Carver District / Newtowne West / Allison District

[wrldcoupe4]

Spy Rock project 

[blake_p]

Carver Square

Newtowne West infill

Spy Rock on N. Allen

[ancientcarpenter]

Realtor on reddit posted that Carver Square units are being bought by investors and renting to vcu students...

[RiverYuppy]

3 hours ago, ancientcarpenter said:

Realtor on reddit posted that Carver Square units are being bought by investors and renting to vcu students...

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.

Edited January 3 by RiverYuppy

[123fakestreet]

4 hours ago, ancientcarpenter said:

Realtor on reddit posted that Carver Square units are being bought by investors and renting to vcu students...

I drive by them almost every day and as the first few units came online they had "for sale" signs in the windows... then a few days later the same units had "for rent" signs in the windows. It was clear what was happening there.

[I miss RVA]

An additional thought: depending on how the new owners of each unit is renting them (and the size of the unit) it could actually boost density ever so slightly. Mind you, I'm 100% in favor of more ownership in the city, especially of these kinds of condos. Love the design of Carver Square and honestly wish we had several blocks of those gorgeous rows of condos filling up a few streets in Carver/Newtowne West. The problem I've had with condos vs apartments is the relative lack of density.

Take Foushee Mews, for example. Those townhouses are HUGE - and while the total unit count is supposed to be in the 20s (if memory serves) what's the likelihood that a family of four or five will move in downtown, given the current state of play of RPS vs the suburban school systems? I get the feeling at best we'll get is couples. So while Carver Square certainly has more UNITS than a Foushee Mews, it's a similar situation. Doubtful a family of five will buy in.

So - depending on how many bedrooms are in each unit - and how those rooms are being rented out (will they be "dorm style" with two people per room or will they be one person to each bedroom?) - I think those units are guaranteed to potentially have "several" (whatever number that might work out to be) people living in them. Long story short, I think this will actually boost the people density in those buildings vs homeowners living in them. And I'm sure there's plenty of pent up demand from VCU students who need where to live relatively close to the campus.

Just some food for thought.

[123fakestreet]

36 minutes ago, I miss RVA said:

An additional thought: depending on how the new owners of each unit is renting them (and the size of the unit) it could actually boost density ever so slightly. Mind you, I'm 100% in favor of more ownership in the city, especially of these kinds of condos. Love the design of Carver Square and honestly wish we had several blocks of those gorgeous rows of condos filling up a few streets in Carver/Newtowne West. The problem I've had with condos vs apartments is the relative lack of density.

Take Foushee Mews, for example. Those townhouses are HUGE - and while the total unit count is supposed to be in the 20s (if memory serves) what's the likelihood that a family of four or five will move in downtown, given the current state of play of RPS vs the suburban school systems? I get the feeling at best we'll get is couples. So while Carver Square certainly has more UNITS than a Foushee Mews, it's a similar situation. Doubtful a family of five will buy in.

So - depending on how many bedrooms are in each unit - and how those rooms are being rented out (will they be "dorm style" with two people per room or will they be one person to each bedroom?) - I think those units are guaranteed to potentially have "several" (whatever number that might work out to be) people living in them. Long story short, I think this will actually boost the people density in those buildings vs homeowners living in them. And I'm sure there's plenty of pent up demand from VCU students who need where to live relatively close to the campus.

Just some food for thought.

I agree no way a family with kids is living in Foushee Mews, I definitely see potential for families to live in Carver Square, that area is much more friendly.  There are at least 2 families I personally know of who lived far out in the counties and bought in the northside area while their kids attended Maggie Walker, so there's some potential there as well being right across the street.

[georgeglass]

7 hours ago, ancientcarpenter said:

Realtor on reddit posted that Carver Square units are being bought by investors and renting to vcu students...

It's not surprising...but there is a rental cap. I took clients to look at one of the units there and only so many can be rented per the HOA. I can't remember the exact number, but if memory serves the number had already been reached and no others would be allowed to rent the units out. I really liked the development, as did my clients...but they ended up in a townhouse in Church Hill with no HOA and a killer location.

[123fakestreet]

34 minutes ago, georgeglass said:

It's not surprising...but there is a rental cap. I took clients to look at one of the units there and only so many can be rented per the HOA. I can't remember the exact number, but if memory serves the number had already been reached and no others would be allowed to rent the units out. I really liked the development, as did my clients...but they ended up in a townhouse in Church Hill with no HOA and a killer location.

Typically with condo HOAs "less than half" are allowed to be rentals, so I believe CS has 90 units, 44 max could be rentals (not all 90 are yet completed though).

With a new place they might have it set at "less than 1/3" to keep the community "nicer" at least until all the units are sold. Once people move in and run the HOA themselves they can change the limit to whatever they want.

[georgeglass]

11 minutes ago, 123fakestreet said:

Typically with condo HOAs "less than half" are allowed to be rentals, so I believe CS has 90 units, 44 max could be rentals (not all 90 are yet completed though).

With a new place they might have it set at "less than 1/3" to keep the community "nicer" at least until all the units are sold. Once people move in and run the HOA themselves they can change the limit to whatever they want.

Yeah, I am pretty sure at this point the rental cap was somewhere close to 10%

[123fakestreet]

Development on Leigh behind Lowes & Whole foods. This thing is flying along.

[I miss RVA]

22 minutes ago, 123fakestreet said:

Development on Leigh behind Lowes & Whole foods. This thing is flying along.

Ahhh - I was wondering what happened to the crawler crane for this project -- it had "disappeared" from the view (in the distance) from the perched Cap Square construction cam (N. Chasen development).

Your prestigious Silver Hardware for this week - noted in the Scott's thread - will cover - collectively -- all  your work with these magnificent photos.  Well done!

[eandslee]

5 hours ago, I miss RVA said:

Ahhh - I was wondering what happened to the crawler crane for this project -- it had "disappeared" from the view (in the distance) from the perched Cap Square construction cam (N. Chasen development).

Your prestigious Silver Hardware for this week - noted in the Scott's thread - will cover - collectively -- all  your work with these magnificent photos.  Well done!

Well, where DID the crane go?  This project looks far from complete.  I assume another crane will be brought on site to complete the project?

[I miss RVA]

1 hour ago, eandslee said:

Well, where DID the crane go?  This project looks far from complete.  I assume another crane will be brought on site to complete the project?

It doth make one wonder, doth it not? 

[Icetera]

17 hours ago, eandslee said:

Well, where DID the crane go?  This project looks far from complete.  I assume another crane will be brought on site to complete the project?

With all of the precast pieces in place, perhaps they need a less substantial crane going forward?

[Brent114]

Will probably see one or two of those smaller red cranes any time now. 

[Shakman]

2 hours ago, Icetera said:

With all of the precast pieces in place, perhaps they need a less substantial crane going forward?

Yes.

[I miss RVA]

3 hours ago, Brent114 said:

Will probably see one or two of those smaller red cranes any time now. 

Like was the case at the Novel over on Arthur Ashe. That makes sense.

[whw53]

On 1/3/2024 at 9:29 AM, ancientcarpenter said:

Realtor on reddit posted that Carver Square units are being bought by investors and renting to vcu students...

Nothing wrong with students. Nothing wrong with investors. 

 

On 1/18/2024 at 12:47 PM, 123fakestreet said:

Development on Leigh behind Lowes & Whole foods. This thing is flying along.

Spy Rock moving quick here and on Dabney...we know what's next in their pipeline ? 

[whw53]

shot from this afternoon of the new rowhomes going up on Moore in the Newtowne neighborhood

[wrldcoupe4]

Those are some city streets if I’ve ever seen them lol. 

[I miss RVA]

5 hours ago, whw53 said:

shot from this afternoon of the new rowhomes going up on Moore in the Newtowne neighborhood

Oh wow - these are SO cute!! I LOVE the design! 

How many rowhouses are being built? Is this development more than one? I'm guessing most of these lots were vacant prior to this development coming in?

Great photo, @whw53-- and you know what that means. Freshly polished Silver Hardware on the way to you! Mazal Tov!

Edited January 29 by I miss RVA

[RiverYuppy]

Bon Secours will lease the bottom two floors of the new development with sports medicine, primary care, PT, and urgent care. Glad to see this staying in the city. This will make it easy for people to use the Pulse for routine checkups.

I noticed when RBS did a piece on their master plan, they said

Quote

Sauer Properties plans to generally build out the Sauer Center starting with the northern properties along West Leigh Street and work toward Broad Street.

If that is the case, the next development should be very close--if not next to--the 5 story, 300 unit apartment building that SpyRock is building.

This is going to be a huge change for Leigh Street!

[123fakestreet]

Framing going up on whatever the place behind Lowes on Leigh is called

Edited March 20 by 123fakestreet

[I miss RVA]

1 hour ago, 123fakestreet said:

Framing going up on whatever the place behind Lowes on Leigh is called

And they're using a red mini-crane. Nice.  I wonder -- as construction reaches the upper floors, will the crane be raised any? And if so, I wonder if it will be visible from the Cap Square/N. Chasen construction site webcam? The crawler crane used to build the big parking garage was visible from that camera.

I was wondering what was going on with this building recently. That said - an order has been placed to the warehouse and polishing center. You know what that means. Mazal Tov on some shiny new RVA/UP Silver Hardware.