Plans for the Westhampton Theater property call for an additional two floors set back from the street. Rendering courtesy of Jason Guillot.
Some high-dollar deals dominated Richmond’s commercial real estate market in 2015, just as digging began on several new developments.
The market’s biggest single deal of the year closed in late December, when the two-tower Riverfront Plaza office complex sold to a California firm for $147.5 million. And just a few weeks earlier, the newly constructed Gateway Plaza was sold by its developer for $104.5 million to the company that provided the financing on the project. Work on the tower wrapped up earlier in the year, and local law giant McGuireWoods has already moved in.
One of the most talked-about deals of the year is the pending redevelopment of the Westhampton Theater. The new owners of the property are planning to bring condos, new restaurants and other tenants to the stretch of Grove Avenue.
Across the river, but still in the city limits, the Stony Point Shopping Center sold for $15 million in February.
Another shopping center fetched a sizeable price in Henrico County, when Westpark sold for $33.39 million in May. It was one of the larger deals in Henrico during the year, followed by the $29 million sale of the FBI field office building on East Parham Road earlier this month.
The Crossings at Bon Air, which houses units for independent living, assisted living and other types of care, sold for $56.6 million. Photos by Katie Demeria.
Down in Chesterfield County, sales of senior living facilities and apartment complexes reigned in 2015. The Crossings at Bon Air raked in $56.6 million, followed by Huguenot Apartments, which pulled in $27 million.
One of the most-watched deals this year involved the dismantling of imprisoned former developer Billy Jefferson’s property holdings. Following a rocky bankruptcy case, his massive River City Renaissance portfolios, consisting of 29 apartment buildings throughout the Fan and Museum District, sold for $37 million to Boston-based Davis Cos. and locally based Spy Rock Real Estate.
Local malls were targets for sales and redevelopment this year. The aging Regency Square was purchased in February for $13 million by locally based Thalhimer Realty Partners and the Rebkee Co. with plans to revamp the property. Fairfield Commons, another Henrico mall, was sold to a group out of Atlanta that is bulldozing the downtrodden structure to make way for a new Walmart-anchored development.
West of Short Pump Town Center, work is pushing forward on four massive developments: Construction has started at GreenGate; work is ongoing at West Broad Marketplace; Broad Hill Centre landed its grocery tenant in Aldi; and West Creek lured Hardywood brewery’s newest location.
The Reynolds South project is transforming more than 17 acres on the Southside.
Back in the city, Manchester’s hot streak carried over from 2014, with a 12-acre sale in November that will likely bring a new retail development to the fast-growing Southside neighborhood. That could bring some competition to a new, yet-unnamed grocery store planned for Thalhimer Realty Partners’ Reynolds South project. And a construction company is trying to create a Carytown feel in Manchester, while Fountainhead Properties is hoping to radically change the neighborhood’s skyline with two 16-story towers.
If any neighborhood outpaced Manchester in popularity this year, it was Scott’s Addition. The ever-evolving industrial area has more apartment units in the works with Spy Rock revitalizing the former Symbol Mattress Co. facility. More commercial tenants are on their way in with co-working landlord Gather purchasing a building in the neighborhood for a second location, and UrbanCore Development and Duke Dodson taking over the ARC building on the Boulevard with plans for renovations.
Elsewhere in the city, Guy Blundon of CMB Development is planning to revitalize a long-overlooked property and bring in new apartments, work wrapped up on the Church Hill theater, and the Monument Cos. is planning a big mixed-use project at the site of the old GRTC bus depot. A $24 million apartment project is on the rise in Shockoe Bottom near another eight-story apartment building around the corner, and the former DoubleTree by Hilton hotel on West Franklin Street was sold and is being transformed into the area’s first Graduate Hotel.
Some of the biggest real estate deals this year took place in the grocery sector. If 2014 was the year of the grocer, 2015 was the year of the German grocer, as Aldi and Lidl battled it out all over the area.
The two chains are strategically placing themselves near one another as they dot the region with stores. Lidl has five stores in the pipeline in Henrico and Chesterfield counties, though none yet confirmed in Richmond. But almost all those locations are near a rivaling Aldi location. Aldi has moved quicker with at least nine locations in the works or open, including one that is quickly rising on the Boulevard.
Plans for the Westhampton Theater property call for an additional two floors set back from the street. Rendering courtesy of Jason Guillot.
Some high-dollar deals dominated Richmond’s commercial real estate market in 2015, just as digging began on several new developments.
The market’s biggest single deal of the year closed in late December, when the two-tower Riverfront Plaza office complex sold to a California firm for $147.5 million. And just a few weeks earlier, the newly constructed Gateway Plaza was sold by its developer for $104.5 million to the company that provided the financing on the project. Work on the tower wrapped up earlier in the year, and local law giant McGuireWoods has already moved in.
One of the most talked-about deals of the year is the pending redevelopment of the Westhampton Theater. The new owners of the property are planning to bring condos, new restaurants and other tenants to the stretch of Grove Avenue.
Across the river, but still in the city limits, the Stony Point Shopping Center sold for $15 million in February.
Another shopping center fetched a sizeable price in Henrico County, when Westpark sold for $33.39 million in May. It was one of the larger deals in Henrico during the year, followed by the $29 million sale of the FBI field office building on East Parham Road earlier this month.
The Crossings at Bon Air, which houses units for independent living, assisted living and other types of care, sold for $56.6 million. Photos by Katie Demeria.
Down in Chesterfield County, sales of senior living facilities and apartment complexes reigned in 2015. The Crossings at Bon Air raked in $56.6 million, followed by Huguenot Apartments, which pulled in $27 million.
One of the most-watched deals this year involved the dismantling of imprisoned former developer Billy Jefferson’s property holdings. Following a rocky bankruptcy case, his massive River City Renaissance portfolios, consisting of 29 apartment buildings throughout the Fan and Museum District, sold for $37 million to Boston-based Davis Cos. and locally based Spy Rock Real Estate.
Local malls were targets for sales and redevelopment this year. The aging Regency Square was purchased in February for $13 million by locally based Thalhimer Realty Partners and the Rebkee Co. with plans to revamp the property. Fairfield Commons, another Henrico mall, was sold to a group out of Atlanta that is bulldozing the downtrodden structure to make way for a new Walmart-anchored development.
West of Short Pump Town Center, work is pushing forward on four massive developments: Construction has started at GreenGate; work is ongoing at West Broad Marketplace; Broad Hill Centre landed its grocery tenant in Aldi; and West Creek lured Hardywood brewery’s newest location.
The Reynolds South project is transforming more than 17 acres on the Southside.
Back in the city, Manchester’s hot streak carried over from 2014, with a 12-acre sale in November that will likely bring a new retail development to the fast-growing Southside neighborhood. That could bring some competition to a new, yet-unnamed grocery store planned for Thalhimer Realty Partners’ Reynolds South project. And a construction company is trying to create a Carytown feel in Manchester, while Fountainhead Properties is hoping to radically change the neighborhood’s skyline with two 16-story towers.
If any neighborhood outpaced Manchester in popularity this year, it was Scott’s Addition. The ever-evolving industrial area has more apartment units in the works with Spy Rock revitalizing the former Symbol Mattress Co. facility. More commercial tenants are on their way in with co-working landlord Gather purchasing a building in the neighborhood for a second location, and UrbanCore Development and Duke Dodson taking over the ARC building on the Boulevard with plans for renovations.
Elsewhere in the city, Guy Blundon of CMB Development is planning to revitalize a long-overlooked property and bring in new apartments, work wrapped up on the Church Hill theater, and the Monument Cos. is planning a big mixed-use project at the site of the old GRTC bus depot. A $24 million apartment project is on the rise in Shockoe Bottom near another eight-story apartment building around the corner, and the former DoubleTree by Hilton hotel on West Franklin Street was sold and is being transformed into the area’s first Graduate Hotel.
Some of the biggest real estate deals this year took place in the grocery sector. If 2014 was the year of the grocer, 2015 was the year of the German grocer, as Aldi and Lidl battled it out all over the area.
The two chains are strategically placing themselves near one another as they dot the region with stores. Lidl has five stores in the pipeline in Henrico and Chesterfield counties, though none yet confirmed in Richmond. But almost all those locations are near a rivaling Aldi location. Aldi has moved quicker with at least nine locations in the works or open, including one that is quickly rising on the Boulevard.
This is a great improvement on what is there now.