While 15 other development teams wait to see who will win the city’s Diamond District sweepstakes, a developer from Washington, D.C. is looking to amass its second sizable piece of the neighborhood right next door.
Level 2 Development is under contract to purchase roughly 6 acres of land at 2700 W. Leigh St. adjacent to the Movieland At Boulevard Square for an undisclosed price.
The pending deal was confirmed this week by Level 2 principal David Franco. The wooded plot sits just east of Movieland and is one of the largest undeveloped pieces of land around Scott’s Addition. It’s currently owned by the movie theater’s operators, Bow Tie Partners. Franco said the movie theater and its 11 acres are not part of the deal.
Franco said he anticipates the Bow Tie site will be primarily residential and is unlikely to have commercial uses. He could not be reached for further comment.
Before this deal materialized, Bow Tie’s excess land had been eyed for a handful of different uses.
Last year, Baltimore-based The Cordish Cos. proposed building a casino complex on the wooded land as well as the Movieland site. After the city declined Cordish’s proposal last spring, Bow Tie said it was exploring complementary entertainment uses for the site. But no plans were ever filed.
Bow Tie COO Joe Masher wasn’t available for comment by press time. The city most recently assessed the wooded Bow Tie property at $3.4 million.
Should the deal be consummated, it would give Level 2 another prominent property in the vicinity. Last summer the company, along with D.C. firm SJG Properties, paid $12.5 million for 3 acres at 1117-1209 N. Arthur Ashe Blvd., just to the west of the Bow Tie parcel.
That $3.8 million per-acre purchase included the recently shuttered Buz and Ned’s Real Barbecue restaurant and several other parcels, which all will make way for around 300 apartments and over 25,000 square feet of commercial space in a project dubbed Arthur Ashe Addition.
Level 2’s Scott’s Addition-area deals would give it control of over 9 acres at the southern end of the Diamond District, the major city-owned project that’s in the works on over 60 acres to the immediate north.
After receiving more than a dozen responses to an RFP last month, the city is now reviewing those responses and is expected to pick the winning teams this spring and summer to lead the project that will include a replacement ballpark for the Richmond Flying Squirrels.
While 15 other development teams wait to see who will win the city’s Diamond District sweepstakes, a developer from Washington, D.C. is looking to amass its second sizable piece of the neighborhood right next door.
Level 2 Development is under contract to purchase roughly 6 acres of land at 2700 W. Leigh St. adjacent to the Movieland At Boulevard Square for an undisclosed price.
The pending deal was confirmed this week by Level 2 principal David Franco. The wooded plot sits just east of Movieland and is one of the largest undeveloped pieces of land around Scott’s Addition. It’s currently owned by the movie theater’s operators, Bow Tie Partners. Franco said the movie theater and its 11 acres are not part of the deal.
Franco said he anticipates the Bow Tie site will be primarily residential and is unlikely to have commercial uses. He could not be reached for further comment.
Before this deal materialized, Bow Tie’s excess land had been eyed for a handful of different uses.
Last year, Baltimore-based The Cordish Cos. proposed building a casino complex on the wooded land as well as the Movieland site. After the city declined Cordish’s proposal last spring, Bow Tie said it was exploring complementary entertainment uses for the site. But no plans were ever filed.
Bow Tie COO Joe Masher wasn’t available for comment by press time. The city most recently assessed the wooded Bow Tie property at $3.4 million.
Should the deal be consummated, it would give Level 2 another prominent property in the vicinity. Last summer the company, along with D.C. firm SJG Properties, paid $12.5 million for 3 acres at 1117-1209 N. Arthur Ashe Blvd., just to the west of the Bow Tie parcel.
That $3.8 million per-acre purchase included the recently shuttered Buz and Ned’s Real Barbecue restaurant and several other parcels, which all will make way for around 300 apartments and over 25,000 square feet of commercial space in a project dubbed Arthur Ashe Addition.
Level 2’s Scott’s Addition-area deals would give it control of over 9 acres at the southern end of the Diamond District, the major city-owned project that’s in the works on over 60 acres to the immediate north.
After receiving more than a dozen responses to an RFP last month, the city is now reviewing those responses and is expected to pick the winning teams this spring and summer to lead the project that will include a replacement ballpark for the Richmond Flying Squirrels.
Hopefully Movieland will remain as a Cinema. In my opinion it’s the best Cinema in the entire area. This is a win-win situation for Bowtie and the developer.
Zig while others zag is often the savviest way to move…
Not yet…. as someone who cut his teeth on how real estate people would market adjacent neighborhoods in NYC from at least the 1970s (and I am sure earlier) on, I can tell you that such lines, and attitudes, are fluid…
I remember looking at property in Scotts Addition and thinking “yuck” — the whole reason that Scotts is what it is right now was because other places, at the time more desireable, were too expensive AND/or had a bunch of activist types throwing wrenches and spouting false moral narratives around making investment seem a bad idea…
Please don’t develop apartments that look like socialist worker housing. BTW – it’s about time to do something productive with the adjacent underutilized property.
Just to move a little south and across the street, I think the so called Washington Red, err, Commies practice facility should be utilised for a new city stadium that could house the Kickers and VCU soccer clubs. The old city stadium site could be transformed into modern housing further strengthening the Cary St. shopping corridor.