Centennial Tower

[burt]

I'm in Richmond from like Dec. 15 to late January. gotta love that college winter break ... a Richmond meetup would be nice. Also, I'll be in town next week (after a crazy tuesday night here). I really hope to get out and take some pics one of the days, so we'll see! btw, eric sorry to hear baout your grandmother. Hope everything works out for the best!

Speaking of next week, I'm looking forward to the Centennial Announcement more than my turkey dinner!

Pin down a meeting with Lenny, why don't you?

Unless there's a change of plans, I'll be in Richmond for a couple of months beginning Jan. 16th.

Edited November 20, 2005 by burt

[wrldcoupe4]

hahaha i'll see what I can do.

[wrldcoupe4]

hmmm... I think the goodstein office at the site of Centennial was up for lease??? maybe they will be moving it down the street to the Dooley Madison development they are working on?

[burt]

hmmm... I think the goodstein office at the site of Centennial was up for lease??? maybe they will be moving it down the street to the Dooley Madison development they are working on?

You're ever the optimist, coupe!

Why would they close their office site on location? And where and when will we see the report? I'm getting nervous!

[wrldcoupe4]

I'm not sure if they have closed their office (it's their Richmond office...so it encompasses all of their Richmond projects)...I just noticed a "For Lease" sign in the upstairs window, where their office was.

[wrldcoupe4]

Some more press on the Centennial Towers...no confirmed floor count yet, but we know that they will be a "much larger structure"

Some tidbits from the article:

Towers progressing

The proposed Centennial Towers in downtown Richmond could be bigger than initially planned.

Plans had called for an 18- to 22-story building on the south side of East Main Street, mostly between Fifth and Sixth streets.

But sources say the New York development company is considering a much larger structure now based on recent market studies.

Goodstein Development Corp. hasn't decided how big it will be, but said the market studies revealed "very positive results."

Goodstein also has told architectural firm Baskervill to perform a preliminary zoning feasibility study to determine setback requirements, boundary restrictions and other requirements.

Groundbreaking for the project is scheduled for early 2007, with completion in mid-2009.

TD article

[rusthebuss]

Well I would bet anywhere from 35-40 at least for you guys

I hope you do get 50 but with the way things always get hyped up and then its a few floors shorter than you thought but at least it will be for sure taller than originally planned. I wish we could find out more about this damn Hilton. Its killing us!

[wrldcoupe4]

that would be about double in size from the original plans which would be fine with me all the same...

at least we can be pretty sure that there will be 2 larger towers based on positive news from market reports, not simply a change to 1 tower.

I'm getting excited!

Edited November 28, 2005 by wrldcoupe4

[Downtowner]

I read this in the business section this morning and I was glad to read it sounds like this could be the big one for Richmond and hopefully we can get a skyline full of 50,40 and 30 floor towers hopefully 60 one day.

[urbanvb]

Great news. Richmond is truly rockin'!

[wrldcoupe4]

according to cadeho on RCW, underneath Richmond is mostly granite and gneiss. If that's the case, height shouldn't even be a concern! The sky's the limit!

I'm hoping for at least one tower being 50-stories....

The best news of all from the paper today is that the market reports came back very strong. It's almost surprising in a way considering how much residential is going downtown.... gotta be thousands of units easy. I wonder how many are already occupiable?

[burt]

If Gilligan reports this in the close-to-the-vest, conservative RTD, there must be hope for the project.

Do you suppose the architects have drawn up new designs for the tallest tower(s) in Virginia?

I wish Goodstein (and I say this at risk of being called ugly names by conservationists) could purchase the three remaining buildings on the block facing Main street. I doubt any of them predate 1900 and none is noted for archetectural integrity IMO.

Speaking of derring-do, I haven't noted any comments on the other forum from Shak lately.

[wrldcoupe4]

you know... my gut is this will become virginia's tallest. I only hope that it won't unbalance the skyline.from the southern (best view) the skyline is very balanced. With these rising....will the left side be out of proportion? ahh well... guess it means we need another tall tower on the right side....say where the Monroe twin was suppose to go

[wrldcoupe4]

you know... my gut is this will become virginia's tallest. I only hope that it won't unbalance the skyline.from the southern (best view) the skyline is very balanced. With these rising....will the left side be out of proportion? ahh well... guess it means we need another tall tower on the right side....say where the Monroe twin was suppose to go

[burt]

Your gut must really believe that - you said it twice!

Maybe BowTie will sprout another not-so-tall tower to the west.

I liked some of the photo-shopped visions of Monroe. A re-cladding with an added spire would do wonders for the bland building.

Edited November 30, 2005 by burt

[wrldcoupe4]

agreed about the monroe... and I wouldn't mind if Bow Tie did that one bit! I hope we do hear something from them soon....

haha It's a gut feeling. They are usually pretty accurate believe it or not. We'll find out if it's on or not soon!

[burt]

I wish they would release their study report.

I like your posting on RCW of the building in Mobile, coupe. But even with its spire, I don't see how it can reach over 700 feet with less than 40 operable floors.

[wrldcoupe4]

I know it surprised me as well.... but I guess it shows that you can have a lot of height with less than expected numbers of floors.

Hopefully, they release the planned height/number of floors soon. Perhaps we could try to shoot an e-mail to good ole lenny?

[burt]

I know it surprised me as well.... but I guess it shows that you can have a lot of height with less than expected numbers of floors.

Hopefully, they release the planned height/number of floors soon. Perhaps we could try to shoot an e-mail to good ole lenny?

Hahaha. Why not? Lenny owes you one! And don't forget to remind him that we want a Ritz Carlton.

[vdogg]

Any new news on a final height for these towers yet?

[Downtowner]

not yet Vdogg but its killing me to know the height I wish they would hurry up and tell us.

[burt]

Any new news on a final height for these towers yet?

No, not yet. They did a very positive Market Survey, but haven't released the results officially. It was hinted that the survey was so positive that the structure(s) could reach as high as 50 floors. But nothing further has been reported.

Though off-topic, nearby Bow Tie property, where cinemas, retail, residential are supposed to rise on a full city block site, has seen the demolition of an old service station at the corner of 3rd and Main, but no announcements have been forthcoming.

Centennial and Bow Tie properties are separated by only one block on East Main Street.

[Cadeho]

The moderization of our skyline would be great. We're about 10-11 years behind with the eception of Riverside's completion. The Tyler building was a good addition and I hope Centennial Towers' final design is daring and blows the blocks away!

[vdogg]

The moderization of our skyline would be great. We're about 10-11 years behind with the eception of Riverside's completion. The Tyler building was a good addition and I hope Centennial Towers' final design is daring and blows the blocks away!

The modernization of any Virginia skyline is a plus. I'm just glad we may be finally breaking the 70's architecture curse. Only time will tell however.

[Cadeho]

So that's it! It's a 70s' curse! I think there's a little 60s in there too. But of course! I hadn't thought of that. I didn't think any other city in Virginia suffered from it as much as Richmond. Arlington's not even a city and it has us beat!