RVAnouveau

And if that's the case, those southside sites might be better overall. In a scenario with more than one casino or if the GA loosens things up more, I'd imagine it would be ideal to confine them to a particular area/district. You can do that in south Richmond, but not so much with Scott's Addition in play. After taking a closer look at the Cordish proposal and having lived/experienced their Philly development, I'm really concerned about what impact a casino would have on SA, which has grown organically into its own thing. Will people still want to live next door to an urban casino? Would tech businesses still want to be located in a district with a casino right there? Maybe, but I'm having second thoughts. I have no doubt that a casino there would be successful, but how would it change the nature of SA? I would probably take Bally's in their alternative location (probably the same location chosen by Wind Creek) over the SA location.

Cordish seems like the best option now and Bally's is my second favorite. But I did want to post this video for the UrbanOne casino, since before seeing it, I was totally turned off. The video provides a better overview of what it might look like along with what looks like a modest hotel tower element at the edge.

I love the Wind Creek render, but I think it's important to point out that Wind Creek is a segment of the Creek Nation. Not that it matters, but it might be a slap in the face for Richmond City Council to approve theirs over the homegrown Pamunkey. If there's any development that's political, it's a casino, so...

Keep in mind, a serious developer could always request a variance to zoning rules/ordinances, so I doubt that setback requirements are a true underlying reason for the height barrier. I agree with the points made about property values and psyche. At this time where property in the CBD is cheap, it is still more economical for a Dominion to build out a campus-style or multi-building set up rather than go totally vertical where costs increase exponentially. I'm sure if the desire to create something iconic, or a need was there, it could happen.

1) It isn't just about the building. You can build a big building for 3k employees anywhere, but what makes the investment worthwhile is the potential of the surrounding community to attract and grow your workforce. It's about retention and amenities. That was the benefit of the NH project. Without it, what's attractive about making that kind of long-term commitment? 2) It isn't Dominion's job to keep CoStar or any other employer in the city. Hate them or not, it's true, they are among Richmond's biggest corporate cheerleaders. But while it might be nice for the two to go in on a tower together, that isn't really going to happen unless it makes business sense. I hope they do, but again Dominion is Dominion and CoStar is CoStar. 3) Existing employees are important to any company, but CoStar can maintain those without needing to expand here, while slowly moving people away as most business do in similar situations or mergers/acquisitions. They have offices in other places like Charlotte, which they could target for expansion or simply drop their innovation center there and invite people to move. Hello, they did the same thing when they moved positions to Richmond from DC!

Was just gonna say, the crane is huge! I would've thought it wouldn't need to be that tall given the supposed height of the new building. And there's gonna be two that height? Seems even taller than the 600 canal cranes. They'll be like the tallest things downtown.

Yes, they owned the plot where the current Gateway Plaza tower stands, which was essentially surface parking. But that was a different era in terms of the downtown. The article today in Biz Sense suggests that the timeline for new tower would see completion in 2023. But they probably don't feel the need to rush the plans through because it's going to take almost a year to do site work following the implosion (according to the article). Also, with the new tower open, there's less pressure to throw something up. During the 600 Canal process, there was background chatter about the discord between the architectural firms involved and Dom who put on pressure to get things done without much in the way of immagination. Who knows what they might do now. If you look down in Charlotte, you've got Duke throwing up new buildings that dwarf 600 Canal. One of Dom's aims was to spruce up the skyline with this project. Dom leadership tends to view themselves as benefactors of the city, so it's not likely that they're gunning to leave a whole in the middle of the CBD they want to make attractive for their talent.

I like how the article says they're unsure what will replace the tower. It gives me hope that they're considering something that will punch higher on the skyline than their original plans. While the company's ongoing expansion may not change too many things here at home, it's definitely worth noting that they've acquired Questar Gas (Utah), Rocky Mountain Power (OR//CA/WA) and of course the big SCE&G of South Carolina since the original plans were developed. I'd love to see a mixed use office/hotel or something like that because it's a prime spot and since they were concerned about renno costs, it definitely sounds like they still want more office.

Dominion signage is being removed from One James River Plaza today! Does anyone recall the tentative demo date?

FYI - crane activity this morning at the South Falls development near the Floodwall. Looks like some kind of mobile crane similar to the kind used at the Locks Tower.

Hey folks! Check out what's going on at Sauer Center. The big day is soon upon us!

Several months ago, VDOT removed the high-mast lighting that led up and toward the Maury Street exit on I-95 south of the James River Bridge. My guess is that they could now be replacing the older, removed lighting with new LED high-mast lighting because I had seen them working on other existing poles earlier this week. (But it's just a guess and it could very well be new signage). Honestly, driving at night, with all the development, I really wish that the area had more in the way of roadway lighting for safety.

Here's some positive news - "State transportation officials announce completion of bypass designed to alleviate Acca Yard bottleneck" https://www.richmond.com/news/local/city-of-richmond/state-transportation-officials-announce-completion-of-bypass-designed-to-alleviate/article_497eb02e-e332-5ca5-9c28-166b66e8aea4.html So glad this is done because I didn't anything was actually happening at all. These improvements make expanding service at Main Street Station much more feasible and hopefully lay the groundwork for higher speed rail.

Well, although WestRock left for Atlanta, homegrown Markel Corp recently joined the F500. Lumber Liquidators is an F1000 that was previously a F500, so it very well could re-join after their move to Richmond at Libbie Mill. And we still have CarMax, Altria, Dominion, Performance Food Group, Owens & Minor, and Genworth all in the F500. We should be so lucky to have this many F500s in our midsize market, only a stone's throw away from the Northern VA behemoth. You're right, if we can continue to improve on our schools, *public transportation*, and making our community amenities more attractive, we'll be in good shape. I really hope Dominion revises their plans on that second tower and up the square footage northward!

Speaking of which, is that crown light testing I see??

This worries me. There's an official press release that mentions the combined entity's commitment to its legacy home communities, but it does not mention Richmond. It doesn't mean that both companies will eviscerate their RVA-based operations - BB&T Capital Markets and SunTrust Mortgage (itself a result of the old Crestar marriage with SunTrust), but with a new HQ in Charlotte, there's a significant probability both of these things, the talent, the salaries and the investment will head south. BB&T Capital Markets/Scott & Stringfellow, in particular, have a long Virginia history. We're also talking about a significant amount of downtown and Manchester real estate. Let's hope that they see good value in maintaining and even expanding the RVA-based services!

Not sure if this is the right place to post. Tower crane going up this morning at 25th and E. Main in Shockoe Bottom for the apartment project coming along there.

Thanks! Heh, just a pretty good guess ! But this is pretty exciting. news. Not only because of the jobs/opportunities it will bring, but because it's a vote of confidence. That's huge, especially when you've got NoVA right up the road, which is where this kind of high-profile project would normally go. We can look forward to having even more exciting projects in the future.

Awesome pics! Also from the construction cam, I had noticed that the Dom HQ skeleton seems to have a bit of a convex curve toward E. Cary St. This is great because from the renderings, it originally looked to me like only the Canal Street facade would show any curvature. Good to see things moving.

I actually think you're referring to a NYT article that narrows the cities down to DC and Denver and finally settles on Denver. I also have a hard time believing they'd pick somewhere so far out West. Wherever Amazon goes, it will be a strategic choice that makes sense to the bottom line. While still a reach, I honestly feel like Richmond is a fresh slate that can be melded to their needs given our low costs, high percent degree-holding population, mass trans/BRT under construction, proximity to larger more expensive markets with deep talent pools, high quality of life, etc. We just need to work on our airport connectivity, which I think is also doable with support from the Commonwealth. Anyway, this proposed data center is just massive. I don't think many in Richmond will appreciate just how big of a hyperscale project it is. While "project echo" sounds like Amazon, I think that's a red herring and that the codename has to do with how massive the facility's size is (you can hear your echo within). Based on the proposed H-Shape design of this massive data center, I would actually say it's Facebook. Facebook has used this design on a smaller scale in the past; however, this would be substantially larger. This article kind of eludes to that. In addition, the proposed staffing level of 100 fits a Facebook type data center setup, at least for the initial stage. They also like secrecy. This is really exciting; I could be wrong though. Amazon did recently expand their VA solar farm (largest mid-atlantic solar facility) with new sites throughout the Richmond MSA in New Kent, Powhatan, Sussex, etc. They like to buy their own renewable power to run their data centers for Amazon Web Services/AWS in NOVA, which uses power from Amazon Solar US East in Accomack in a partnership with Dominion. Now, Christopher Consultants, developing this new data center, is out of Ashburn where a lot of big name companies have their cloud campuses, including and especially Amazon. The only thing is, AWS hasn't done anything to this scale to my knowledge, and AWS prefers a bunch of smaller facilities to a massive few. Hmmm...I'm just thrilled whoever it is ultimately saw the Richmond area as a fantastic fit! Again the size of this is really, really big. On with the speculation! Also, I'm new, and a big pro-Richmond advocate. I enjoy reading the positive perspectives of the folks on this forum and figure I should be contributing as well!