308 N. 2nd St. has been boarded up for some time, with a saxophonist watching over it. Photos by Katie Demeria.
Jim Hays and partner Alejandro Reyes recently embarked on the renovation of two buildings along North Second Street, with a plan to create a new commercial space and a few apartments for the restaurant-lined street.
Reyes purchased the two buildings at 308 and 312 N. Second St. last month for $200,000, city records show. They’ve already started work on the buildings, which total about 8,500 square feet combined, and construction should wrap up within two or three months.
The two properties were built in the early 1920s, city records show, and the renovation will bring back their historic features, Hays said.
“We’ll attempt to restore the front of the storefront as close as we can, taking into consideration the differences between 1922 and now,” he said.
312 N. 2nd has its piano key awning to catch the eye of passersby.
“It’s pretty much now a case of, you name it, we’ve worked there,” Hays said.
The pair typically targets older properties and usually sells them once construction finishes. They met several years ago while doing work for now-imprisoned developer Billy Jefferson’s River City Real Estate. They stopped working for the company in 2010.
Originally from Pittsburgh, Hays has been in Richmond since 1995 with his company, Emergency Electric Service & Contracting Enterprises Inc., of which he is a fifth-generation owner. The business offers electrical, plumbing, heating and air conditioning, and building services.
Reyes is originally from Mexico and moved to Richmond in the early 1990s. He now runs his business, Alex and Son LLC, which does interior finishes, roofing, siding and other contracting work.
Through their two companies, Reyes and Hays are doing all the work for their Second Street projects. They are still looking for an architect to design it.
The work will probably cost about $60,000 per project, Hays estimated, and they are financing it themselves. Historic tax credits are not part of the project.
Matt Louthan of Colliers International represented Reyes in the deal. The sellers, John B. Mann and Carolyn T. Myers, were represented by Barry Hofheimer and Scott Boyers of CBRE | Richmond.
“This is not the first building they’ve done this with, and I look forward to them generating this positive momentum and continuing throughout the city,” Louthan said of the buyers. “I equate it to flipping houses, and Richmond has a lot of old buildings.”
The 3,500-square-foot property at 308 N. Second St. will include commercial space on the ground floor and one apartment above. The 5,000-square-foot building at 312 N. Second St. will likely have apartments above, though Hays said specifics have not been finalized yet. The ground floor will feature space for Hays and Reyes’ companies to display information and wares.
Reyes and Hays are the latest developers to show interest in that stretch of Jackson Ward. Their buildings are a couple doors down from 320 N. Second St., which was purchased last summer by Washington, D.C.-based Douglas Development, the company behind the rehab of the nearby Central National Bank building.
The company has cobbled together about a dozen properties in the surrounding blocks, most of which have sat idle as it works to convert the old bank tower into hundreds of apartments.
308 N. 2nd St. has been boarded up for some time, with a saxophonist watching over it. Photos by Katie Demeria.
Jim Hays and partner Alejandro Reyes recently embarked on the renovation of two buildings along North Second Street, with a plan to create a new commercial space and a few apartments for the restaurant-lined street.
Reyes purchased the two buildings at 308 and 312 N. Second St. last month for $200,000, city records show. They’ve already started work on the buildings, which total about 8,500 square feet combined, and construction should wrap up within two or three months.
The two properties were built in the early 1920s, city records show, and the renovation will bring back their historic features, Hays said.
“We’ll attempt to restore the front of the storefront as close as we can, taking into consideration the differences between 1922 and now,” he said.
312 N. 2nd has its piano key awning to catch the eye of passersby.
“It’s pretty much now a case of, you name it, we’ve worked there,” Hays said.
The pair typically targets older properties and usually sells them once construction finishes. They met several years ago while doing work for now-imprisoned developer Billy Jefferson’s River City Real Estate. They stopped working for the company in 2010.
Originally from Pittsburgh, Hays has been in Richmond since 1995 with his company, Emergency Electric Service & Contracting Enterprises Inc., of which he is a fifth-generation owner. The business offers electrical, plumbing, heating and air conditioning, and building services.
Reyes is originally from Mexico and moved to Richmond in the early 1990s. He now runs his business, Alex and Son LLC, which does interior finishes, roofing, siding and other contracting work.
Through their two companies, Reyes and Hays are doing all the work for their Second Street projects. They are still looking for an architect to design it.
The work will probably cost about $60,000 per project, Hays estimated, and they are financing it themselves. Historic tax credits are not part of the project.
Matt Louthan of Colliers International represented Reyes in the deal. The sellers, John B. Mann and Carolyn T. Myers, were represented by Barry Hofheimer and Scott Boyers of CBRE | Richmond.
“This is not the first building they’ve done this with, and I look forward to them generating this positive momentum and continuing throughout the city,” Louthan said of the buyers. “I equate it to flipping houses, and Richmond has a lot of old buildings.”
The 3,500-square-foot property at 308 N. Second St. will include commercial space on the ground floor and one apartment above. The 5,000-square-foot building at 312 N. Second St. will likely have apartments above, though Hays said specifics have not been finalized yet. The ground floor will feature space for Hays and Reyes’ companies to display information and wares.
Reyes and Hays are the latest developers to show interest in that stretch of Jackson Ward. Their buildings are a couple doors down from 320 N. Second St., which was purchased last summer by Washington, D.C.-based Douglas Development, the company behind the rehab of the nearby Central National Bank building.
The company has cobbled together about a dozen properties in the surrounding blocks, most of which have sat idle as it works to convert the old bank tower into hundreds of apartments.