Short Pump Developments

[TBurban]

Construction at two sites in Short Pump have completely stalled; the Corner at Short Pump & the Nuckols Road Ukrops until further notice. To add to delays, the new 64/295 Flyover Bridge won't open until February. Not much to do about any of it..

[Shakman]

Construction at two sites in Short Pump have completely stalled; the Corner at Short Pump & the Nuckols Road Ukrops until further notice. To add to delays, the new 64/295 Flyover Bridge won't open until February. Not much to do about any of it..

The flyover ramp had to do with a structural oops. Nothing that would have jeopardized anyone's life in the near future, but the inspectors did not want to take the risk. Just some additional work needs to be done.

[wrldcoupe4]

Construction at two sites in Short Pump have completely stalled; the Corner at Short Pump & the Nuckols Road Ukrops until further notice. To add to delays, the new 64/295 Flyover Bridge won't open until February. Not much to do about any of it..

The Corner at Short Pump had announced construction related delays that would push the Kroger opening back to 2010. Shame about the Ukrop's. They seem to be running through a pretty rough patch here lately.

[Cadeho]

Why won't someone rename this thread?!!!!!

[evanf]

If you're curious to see how West Broad Village is shaping up, check out this apartment website. They've posted some excellent interior pictures as well as some pictures from around the site. I belive some of the stores are set to open early summer, if not before that.

The Flats at West Broad Village

[burt]

This advertisement will give an idea of how The West Broad Village aLoft Hotel will look when it is up and running. aLoft, a Starwoods property fashioned after their W Hotel line, follows a formula.

The Richmond aLoft will be the third in Virginia.

http://www.exclusivehoteloffers.com/alofth...AH_EXT_BTBANNRS

[TBurban]

A little update..

Hilton at TCW, they've added a spire to the top:

Hotel Sierra at SPTC:

[burt]

Thanks, Tommy. Both of these hotels look more interesting than the newly opened Westin at Reynolds Crossing, IMO.

I hope the business downturn doesn't affect room occupancy too much. Some say the area is overbuilt with hotel rooms.

[TBurban]

Dave and Buster's signs are up and are now hiring. They should be opening this spring

[evanf]

The first of the brownstones at WBV are complete, or nearly complete. Eagle Construction of VA has a few pictures on their site. I have my fair share of complaints about the whole development, but I think these turned out great. I think that once everything is built and all of the landscaping goes in it will look great. The biggest concern should be the traffic issue and transportation flow. As pedestrian and bike friendly as WBV may be, you can't argue that it would at all be safe to travel by foot or bike outside of the development - or at least crossing Broad street.

I know this is a far-fetched idea, but here it is anyways. If light rail ever made it to Short Pump along Broad street, it could run along a grass covered median. There would be two lanes of traffic running east along Broad street (reduced to 35 mph) with one lane designated for parallel parking (right in front of WBV). Heading west towards SPTC, after the light rail passes Brookriver Dr. the median along which it travels would be significantly widened, basically taking up most of the existing traffic lanes heading west. This would allow for a comfortably sized light rail stop in the median, with trees and landscaping. The traffic lanes heading west would shift over to take up the parking lot space in front of Best Buy, Kohl's, and all of the other big box stores - so McDonald's would have to move. The parking lots never seem that fully anyways, and if there was light rail, there also wouldn't be as many cars - at least I would hope so.

I hope that wasn't too confusing. I drew this up a while ago, I'll see if I can find it so I can show you what I mean. Otherwise, I'll draw it again and post is sometime.

WBV Brownstones: Scroll down to West Broad Village.

http://www.eagleofva.com/Available_Now.html

[evanf]

The new Hotel Sierra opens at Short Pump Town Center tomorrow. As much as I abhor the design on the outside, I think the inside makes up for it pretty nicely. There's a video tour included.

http://www.downtownshortpump.com/2009/05/0...r-a-video-tour/

[burt]

Someone reported on RCW that Wholefoods in West Broad Village was robbed My 15th. I can find no mention of it in the RTD, but I did note a story about Ukrops at 3460 Pump Road being held up on May 13th.

[Downtowner]

From what I hear the guy who robbed the ukrops in short pump is the same one who robbed the whole foods. On a different note I went to Dave and Busters for my first time today and loved every bit of it.

[jbjust]

Quick question Downtowner -- have you ever been to a real Dave & Buster's? I've heard that the place in Short Pump is so small that it is little more than a bar with air hockey tables, but I would love to have heard wrong.

[Downtowner]

Yeah I hear the average size is like 50,000 sf. But for my first time for a place so small I was impressed but I am sure I will be more impressed if I went to the one in DC or Baltimore. The food there was good but it wouldn't be on my favorites list. I had a half pound bacon cheeseburger with fries and it was good but wasn't nearly as good as some places I have been to have a cheeseburger. But on a good note I won the jackpot at Dave and Busters when I was playing the games and scored 1,000 tickets so I had a good overall experience for my first trip to a place like that. They have a good variety of games for a place so small. I am sure they have more at the bigger ones but the variety was good for a small place like that.

[crashvt03]

I went to Dave & Busters on Friday and was also very impressed. The food was ok as previously mentioned and the dining area was pretty small. But, the games section is pretty close in size to the sections at larger D&Bs that I've been to (Denver, Cleveland, NYC). The big difference between this D&B and the larger ones is that the larger ones all have big areas with pool tables and banquet rooms for large parties. Also, they have multiple bars. It would've been nice to have those amenities in the Richmond location, but overall I'm very pleased.

[burt]

REI plans to open its two-level store at West Broad Village in November.

From RicBizSense:

http://www.richmondbizsense.com/2009/05/29...ge-in-november/

[burt]

The Virginia DOT announced Friday that the Short Pump fly-over and new lanes along I-64 in both directions between I-295 and Rte. 288 are completed and open to traffic.

[burt]

This story by Lou Llovio in today's RTD deals mostly with The Hotel Sierra at Short Pump Town Center but also contains info on other commercial operations:

http://www.timesdispatch.com/rtd/business/...-194201/277860/

[evanf]

Didn't have much to do yesterday so I decided to take a drive around Short Pump and check out the progress on some of the projects. I figured since it was midday there would be little traffic, of course that was not the case. I took a few, not so great, pictures - the first are of the new Hilton at Towne Center West. The next few are at West Broad Village which still seems pretty empty. If they want to make it a real edge city, they need to implement some sort of a pedestrian/walkability master plan for all of Short Pump, if that makes sense. It's a driving mess and it would be impossible to walk from one end of Short Pump to the other without feeling very vulnerable and unsafe. A park would be nice too. I'm glad to see these new developments in Richmond, but most of it just seems to be adding to the (somewhat) exclusive, and consumerist culture that Short Pump is - that I don't like. Anyways, click on the link below and check out the pictures.

http://picasaweb.google.com/archon.ev/ShortPumpUpdate#

[TBurban]

Didn't have much to do yesterday so I decided to take a drive around Short Pump and check out the progress on some of the projects. I figured since it was midday there would be little traffic, of course that was not the case. I took a few, not so great, pictures - the first are of the new Hilton at Towne Center West. The next few are at West Broad Village which still seems pretty empty. If they want to make it a real edge city, they need to implement some sort of a pedestrian/walkability master plan for all of Short Pump, if that makes sense. It's a driving mess and it would be impossible to walk from one end of Short Pump to the other without feeling very vulnerable and unsafe. A park would be nice too. I'm glad to see these new developments in Richmond, but most of it just seems to be adding to the (somewhat) exclusive, and consumerist culture that Short Pump is - that I don't like. Anyways, click on the link below and check out the pictures.

http://picasaweb.google.com/archon.ev/ShortPumpUpdate#

The Hilton is starting to look sweet! I wish they'd break ground on the residential over retail fronting Broad. Thanks for the pics!

[burt]

Is the aLoft Hotel really under construction at WBV? Friends told me that land closer to Three Chopt Road which was supposed to be MORE residential has been planted (or painted green) as if construction plans have been abandoned. These same friends say that driving in and around WBV is a pain in the arse

[Shakman]

Is the aLoft Hotel really under construction at WBV? Friends told me that land closer to Three Chopt Road which was supposed to be MORE residential has been planted (or painted green) as if construction plans have been abandoned. These same friends say that driving in and around WBV is a pain in the arse

It has been under construction at West Broad Village. As a matter of fact it is along their "Main Street". The last I checked, a couple of weeks ago, the structure appeared fully enclosed.

[Brent]

I drove past the Aloft last night. Its looking close to finished. The eastern part of WBV is looking like a strip mall. I'm really disappointed at how the developers abandoned their "town" plan. I guess the problem started with a parking lot surrounding Whole Foods. REI is just plopped down with total disregard for sidewalks and the street grid. Some of the town homes are set back in courtyard settings, not aligning with the streets. Its a big, ugly mess out there. I was recently at Reston Town Center and seeing WBV last night made it really clear how badly they missed the mark on this one. Why aren't the restaurants on the main drag. How could they think that it was a good or "upscale" choice to front them along Broad Street? The site on the main drag that had a

[evanf]

The Hilton is starting to look sweet! I wish they'd break ground on the residential over retail fronting Broad. Thanks for the pics!

Agreed, it does look good. I actually really like how most of Towne Center West has turned out so far, it's nicely landscaped and they've saved some trees at least.

And I couldn't agree more with what you said Brent. It really is a mess, and so poorly planned. Personally, I would have kept the trees that were on the property (weren't there several large oaks?) and planned the village around the natural landscape of the land. And I hope this is the last time we get a developer from Florida. It looks more like Disney World than something you would see in Richmond. Just be thankful, there is much more opportunity along Broad St. for other, better planned developments. My guess is that many of the old strip shopping centers will eventually be reused for mixed-use developments. I'll try not to complain too much more about it since that won't do anything to make it go away. At least we have an idea now for what we don't like.