bankrupt

i think williams bridge company has the huge facility with roof signage in south richmond that is visible from libby hill.

Looks like a new restaurant is moving into Shockoe Bottom on East Main Street at 22nd, a door or two down from Honey Whytes. Permits are posted and construction is underway, but I couldn't tell what kind of restaurant it is.

the cleaners located on main just east of 18th street closed a few months ago. a new gym is supposed to move in where the cleaner moved out. i'm glad to see more retail fill in on east main -- it still looks pretty desolate.

Right at the Union Hill end of the MLK bridge. Here's an article about displacing the section 8 residents: http://www.timesdispatch.com/servlet/Satel...s=1045855935174

a realtor in union hill told me that the jefferson townhomes had been acquired by vcu and were being converted to mcv housing.

i believe that jacquemos restaurant at 18th and franklin in shockoe bottom is now closed. it has been dark the past few weekends. i noticed a place called downtown lounge, on 12th (or 11th?) between cary street and main street in shockoe slip, which, according to info painted on its windows, will be opening before too long. it looks like a basement bar of some sort.

the lucky lounge in shockoe slip was closed, but it has now been reborn as the lucky buddha. it looks like they replaced the purple velvet motif with red velour, which, i suppose, is a bit of an improvement. as i recall from a few weeks ago, a restaurant on 17th street next to the market was opening soon. i think it was called ribs and cheesecake, which has a place on broad street as well. also, it looks like some work has started on that rail station-looking building on 14th street and canal (next to the first market bank building). i'm not sure what's going in there.

there is also something new opening next to the clothing store. the permit says that it will be a day spa, and, for whatever reason, it has an ABC permit on the window stating that the applicant is called Razors LLC.

the yellow crane pictured above was set up on the west side of the edgeworth building this morning and had disappeared before this afternoon. the small black crane is just a lift truck.

maybe this has been posted, but here's a recent article that makes some reference to the project: Virginia Business article

no, this is a new project on franklin across 25th street from the pohlig box factory building. it's right around the corner from the market. i'm happy to see some development there. hopefully, someone will develop the corner of 25th and main, which should be a prime spot, but is currently just a wasteland of used cars.

And someone finally opened up in one of those innumerable empty renovated storefronts around the farmers market. It's a tea bar and health food supplement sort of place right next door too Papa Ningos. Also the ugly buildings on Main at 21st are getting some work done (on the block with Honey Whytes). They have removed the plywood over the windows and installed new windows and doors. It looks like they are still framing out the inside of the three separate storefronts (this is that painted gray/black building with a sign that, I think, says something about diesel engine parts). This space has been empty for quite some time.

Those townhouses at 1919 Broad are nice but they are ridiculously expensive. If I remember correctly, they were like $450k or so. On an unrelated note, it looks like there is gym moving into Shockoe Slip next to the new furniture store there on Cary. I can't imagine who would work out there -- downtown business people have gyms already (particularly with the B of A gym that supposed to open) and most people living in the Bottom/Canal area have free gyms in their buildings -- but it's good to see someone taking over the space. It's still fairly empty around there.

I'm not sure if anyone mentioned it, but the building across from Wild Wings (next to Lucky Lounge) has a construction fence up around it now. Another thing -- I think that Haxall View development next to Canal Walk lofts may be underway. All the windows are out of the building. I haven't seen anyone working though.

those windows have been papered for months. it's completely empty.

i didn't see a for lease sign, but it is pretty dead looking in there. the building permit is fairly old, too, if i'm not mistaken. the guy who fixes it up lives upstairs of rosie connelly's and frequently stops in for a drink there (next door to havana). that date for opening came from the bartender, tommy, who is a wise wise man. hopefully he's right. come to think of it, i think tommy may have said the guy stopped working for a while but just recently began working again to get it open. i could be making that up though.

From what I understand, the owners of Havana are hoping to reopen April 31. Although it always looks dark and dusty in there, supposedly they have continued working - slowly but surely.

yeah, i putter by this site now and then. there was a positive write-up on the restaurant papaningo in style weekly this week. i haven't been in there yet, but hopefully it's doing well. they also have a weird menu, though, with a mix of central american food and burgers and such. you'd think they would just settle on their cuisine and call it quits, but i guess everyone has their own ideas... http://www.styleweekly.com/article.asp?idarticle=11411 as for shockoe in general, i would have to say that there are a remarkable number of empty spaces in shockoe slip, especially on the south side of cary street. they have put some window decorations in for christmas, which is nice, but i'm amazed there's so much retail space available. i don't know if they jacked up rents for the block and then realized there's no real demand for retail, but it's pretty bad. i would say there are a full two blocks of empty storefronts. and considering that the area is not huge, that's pretty significant.

i've had drinks and appetizers over at sensi a couple times now and the food is fantastic. they seem to have a few kinks to work out (the menu appears to have been written by a semi-literate and the bartender is a weasel), but i'm hopeful that this restaurant will help keep people coming down to the area.