There is SO much going on in Richmond, it's hard to figure out where I want to start. Here are just the biggies:
1. INTERBAKE FOODS: The Interbake Foods building has transferred to Rebkee Company. Yet another state and federal historic tax credit conversion in the making. Word on the street is it will be apartments - shocker - with a hoped-for retail component. I'm curious to see whether the apartments are VCU-focused, or marketed instead to young urban professionals.
2. TAX CHANNEL BUILDING: The Tax Channel building on Broad Street near DMV is under contract. I'm not sure if that transaction has closed. I haven't heard anything about what the plans are for the building, but underneath that hideous facade and minus the ugly rear addition, it's supposed to be pretty spectacular inside. AND the refacing, etc. that was done back when, apparently with the intention of making it God-awful ugly, was specifically done in such a way as to make it easy to convert the building back to its original glory.
3. BOULEVARD: The City of Richmond Fleet Maintenance facility is moving. Check out the recent Richmond Times-Dispatch article about it here. Only five (5) years after Umesh Dalal, the City auditor, recommended it do so. Oh, well, that $2.4M annual savings over five (5) years, that $12M, we don't really need that....But that the City of Richmond is slow-moving and borderline incompetent isn't really news. The more significant implication of the Fleet Maintenance Facility move is it opens up almost that entire Boulevard parcel for redevelopment, including, one would hope, a new ball park for the Flying Squirrels. Now, if we can just get the City School Board to blow up the monstrosity that is the Arthur Ashe Center, we'd have the final piece of the puzzle. Plus the porn store is becoming a Mexican restaurant! Yea!
4. CITY STADIUM: Still no word on that "highest and best" use study that was supposed to be done for the City Stadium property. Shocker. My personal opinion is the site is perfect for mixed use development. However, I also strongly believe the City owes it to us, the citizens, to do a competitive bid/request for proposals on that parcel. In fact, weren't there supposed to be TWO (2) studies done on that parcel? One was to explore "highest and best" use, one was to explore ways to maximize the property if it stayed a sports stadium.
5. VCU/VUU APARTMENTS: More apartments are planned for the Virginia Union area at Brook and Lombardy. The Gilbane project in Carver has been approved with less density and less height. [ASIDE TO GILBANE: Please, please, PLEASE don't value engineer that building into some hideous nod to the industrial and Victorian architecture of the era. The renderings look OK. But 8 1/2 Canal is AWFUL. Don't do it again. I'm begging.] The apartments in the VCU/VUU area make sense, but apartments continue to go up all over Downtown and Shockoe Bottom. In one of the next few posts, I'm going to try to count up the apartment units added east of Belvidere in the last year or so, just for fun.
6. FAN BUS BARN: No word on plans for the Bus Barn located at Robinson and Cary in the Fan. 6+ acres of prime real estate in one of the most expensive areas of the City. Why the radio silence? Why isn't the City talking about potential plans for that parcel? At least why aren't they throwing one of their "highest and best use" studies at the thing?
7. 3600 BROAD: The big grey whale of a building on Broad at Hamilton, the former Chesapeake & Southern Railroad headquarters, is being converted to apartments. This is also a historic tax credit renovation, using state and federal credits. [ASIDE: Is this tax credit thing becoming a sort of refrain?]. Apparently the building is considered a "contributing structure" in the Scotts Addition Historic District. Hmmm......interesting.
8. CONDO INVENTORY: The number of available condominiums in the City of Richmond is rapidly approaching undersupply. The reason: There have been NO condominiums developed since 2008. Projects funded and in progress when the market crashed were completed, like Windsor Court. But there was no financing for new projects, and therefore no new inventory in the pipeline - until now. A high-end "luxury" condominium development called The Tiber is going up on Libbie Avenue near Grove. I'm keeping my eye on it to see how it goes. It's been my position for a long time that there is an under-supply of "luxury" condominiums available, even before the market crash, for the wave of down-sizing Baby Boomers. And in my opinion, there is also a pretty specific formula for floor plan, size, amenities you must have to develop successful high-end condominium units. Let's see if these folks first-to-market get it right.
This is only scratching the surface on what's going on in the real estate world here in Richmond. There are so many interesting things, such as the increasing number of out-of-town developers entering the market. Some of those developers are entering the Richmond market with (IMO) really great plans, some with not just head-scratching plans, but "what the H-E-double hockey sticks are you THINKING?" plans. I'm happy to name names, and we can all sit back and watch whether my predictions are correct or not. But for now, it is back to the salt mines. As always, I welcome your comments and/or suggestions for topics or otherwise. Hasta la vista, baby.
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