Six-story apartment building planned beside Willow Lawn on city-county line

WillowLawnApts1

A view of the apartment building as it would appear along Augusta Avenue from Willow Lawn. (Henrico County documents)

With hundreds of new apartments in the works to the east and west, a site adjacent to Willow Lawn off Staples Mill Road is being lined up for 160 more units.

Scott Boyers

Scott Boyers

Local developer Scott Boyers is planning a six-story building with four levels of apartments above structured parking at 4909-4911 Augusta Ave., a 1-acre property on the east side of the shopping center that straddles the Henrico-Richmond line.

The property includes a 60-year-old office building that would be razed to make way for the development. A neighboring office building that fronts Staples Mill Road is not involved in the project.

An LLC tied to Boyers’ Highline Developments bought the two parcels that make up the property in a multi-parcel deal that closed last November. Property records show it paid $1.3 million to previous owner D&S Vending Inc. The city and county had assessed the parcels that year at $867,900 combined.

Boyers is seeking a rezoning and provisional-use permit from Henrico to allow the development, which would include sublevel parking, a ground-floor commercial space and community amenity spaces.

WillowLawnApts2

Renderings show the six-story building as it would appear from Staples Mill Road, with the courtyard and pool on the opposite side.

Plans call for those spaces, along with a parking entrance and two lobbies, to face Augusta Avenue, while a courtyard, pool and other amenities would be partially enclosed by the apartments.

The commercial space would be at least 1,100 square feet, while the ground-floor amenity spaces would total 4,600 square feet. Additional amenities would include an event room with a TV, a meeting room, and a business area or co-working space.

The apartments would consist of 125 one-bedroom units and 35 two-bedrooms. The units would range in size from about 570 to 1,050 square feet and include walkout balconies. The plans submitted to Henrico do not indicate rental rates for the units.

The two levels of parking — one underground and the other behind the ground-floor commercial and amenity spaces — would total 168 spaces. The number of spaces does not meet what’s required by the county, though the requests include a parking study that presents justifications for the lower amount, including availability of on-street parking in the area.

Boyers, reached Tuesday, declined to comment on the project before the requests go to the Henrico Planning Commission, which is scheduled to consider them at its Oct. 13 meeting. Local attorney Andy Condlin with Roth Jackson Gibbons Condlin is representing the group.

WillowLawnApts3

The building would fill a 1-acre property that’s partly in Henrico and partly in the city.

A community meeting on the project is scheduled today, Oct. 5. A county staff report does not specify a time and place for that meeting.

Dwell Design Studio is the architect on the project, and Parker Design Group conducted the parking study.

Boyers’ proposals over the years have included an apartment building at Libbie and Grove avenues that never materialized. He was also part of the original development group behind The Tiber condos, which were completed after a string of lawsuits.

Meanwhile, proposals for more apartments on both sides of Willow Lawn are making their way through their respective jurisdictions’ review process.

A few blocks east along Broad Street, an out-of-town developer is planning a seven-story building with as many as 150 apartments and ground-floor commercial space at 4601-4625 W. Broad St. A special-use request for that project is under review by city planners.

And west of the shopping center, Thalhimer Realty Partners and Crenshaw Realty are planning 265 apartments at 1506-1510 Willow Lawn Drive after scaling back a larger proposal earlier this year. Approvals for the scaled-down version of the project were granted by county supervisors in May.

WillowLawnApts1

A view of the apartment building as it would appear along Augusta Avenue from Willow Lawn. (Henrico County documents)

With hundreds of new apartments in the works to the east and west, a site adjacent to Willow Lawn off Staples Mill Road is being lined up for 160 more units.

Scott Boyers

Scott Boyers

Local developer Scott Boyers is planning a six-story building with four levels of apartments above structured parking at 4909-4911 Augusta Ave., a 1-acre property on the east side of the shopping center that straddles the Henrico-Richmond line.

The property includes a 60-year-old office building that would be razed to make way for the development. A neighboring office building that fronts Staples Mill Road is not involved in the project.

An LLC tied to Boyers’ Highline Developments bought the two parcels that make up the property in a multi-parcel deal that closed last November. Property records show it paid $1.3 million to previous owner D&S Vending Inc. The city and county had assessed the parcels that year at $867,900 combined.

Boyers is seeking a rezoning and provisional-use permit from Henrico to allow the development, which would include sublevel parking, a ground-floor commercial space and community amenity spaces.

WillowLawnApts2

Renderings show the six-story building as it would appear from Staples Mill Road, with the courtyard and pool on the opposite side.

Plans call for those spaces, along with a parking entrance and two lobbies, to face Augusta Avenue, while a courtyard, pool and other amenities would be partially enclosed by the apartments.

The commercial space would be at least 1,100 square feet, while the ground-floor amenity spaces would total 4,600 square feet. Additional amenities would include an event room with a TV, a meeting room, and a business area or co-working space.

The apartments would consist of 125 one-bedroom units and 35 two-bedrooms. The units would range in size from about 570 to 1,050 square feet and include walkout balconies. The plans submitted to Henrico do not indicate rental rates for the units.

The two levels of parking — one underground and the other behind the ground-floor commercial and amenity spaces — would total 168 spaces. The number of spaces does not meet what’s required by the county, though the requests include a parking study that presents justifications for the lower amount, including availability of on-street parking in the area.

Boyers, reached Tuesday, declined to comment on the project before the requests go to the Henrico Planning Commission, which is scheduled to consider them at its Oct. 13 meeting. Local attorney Andy Condlin with Roth Jackson Gibbons Condlin is representing the group.

WillowLawnApts3

The building would fill a 1-acre property that’s partly in Henrico and partly in the city.

A community meeting on the project is scheduled today, Oct. 5. A county staff report does not specify a time and place for that meeting.

Dwell Design Studio is the architect on the project, and Parker Design Group conducted the parking study.

Boyers’ proposals over the years have included an apartment building at Libbie and Grove avenues that never materialized. He was also part of the original development group behind The Tiber condos, which were completed after a string of lawsuits.

Meanwhile, proposals for more apartments on both sides of Willow Lawn are making their way through their respective jurisdictions’ review process.

A few blocks east along Broad Street, an out-of-town developer is planning a seven-story building with as many as 150 apartments and ground-floor commercial space at 4601-4625 W. Broad St. A special-use request for that project is under review by city planners.

And west of the shopping center, Thalhimer Realty Partners and Crenshaw Realty are planning 265 apartments at 1506-1510 Willow Lawn Drive after scaling back a larger proposal earlier this year. Approvals for the scaled-down version of the project were granted by county supervisors in May.

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Ed Christina
Ed Christina
1 year ago

To me, it makes sense to allow this building to have less parking spaces, because it is so close to the Pulse bus line.

Everything along Broad west of Fulton is commutable via the Pulse.

I don’t know if a price point is mentioned but proximity to the Pulse lines makes this viable for VCU students.

Now if we can just get all the developers to start chipping in for covered bus stops that make this possible.