Richmond Developments

[calwinston]

Few people realize that Caroline County is considered part of the Metro Richmond Statistical area.

There's a plan afoot to double the size of Caroline's population in 20 years -- from 28,000 to 56,000.

A couple of developers want to build a city called Carmel Church Station, about 25 miles north of Richmond. It would be a transit oriented community with an Amtrak and/or Virginia Railway Express station as its hub.

From today's RTD:

Note that the slideshow contains a PDF file.

http://www2.timesdis...-221803/349527/

Geographically, Caroline is just north of Hanover County. Kings Dominion is on the Hanover side of Rt. 30 and the new Virginia State Fairground straddles the Hanover/Caroline line on Rt. 30. Carmel Church in Caroline is further north at Rt. 207.

This is a great development if that train station is approved. The only worry that I have is this may spur out of control growth in a mainly rural area!

But I like how its centered around mass transit!

[calwinston]

Will development trump history????

'Slave History Clouds Shockoe Bottom Project'

http://styleweekly.com/ME2/dirmod.asp?sid=&nm=&type=Publishing&mod=Publications%3A%3AArticle&mid=8F3A7027421841978F18BE895F87F791&tier=4&id=19C9C7217BD647E19EC76802A352389E

[Cadeho]

Will development trump history????

'Slave History Clouds Shockoe Bottom Project'

http://styleweekly.com/ME2/dirmod.asp?sid=&nm=&type=Publishing&mod=Publications%3A%3AArticle&mid=8F3A7027421841978F18BE895F87F791&tier=4&id=19C9C7217BD647E19EC76802A352389E

Cal, you sound as though you do not appreciate history. Must be a California thing. They can co-exist. I never bought into the whole the-baseball-park-will-disturb-the-slave-burial-ground thing because the burial ground is west and across the street from the stadium site. I do not like that VCU wanted to keep the burial ground a parking lot, even though I believe part of it is under 95... that is no excuse to keep desecrating the ground. However development can go on around it, such as the slavery museum. Richmond needs to stop erasing its past on account of so-called progress.

[calwinston]

Cal, you sound as though you do not appreciate history. Must be a California thing. They can co-exist. I never bought into the whole the-baseball-park-will-disturb-the-slave-burial-ground thing because the burial ground is west and across the street from the stadium site. I do not like that VCU wanted to keep the burial ground a parking lot, even though I believe part of it is under 95... that is no excuse to keep desecrating the ground. However development can go on around it, such as the slavery museum. Richmond needs to stop erasing its past on account of so-called progress.

Honestly I appreciate history to the fullest! Im a former Richmonder (as I grew up there) actually in Bon Air if you want to be technical. I bring friends there all the time that are in aww of the history that surrounds them. Richmond is one of the few places that intertwines history and modernism in the country. The only other city up there on that list is Boston.

Edited June 8, 2010 by calwinston

[calwinston]

The city announced today in collaboration with Chesterfield, Hanover, and Henrico counties a study with 3 firms on what to do with the Richmond Coliseum. Renovate or replace?

I think the coliseum should be replaced and moved to the city owned Boulevard Gateway Property. This way a entertainment complex can be built around it with the Diamond! The current location of the coliseum is essentially in a business park with a convention center next to it with no foot traffic after 6! They could turn over the property to the bio-technology park to expand!

The regions Fortune 500 companies are paying for the study! Many of the executives from those companies in the past have been hawking the city for a replacement! So we basically know that a new coliseum will be built but what will be the size, where is the money coming from, and where will it be built is the question.

http://ht.ly/1VqUk

Edited June 9, 2010 by calwinston

[Cadeho]

I think the coliseum should stay downtown and should be replaced. Downtown has lost so much and right there you already have an entertainment corridor.

[Brent]

Keep it in the same location. It has easy access to the interstate and is around alot of other cultural and entertainment venues. Tear down the rest of 6th Street Market place and build 6th and 7th Streets up as an entertainment district connecting the Coliseum, National and Center Stage (making Grace Street more viable at the same time).

[calwinston]

David Gammino is purchasing the Old Universal Leaf Building on West Broad Street and converting it to 88 apartments plus retail across the streetl where the abandoned gas station is today! Construction is expected to start in early 2011!

Gammino Realty & Development and City & Guilds Builders, confirmed he has a contract to buy the Universal Leaf Tobacco Company’s former corporate headquarters at Broad and Hamilton streets for an undisclosed price. The contract is scheduled to close at the end of December.

He also has other projects in the pipeline!

Gammino also has a contract on the Harvester Building at 1709 E. Clay St. in Shockoe Bottom that is set to close in August for an undisclosed price. He plans to develop that property first, with the same partner as the Universal project.

Gammino said the anticipated budget for his Harvester project is $5.3 million. The plans, to be drawn by Commonwealth Architects, call for 36 apartments and up to 7,200 square feet of commercial space on the first floor.

Universal Leaf Building

http://www.richmondb...under-contract/

408 N. 3rd ST Conversion across from the Convention Center

http://www.richmondb...oof/#more-15412

Edited June 10, 2010 by calwinston

[calwinston]

Guess this new state building for the Department of General Services on Broad Street between 8th and 9th Street has slipped under the radar.

K.O.R.E. Enterprises completed the MEP engineering design for the proposed rehabilitation of the 9th Street office building and to build a new Broad Street office building that will meet the high architectural standards of Capitol Square, the location for the seat of Virginia government. Fronting Richmond’s bustling Broad Street commercial corridor, this highly visible location requires that both buildings fit with the City’s urban environment.

The only reason it has not gone forward is because the Commonwealth has no money for it and the need to find tenants for the rest of the space that will go unused by the state. So essentially we will probably not see this for at least 2 years. In the meantime this would be a great addition to Broad Street and Capitol Square.

P.S. Funding was denied this past General Assembly session. It will be brought back to the table during next years General Assembly session. Cross your fingers!

Proposal

http://www.dgs.state...bid=206&mid=692

Department of General Services

http://www.dgs.state...05/Default.aspx

Commonwealth Architects

http://www.comarchs....ebuildings.html

KORE Enterprises

http://kore.sowl.com/?p=27

Edited June 10, 2010 by calwinston

[burt]

The big Fortune 500 guys met with experts and Richmond, Henrico and Hanover officials behind closed doors today to discuss a new or improved arena. The representative from Chesterfield was unable to attend.

From a late release in today's RTD:

http://www2.timesdispatch.com/rtd/news/local/article/COLIGAT10_20100610-143001/350296/

[burt]

Some photos of apartment development in the Bottom.

18th and Broad

Main Street... This is looking really great, IMO. Nice addition to Main Street!

Expanding on Brent's excellent photos of new residential construction in Shockoe Bottom, I have to say most of it looks on the cheesy side to me. Wood frame does not afford sufficient sound-proofing, IMO. If I were to live in The Bottom (or anywhere else), I'd seek a good, solid, preferrably pre-war building.

Anyway, Ryan Ramsey has reappeared on his RCW forum with more of his extraordinary photography. Many of his new pictures reference construction in Shockoe Bottom.

Check them out at:

http://richmondcitywatch.com/

Look for his June 2010 Gallery. The Shockoe Bottom pictures begin on page 3. Pages 1 and 2 are uncaptioned shots of mostly decrepit buildings in Church Hill north of Broad Street.

And note to Calwinston: Since you are a welcome and relatively new poster here, be sure to visit Ryan's RCW site and check out all of his photo galleries. You'll be amazed!

Edited June 11, 2010 by burt

[burt]

The big Fortune 500 guys met with experts and Richmond, Henrico and Hanover officials behind closed doors today to discuss a new or improved arena. The representative from Chesterfield was unable to attend.

From a late release in today's RTD:

http://www2.timesdis...-143001/350296/

Friday, June 11, 2010. Here's today's follow-up RTD story about the Coliseum discussion:

http://www2.timesdis...-222605/350387/

Edited June 11, 2010 by burt

[JSI]

Does anybody know what is going at the corner of 20th & E. Broad St.? There appears to be major excavation currently in progress.

[burt]

Does anybody know what is going at the corner of 20th & E. Broad St.? There appears to be major excavation currently in progress.

JSI, check out this comprehensive coverage from John Murden at Church Hill People's News.

It covers just about everything that is going on in The Bottom.

I believe the entire south side of East Broad between 20th and 21st is being developed with a row of new residential and commercial buildings. There's a rendering of it in John Murden's piece:

http://chpn.net/news/2010/05/31/development-will-bring-almost-500-new-apartments_13674/

[burt]

Re: Residentail construction in Shockoe Bottom:

The actual TV version of this story is at Comment #70 following John Murden's CHPN piece in the entry above: It's a long scroll from the top, but you might find many (if not all) of the comments interesting.

http://www.nbc12.com/Global/story.asp?S=12668147

The Channel 12 commenter says:

"In a 5 block radius from the corner of Main and 21st Streets, there are more than 2,492 apartments. This time next year there will be nearly 3,000."

[JSI]

JSI, check out this comprehensive coverage from John Murden at Church Hill People's News.

It covers just about everything that is going on in The Bottom.

I believe the entire south side of East Broad between 20th and 21st is being developed with a row of new residential and commercial buildings. There's a rendering of it in John Murden's piece:

http://chpn.net/news/2010/05/31/development-will-bring-almost-500-new-apartments_13674/

Thanks Burt! That's it - 2001 East Broad. It looks like it's going to be a great development. Now if somebody would just fix up the stretch of Broad immediately East of the interstate.

[calwinston]

Has anyone heard about when the proposed ice skating rink on Broad St beside CenterStage will open?

What would Brian Boitano do?More to the point, what would Mayor Dwight C. Jones do?

Jones confirms his plan to propose an outdoor ice-skating facility — reminiscent of the one at Rockefeller Center in New York — on vacant Broad Street property adjacent to the CenterStage performing-arts complex.

“No, the mayor does not skate,” Jones spokeswoman Tammy Hawley says, but “the mayor has a strong focus on helping downtown become more vibrant.”

The plan takes the form of a proposal, yet to be submitted, in which Jones asks the city’s Recreation and Parks Foundation to front fundraising efforts for the facility.

Hawley says the idea originated with Jones, who drew inspiration from a Walk-Off physical fitness event in which he participated last year. He sees skating as a way to encourage an “active and healthy city,” Hawley says.

Jones’ proposal may have more than a snowball’s chance in hell: The ice rink’s construction would involve no city money, Hawley says. Instead, the estimated $91,000 to $110,000 required to build it would be raised through the park foundation (allowing donors to speed skate toward a healthy tax break).

She says Jones has “pledges in place for $80,000 already.”

So why outdoor ice skating in Richmond, a town where the average high temperature in January and February is between 45 and 50 degrees?

“A lot of people like ice skating,” Hawley says.

http://www.styleweek...FCCDC64B2DAAED0

Edited June 29, 2010 by calwinston

[calwinston]

Now if somebody would just fix up the stretch of Broad immediately East of the interstate.

Unfortunately this has been held up in by some many different proposals the past few years from Shockoe Center to The National Slavery Museum. The city again for the one hundredth time is doing another study for the area around Main St Station! I say hand it over to a developer that has a great vision for the property instead of doing these studies that are thrown out after 1-2 years and redone!

Edited June 29, 2010 by calwinston

[ric75]

Has anyone heard about when the proposed ice skating rink on Broad St beside CenterStage will open?

http://www.styleweek...FCCDC64B2DAAED0

Frankly I hope they do something besides make an ice skating rink there. Talk about a very limited use for a prime piece of real estate. If they do move ahead with it, I hope they can find some other use for it for the other 9 months of the year.

[burt]

Frankly I hope they do something besides make an ice skating rink there. Talk about a very limited use for a prime piece of real estate. If they do move ahead with it, I hope they can find some other use for it for the other 9 months of the year.

I agree with you, ric75. Unless it is done in a first-class way with optional uses year-round, better to utilize the space in other attractive ways -- like perhaps a sculpture garden with water features.

There used to be public skating on the hockey ice at Richmond Coliseum.

Does anybody remember when there was an outdoor ice-skating rink behind the museum at Tredegar near the Lincoln monument? I believe it was part of the Valentine-on-the-James scheme and lasted about two winters. Also, I think it was not ice, but some sort of fake material.

On the plus side, Norfolk had an outdoor ice skating rink at the northern end of MacArthur Center on Monticello Street. I wonder how they kept it frozen during the mild Hampton Roads winters?

Edited June 30, 2010 by burt

[calwinston]

The Verizon Building at the corner of Nanesmond and Ellwood Ave in Northwest Carytown maybe converted into retail space!

Maryland Financial Realty wants to convert a Verizon building on North Nansemond Street into retail space. A specialty grocery store could be among the possible uses for the building as well as other stores, an art gallery, bank or restaurant.The Baltimore-based real estate firm has applied for a special-use permit to convert the two-story, 136,968square-foot building into a retail center that would have an underground parking garage with about 98 spaces.

The retail space would be one story -- 41,821 square feet with a 5,028-square-foot mezzanine. A second building along Ellwood Avenue would be added and have 5,400 square feet. A surface parking lot would have 112 spaces.

http://www2.timesdis...RI01-ar-261132/

The building was built in 1955, and the developers are also seeking to build on the adjacent parking lot.

http://www.richmondbizsense.com/2010/07/01/carytowns-fourth-grocery-store/

Edited July 2, 2010 by calwinston

[Shakman]

Very good indeed. I hope a Harris Teeter can occupy the grocery portion of the complex.

[wrldcoupe4]

I can't imagine a new entry into the already very crowded grocery market. I was hoping for something a bit more mixed use or even an upscale/boutique hotel.

[calwinston]

A grocery store would be a better fit in under served sections of the city like Manchester or Church Hill!

[Brent]

It would probably be Ellwood Thompson moving into the new space.

Not really into more grocery stores in that area but I love the idea of Carytown moving onto Ellwood, would do wonders for the shops currently along Ellwood across from Walgreens. Maybe even CVS could change the orientation of the store so that it has an entrance along Ellwood too.

Edited July 2, 2010 by Brent