans to close the sale of the 321 property to Dominion Realty Partners in September to build this high-rise. I would have assumed that was already done, but it at least offers a little insight into the delay we're seeing and (maybe?) some insight into when it may start...

This is correct. This will be on the block of Broad between 3rd and 4th, where the Rainbow clothing store is on the corner. The 4 buildings to be demolished are the 4 in the middle of the block (not the Rainbow store or the unit on the opposite end). My contact indicated that they are in the process of closing on the properties now and demo will probably begin by the end of the year. They're looking at retail on the first floor with 1-2 BR apartments on the upper floors with larger penthouse units. It sounds like the group doing this is the same group responsible for some other recent successful downtown projects, but completion (assuming demo at year's end) is probably 1-2 years down the road from now. Hopefully it takes off as planned. Edit: I think it will be 4 of the 5 buildings in this screenshot:

No, he works for the commercial arm of a property management firm that also does significant residential work. Apologies for the vagueness, I'll try to get some more details from him this upcoming week.

I heard from someone I know who works for a downtown property management company that they are planning to knock down 4 buildings on Broad near The National to construct a 15-story primarily residential building. That's all the details I got today and will ask some more questions when I see him again in a few days. In the meantime, though, has anyone else heard anything about this (potential) project?

With Amazon's multiple facilities in the area, could this be good news for RIC? http://money.cnn.com/2016/03/10/technology/amazon-boeing-cargo-planes/index.html