The vacant lot near the intersection of West Cary and South Plum streets is being planned for an apartment project. (Mike Platania photo)
The ripple effects of the Eck family’s sale of their Fan real estate portfolio have begun with an infill project along Cary Street.
A pair of three-story duplexes are being planned for a vacant lot at 1505-1507 W. Cary St., land that was one of the first pieces to sell late last year as the family began unloading its vast holdings in the neighborhood.
The 0.1-acre parcel was purchased for $825,000 by local investor Mark Telfian in July 2021. He’s filed plans to construct four three-bedroom, 1,450-square-foot apartments on the plot.
According to plans filed with the city, the duplexes will feature brick facades, front porches, rear patios and have parking in the rear. River Mill Development is listed as the buildings’ designer.
The land is zoned for multifamily residential uses, but the project needs a special use permit due to lot width and area requirements. Mark Baker of Baker Development Resources is representing Telfian in the SUP process. Baker said the need for an SUP doesn’t have anything to do with the density of the buildings, but instead the design.
A rending of the façade of the proposed duplexes. (Courtesy of city documents)
“What’s interesting is both of these lots contain 2,318 square feet, so overall the lot is over 4,000 square feet. In R-63 (multifamily urban residential district) you can do a four-unit multifamily dwelling if you have 4,000 square feet,” Baker said. “Here we’re doing four units. But in order to configure it as a two-family attached, which we think works better for the area, it requires the special use permit.”
City records show Telfian owns four other residential properties in and around the 1600 block of West Cary, as well as the Creative Contracting warehouse at 1623 W. Cary St. Baker said he believes Telfian intends to rent out the new buildings once completed in lieu of selling them.
The city’s Planning Commission is scheduled to hear the SUP request at its Feb. 22 meeting, after which it will head to the City Council on Feb. 28. Baker said the plan is to break ground shortly after receiving approvals.
A few other pieces of the former Eck real estate empire may also soon see changes or be developed.
A group of One South Commercial brokers bought a quarter-acre lot from the Ecks at 1823-1827 W. Cary St., which is also being considered for development.
Meanwhile, Charlotte-based Carolina Capital, which spent $22 million on 47 pieces of the Eck portfolio, is looking to find food and beverage tenants for some of the vacant storefronts it acquired along West Main Street.
The vacant lot near the intersection of West Cary and South Plum streets is being planned for an apartment project. (Mike Platania photo)
The ripple effects of the Eck family’s sale of their Fan real estate portfolio have begun with an infill project along Cary Street.
A pair of three-story duplexes are being planned for a vacant lot at 1505-1507 W. Cary St., land that was one of the first pieces to sell late last year as the family began unloading its vast holdings in the neighborhood.
The 0.1-acre parcel was purchased for $825,000 by local investor Mark Telfian in July 2021. He’s filed plans to construct four three-bedroom, 1,450-square-foot apartments on the plot.
According to plans filed with the city, the duplexes will feature brick facades, front porches, rear patios and have parking in the rear. River Mill Development is listed as the buildings’ designer.
The land is zoned for multifamily residential uses, but the project needs a special use permit due to lot width and area requirements. Mark Baker of Baker Development Resources is representing Telfian in the SUP process. Baker said the need for an SUP doesn’t have anything to do with the density of the buildings, but instead the design.
A rending of the façade of the proposed duplexes. (Courtesy of city documents)
“What’s interesting is both of these lots contain 2,318 square feet, so overall the lot is over 4,000 square feet. In R-63 (multifamily urban residential district) you can do a four-unit multifamily dwelling if you have 4,000 square feet,” Baker said. “Here we’re doing four units. But in order to configure it as a two-family attached, which we think works better for the area, it requires the special use permit.”
City records show Telfian owns four other residential properties in and around the 1600 block of West Cary, as well as the Creative Contracting warehouse at 1623 W. Cary St. Baker said he believes Telfian intends to rent out the new buildings once completed in lieu of selling them.
The city’s Planning Commission is scheduled to hear the SUP request at its Feb. 22 meeting, after which it will head to the City Council on Feb. 28. Baker said the plan is to break ground shortly after receiving approvals.
A few other pieces of the former Eck real estate empire may also soon see changes or be developed.
A group of One South Commercial brokers bought a quarter-acre lot from the Ecks at 1823-1827 W. Cary St., which is also being considered for development.
Meanwhile, Charlotte-based Carolina Capital, which spent $22 million on 47 pieces of the Eck portfolio, is looking to find food and beverage tenants for some of the vacant storefronts it acquired along West Main Street.
This is great news. I hope to see all the empty lots filled with housing and businesses that complement the community. This is a terrific start.
This is terrible, the new building is way to vertical for the historic character of the flat vacant lot! It also lessens the green space in the Fan! All the empty bottles and sandwich wrappers that blow into the lot will have to go someplace, creating more litter in this charming neighborhood institution! People currently walk across the vacant lot, and putting a building there will have a negative impact on the pedestrian friendly nature of the area, and replacing the foot path with parking is abhorrent! Once again, Stoney, the city council and Antifa are conspiring to turn America… Read more »
Ed, for the last time, you’re not allowed to have a sense of humor on the RichmondBizSense comment section.
Agreed…we need more murals and parklets here instead of housing
I enjoyed this but think you need the /s some people actually believe that
Not to mention – where will all the dogs in the neighborhood go to frolic amongst the discarded hamburger wrappers, soda cups, bottles, etc., and of course, to relieve themselves? 😉
Seriously – it’s a nice looking infill – glad to see these empty lots on the southern edge of the Fan starting to get housing and businesses built. As Bruce said, a great start to some much-needed revitalization.
I really wish they could have been allowed to build these new apartment buildings to be 4 stories tall in that I really think two and 3 stories being the limit is a reltric from the 1890’s and is one of the reasons why San Fransico and other cities are having serve housing shortages.
Not in the fan – south border of the fan is Main St
It looks like it might be the Fan District Association who considers the border to be main because the city has this property under the neighborhood name of the Fan.
Continuing the humor vein.
I’m confused, it says a “3 story duplex, with four units”
I looked up definition of duplex; it is a building housing 2 apartments.
Don’t we have a quadplex here?
Hence the word “Two”.. And Two times 3 = six. Tadaa!
So maybe it’s a “sexplex!”