The two-story townhomes are to be built by Ryan Homes. (County documents)
A local development firm with a focus on lower-income housing is working its way through Henrico’s review process for a project planned to add four dozen for-sale townhomes near Richmond Raceway.
Canterbury Development Group, the development arm of Richmond-based Canterbury Enterprises, is seeking site plan approval for 48 townhomes on a 5-acre plot south of Laburnum Avenue.
The vacant land is along the east side of Walnut Avenue at its intersections with Ratcliffe and Savannah avenues.
Canterbury has enlisted Ryan Homes to build the two-story townhomes, which would be three-bedroom units with two bathrooms and one-car garages. The units would be a minimum of 1,300 square feet and priced starting at $280,000, Canterbury CEO Junior Burr said.
Junior Burr
Burr said the site was brought to his firm’s attention by Timmons Group, which is handling engineering for the project. He said the initial idea for the site was for income-restricted rental housing but that changed to for-sale units based on community input.
“We were initially studying it to do affordable housing, but we pivoted from that and met with the community and got feedback and said, ‘What about a for-sale product,’ so that’s where we landed with it,” Burr said.
After securing a rezoning for the project last May, working with local attorney Andy Condlin with Roth Jackson Gibbons Condlin, Canterbury purchased the site in July for $550,000. The site was assessed by the county that year at $221,500, and it’s assessed this year at $427,100, property records show. The seller in the deal was B&B Properties II LLC.
The project’s site plan shows the townhomes will be clustered in groups of four and five around a U-shaped parking lot with two access points on Walnut Avenue. A pocket park is planned in the center of the U along the street.
A site plan oriented with the left side as north shows the 48 townhomes planned along Walnut Avenue.
The site plan is up for review by the county at a meeting later this month. Should the project advance according to schedule, Burr said he hopes to start site work in November or next spring, with full buildout expected to take 15 to 18 months.
Burr put the cost to develop the lots at $2.5 million.
The project adds to Canterbury’s local workload, which includes the 90-unit Swansboro Place apartment building planned at 2008 Hull St. in Richmond. Its previous projects include the phased, 70-unit Townhomes at Warwick Place and a pair of historic tax-credit renovations along High Street in downtown Petersburg.
Back when the races at RIR were worth attending, this lot was FULL of RV’s. They probably made enough money in two race weekends to pay for all the real estate taxes for the year.