Once eyed for a brewery, the apartment building along Hull Street has been home to a T-Mobile store for years. (Mike Platania photo)
While new development booms in Manchester, buyers are also looking to the neighborhood for long-term investment in already-built assets.
The Motorworks at City View apartments sold last month for $7 million to a group led by local investor Alex Griffith. The 39-unit mixed-use building is at 616 Hull St.
Alex Griffith
Griffith, a Richmond native, has now picked up nearly $16 million worth of commercial real estate in the city since last spring when he moved back to town after a stint on the West Coast.
The Motorworks apartments were redeveloped by Genesis Properties about a decade ago. Genesis sold the apartments to Thalhimer Realty Partners for $4.3 million in late 2019. The parcel was most recently assessed at $4.9 million.
Griffith said that he enjoyed looking in less-competitive neighborhoods like Forest Hill and Shockoe Slip for his previous deals, but he was nonetheless drawn to Manchester, one of the city’s development hotspots.
“I don’t know if I’d have chased this if it was on the market. I just felt like I was getting a fair deal,” Griffith said of the off-market deal. “I felt really confident with Thalhimer just because I know the reputation for how they run their properties. I had a lot of confidence in the background in the property.”
The sale closed June 21, city records show. Virginia Community Capital was the lender for Griffith’s group. CBRE’s Peyton Cox and Calvin Griffith, Griffith’s brother, represented them in the deal.
Griffith said the apartments are fully leased and that he’s not planning many changes beyond slight renovations when appropriate.
“There’s not a ton of value to add. I just love the neighborhood and thought I was getting a fair price for an asset that’ll continue to out-perform,” he said.
Griffith said he’s gotten to know some local investors who share his vision of buying and holding properties for the long-term, including Innsbrook-based Kinloch Capital, which was a major investor in this deal.
“(Having investors) is helpful because it expands my ability to close on things if I think there’s an opportunity there. I don’t have to wait to sell something else,” Griffith said, noting that he hasn’t had investors in all of his previous Richmond deals.
Across the river in Shockoe Slip, Griffith said he has changes in store for 19-21 S. 13th St., which he bought in the spring. The building has a 6,000-square-foot ground-floor commercial space that was the longtime home of Kobe Japanese Steaks and Sushi until its 2019 closure.
In lieu of looking for a new restaurant user, Griffith said he’s now planning to convert that space into six residential units, half of which will be two-story lofts.
“The building already has some amazing creative residences (in) lofts and roof decks. So we’re going to add to that,” Griffith said. “A lot of the units in the (Shockoe) area are quite small, but we think there is support for larger well-appointed spaces.”
Once eyed for a brewery, the apartment building along Hull Street has been home to a T-Mobile store for years. (Mike Platania photo)
While new development booms in Manchester, buyers are also looking to the neighborhood for long-term investment in already-built assets.
The Motorworks at City View apartments sold last month for $7 million to a group led by local investor Alex Griffith. The 39-unit mixed-use building is at 616 Hull St.
Alex Griffith
Griffith, a Richmond native, has now picked up nearly $16 million worth of commercial real estate in the city since last spring when he moved back to town after a stint on the West Coast.
The Motorworks apartments were redeveloped by Genesis Properties about a decade ago. Genesis sold the apartments to Thalhimer Realty Partners for $4.3 million in late 2019. The parcel was most recently assessed at $4.9 million.
Griffith said that he enjoyed looking in less-competitive neighborhoods like Forest Hill and Shockoe Slip for his previous deals, but he was nonetheless drawn to Manchester, one of the city’s development hotspots.
“I don’t know if I’d have chased this if it was on the market. I just felt like I was getting a fair deal,” Griffith said of the off-market deal. “I felt really confident with Thalhimer just because I know the reputation for how they run their properties. I had a lot of confidence in the background in the property.”
The sale closed June 21, city records show. Virginia Community Capital was the lender for Griffith’s group. CBRE’s Peyton Cox and Calvin Griffith, Griffith’s brother, represented them in the deal.
Griffith said the apartments are fully leased and that he’s not planning many changes beyond slight renovations when appropriate.
“There’s not a ton of value to add. I just love the neighborhood and thought I was getting a fair price for an asset that’ll continue to out-perform,” he said.
Griffith said he’s gotten to know some local investors who share his vision of buying and holding properties for the long-term, including Innsbrook-based Kinloch Capital, which was a major investor in this deal.
“(Having investors) is helpful because it expands my ability to close on things if I think there’s an opportunity there. I don’t have to wait to sell something else,” Griffith said, noting that he hasn’t had investors in all of his previous Richmond deals.
Across the river in Shockoe Slip, Griffith said he has changes in store for 19-21 S. 13th St., which he bought in the spring. The building has a 6,000-square-foot ground-floor commercial space that was the longtime home of Kobe Japanese Steaks and Sushi until its 2019 closure.
In lieu of looking for a new restaurant user, Griffith said he’s now planning to convert that space into six residential units, half of which will be two-story lofts.
“The building already has some amazing creative residences (in) lofts and roof decks. So we’re going to add to that,” Griffith said. “A lot of the units in the (Shockoe) area are quite small, but we think there is support for larger well-appointed spaces.”