A northwest perspective of the proposed five-story apartment building as it would appear along Dabney Road. (Images courtesy of Henrico County)
Continuing a push beyond the borders of its Scott’s Addition stomping grounds, Spy Rock Real Estate Group is stepping across the city line to bring the region’s apartment boom to Henrico’s Westwood area.
The local developer, which is based and most active in and around Scott’s Addition, has filed plans with the county for a five-story apartment building at 2001 Dabney Road, an almost 2½-acre site just north of Westwood Avenue.
Currently home to a 65,000-square-foot industrial building, the site on the east side of Dabney is near Topgolf and around the corner from The Ella, Spy Rock’s multibuilding mixed-use development along Broad Street.
Plans call for replacing the industrial building, previously a Service Tire Truck Center, with a structure that would include 245 apartments, 3,500 square feet of ground-floor commercial space and an attached parking deck with 307 spaces.
The building at 2001 Dabney Road was once a Service Tire Truck Center and is currently used by a moving and storage company. (Jonathan Spiers photo)
The apartments would include 154 one-bedroom units, 76 two-bedrooms and 15 three-bedrooms. The apartments would wrap around a central courtyard and a second exterior courtyard fronting Dabney, with other amenities including a pet spa and a rooftop deck.
Poole & Poole Architects is designing the project, and Timmons Group is handling engineering. Preston Lloyd with Williams Mullen is representing Spy Rock in its request for a provisional-use permit to allow the project.
Lloyd deferred comment on the project to Spy Rock principal Andrew Basham, who could not be reached Friday.
The request was slated to go before the Henrico Planning Commission last week, but was deferred to the Feb. 10 meeting. A county report says planning staff wants additional detail regarding site and landscaping design, and could support the request if more information is also provided regarding the county’s fire and site access requirements.
Elevations of the proposed apartment building show the attached parking deck.
County property records show the site is currently owned by Cobb LLC, a Henrico-based entity that bought it in 2001 for $1.65 million. The county has assessed the property at $1.6 million.
The project would be Spy Rock’s second in Henrico and first in the Westwood area, a transitioning industrial district that the county is positioning as its own version of Scott’s Addition. The county has created a redevelopment overlay district for the area that allows multifamily development on nonresidential-zoned properties with a provisional-use permit and a master plan.
Also in the county, Spy Rock is working with Crescent Development on a 580-home development at the former Henrico Plaza Shopping Center on Mechanicsville Turnpike.
In Scott’s Addition, where its projects have included the Symbol mixed-use development and The Preserve apartments, Spy Rock is going after the neighborhood’s condo market with a 134-unit project that’s in the works.
Led by Basham and co-founder Taylor Williams, the firm also closed out 2021 with a pair of deals totaling nearly $17 million, including the Greendale Railing complex at 2031 Westwood Ave.
A northwest perspective of the proposed five-story apartment building as it would appear along Dabney Road. (Images courtesy of Henrico County)
Continuing a push beyond the borders of its Scott’s Addition stomping grounds, Spy Rock Real Estate Group is stepping across the city line to bring the region’s apartment boom to Henrico’s Westwood area.
The local developer, which is based and most active in and around Scott’s Addition, has filed plans with the county for a five-story apartment building at 2001 Dabney Road, an almost 2½-acre site just north of Westwood Avenue.
Currently home to a 65,000-square-foot industrial building, the site on the east side of Dabney is near Topgolf and around the corner from The Ella, Spy Rock’s multibuilding mixed-use development along Broad Street.
Plans call for replacing the industrial building, previously a Service Tire Truck Center, with a structure that would include 245 apartments, 3,500 square feet of ground-floor commercial space and an attached parking deck with 307 spaces.
The building at 2001 Dabney Road was once a Service Tire Truck Center and is currently used by a moving and storage company. (Jonathan Spiers photo)
The apartments would include 154 one-bedroom units, 76 two-bedrooms and 15 three-bedrooms. The apartments would wrap around a central courtyard and a second exterior courtyard fronting Dabney, with other amenities including a pet spa and a rooftop deck.
Poole & Poole Architects is designing the project, and Timmons Group is handling engineering. Preston Lloyd with Williams Mullen is representing Spy Rock in its request for a provisional-use permit to allow the project.
Lloyd deferred comment on the project to Spy Rock principal Andrew Basham, who could not be reached Friday.
The request was slated to go before the Henrico Planning Commission last week, but was deferred to the Feb. 10 meeting. A county report says planning staff wants additional detail regarding site and landscaping design, and could support the request if more information is also provided regarding the county’s fire and site access requirements.
Elevations of the proposed apartment building show the attached parking deck.
County property records show the site is currently owned by Cobb LLC, a Henrico-based entity that bought it in 2001 for $1.65 million. The county has assessed the property at $1.6 million.
The project would be Spy Rock’s second in Henrico and first in the Westwood area, a transitioning industrial district that the county is positioning as its own version of Scott’s Addition. The county has created a redevelopment overlay district for the area that allows multifamily development on nonresidential-zoned properties with a provisional-use permit and a master plan.
Also in the county, Spy Rock is working with Crescent Development on a 580-home development at the former Henrico Plaza Shopping Center on Mechanicsville Turnpike.
In Scott’s Addition, where its projects have included the Symbol mixed-use development and The Preserve apartments, Spy Rock is going after the neighborhood’s condo market with a 134-unit project that’s in the works.
Led by Basham and co-founder Taylor Williams, the firm also closed out 2021 with a pair of deals totaling nearly $17 million, including the Greendale Railing complex at 2031 Westwood Ave.
With time this could be a great neighborhood IF Henrico does more than just allow apartment buildings. It needs sidewalks and bike lanes.
That would be an interesting challenge for Henrico, I can’t really think of an area where they have done that, outside of the apartments near the Wholefoods in Short Pump. But with this area and some there the other things coming they will definitely have to make that happen
Exactly. Otherwise it is a hodgepodge of appts, restaurants and condos. The neighborhood needs sidewalks and bike lanes to tie it together.
Every time I look at the map of this area I am struck by how much it would make sense if Norfolk Street could be extended in Scott’s Addition over the railroad tracks and connect to Hamilton. The Westwood and Dabney areas are being billed as “The Next Scott’s Addition” but it sure would seem better if they all flowed together in a walkable corridor that didn’t involve going out to Broad Street.
It would for sure, but getting CSX to agree to being bridged is next to impossible. Plus, site plans have been filed by Bonaventure to close that option with more apartments. Westwood is going to huge when it builds out.
Isn’t this rail part of the State’s purchase?
“It would for sure, but getting CSX to agree to being bridged is next to impossible” Can confirm.
Actually I believe CSX ha no say whatsoever about their tracks being bridged over. Whichever authority builds roads determines whether a bridge over the tracks is justified and worth the expense.
Disagree.
Anything that is going over or under existing tracks has to be signed off on by the rail road in question, and after you submit plans there is no point in even following up for a full year.
After a year, if they haven’t responded then you can start to try to get them to sign off. Different RR’s have different response times but a year is standard.
I haven’t done this in 3 or so years, but i did it pretty regularly for 8 years, and I haven’t heard it changed
Thank you for clearing this point for me Ed.
Henico County needs to step up and build sidewalks along Dabney Road and Westwood Ave and every road with in two miles of this new apartment complex.
But the good news is it’s saving green space by not paving over more parking lots.
Not saying bad or good but someone talked about bike and sidewalk infrastructure; you do realize this complex has almost one 1 parking space for every bedroom. 351 bedrooms with 307 parking deck spaces.
Don’t forget the 3,500 s.f. of ground floor commercial space.
Great just what we need more apartments that only 40% of the population can afford. And that percentage is getting smaller and smaller.
Do most folks get roommates when they are in the new renter market? I know they used to. No one could afford an apartment by themselves when just starting out. Is this anything new? Do the lower rate apartments all of a sudden disappear?
Also, don’t people pay more for new apartments?
And doesn’t each new apartment create another vacancy for a lower priced unit when some one moves out?
Way to go Spyrock. This is another catalyst to continue the transformation of the Westwood District. Cheers and welcome to the neighborhood