A rendering of the building planned for 500 Maury St.
Manchester’s apartment count looks to continue to rise, as a pair of local developers are teaming up yet again to bring another new project to the neighborhood.
Fountainhead Real Estate Development and Dodson Development Group are planning a 163-unit apartment building at 500 Maury St., about a block south of the recently completed I-95-Maury Street roundabout.
The six-story building would span 143,000 square feet and rise on a 0.6-acre parcel where a vacant warehouse currently stands.
Dodson and Fountainhead previously worked together developing The Nest, a similarly-sized project along Broad Street in Scott’s Addition.
Duke Dodson
Fountainhead’s Tom Papa has been a prolific developer in Manchester for years, counting projects such as the 14-story South Falls tower, Plant Zero complex and The Box on Decatur Street, which remains under construction.
Dodson, led by Duke Dodson, recently bought into the Southside neighborhood with a $2 million deal on Hull Street. He also recently sold off his property management divisions in part to focus on developing.
The two firms bought the land at 500 Maury St., as well as two neighboring plots at 511 Albany St. and 413 E. 5th St., in July for $2.05 million. The parcels total just over 1 acre.
Papa said they had considered building something that incorporated a long-stay hotel with apartments but wound up playing it safe amid rising interest rates and construction costs.
Tom Papa
“We had explored a hotel, but we chickened out,” Papa said. “The goal anytime there’s a financial issue is to go make things as affordable as possible.”
In addition to using the next-door lot at 511 Albany St. for parking, a 70-space podium-style parking deck is planned to be built below the five floors of apartments. A 48-space bicycle storage area is also in the plans.
A lobby, gym and terrace are some of the amenities included in the plans, and Papa said they’re considering adding a pickleball court.
Walter Parks Architects is the project’s architect, and Sekiv Solutions is the engineer.
The Dodson and Fountainhead project site sits in a part of Manchester that’s seeing gradual but increasing developer interest. Papa said he thinks that’ll continue to be the case but noted that developers in Richmond and elsewhere might be reconsidering some projects.
“The world’s gotten more interesting, more difficult. Everybody’s going to slow down and see what’s coming at them,” Papa said. “But most developers out in the world will keep paddling then get to a decision point and put (projects) on ice or keep going.”
A rendering of the building planned for 500 Maury St.
Manchester’s apartment count looks to continue to rise, as a pair of local developers are teaming up yet again to bring another new project to the neighborhood.
Fountainhead Real Estate Development and Dodson Development Group are planning a 163-unit apartment building at 500 Maury St., about a block south of the recently completed I-95-Maury Street roundabout.
The six-story building would span 143,000 square feet and rise on a 0.6-acre parcel where a vacant warehouse currently stands.
Dodson and Fountainhead previously worked together developing The Nest, a similarly-sized project along Broad Street in Scott’s Addition.
Duke Dodson
Fountainhead’s Tom Papa has been a prolific developer in Manchester for years, counting projects such as the 14-story South Falls tower, Plant Zero complex and The Box on Decatur Street, which remains under construction.
Dodson, led by Duke Dodson, recently bought into the Southside neighborhood with a $2 million deal on Hull Street. He also recently sold off his property management divisions in part to focus on developing.
The two firms bought the land at 500 Maury St., as well as two neighboring plots at 511 Albany St. and 413 E. 5th St., in July for $2.05 million. The parcels total just over 1 acre.
Papa said they had considered building something that incorporated a long-stay hotel with apartments but wound up playing it safe amid rising interest rates and construction costs.
Tom Papa
“We had explored a hotel, but we chickened out,” Papa said. “The goal anytime there’s a financial issue is to go make things as affordable as possible.”
In addition to using the next-door lot at 511 Albany St. for parking, a 70-space podium-style parking deck is planned to be built below the five floors of apartments. A 48-space bicycle storage area is also in the plans.
A lobby, gym and terrace are some of the amenities included in the plans, and Papa said they’re considering adding a pickleball court.
Walter Parks Architects is the project’s architect, and Sekiv Solutions is the engineer.
The Dodson and Fountainhead project site sits in a part of Manchester that’s seeing gradual but increasing developer interest. Papa said he thinks that’ll continue to be the case but noted that developers in Richmond and elsewhere might be reconsidering some projects.
“The world’s gotten more interesting, more difficult. Everybody’s going to slow down and see what’s coming at them,” Papa said. “But most developers out in the world will keep paddling then get to a decision point and put (projects) on ice or keep going.”
Manchester Continues to move south and the new Maury roundabout is probably the short term boundary for new construction. That street seemed like miles away just two years ago. I heard that Plant Zero is to demolished on Hull Street. That’s huge news!
Honestly anything south of that roundabout needs to stay industrial. We REALLY need more of these high paying production jobs back in order to really get this area in a booming period. The Jefferson Davis corridor still needs plenty of love too.
While on the one hand I hear where you’re coming from, I must respectfully disagree and push back a bit. First – the kinds of jobs you’re talking about aren’t coming back to inner-city locations like Manchester, in large part because those legacy jobs either no longer exist or because of the overall shift in the way industrial production is handled nowadays has changed where factories are located and how they are run. Look at car manufacturing in the U.S. – most of the new factories that are being built are in places like South Carolina, Kentucky, Tennessee – either… Read more »
I’m a fan of everyone involved, but not the design (or at least the way it looks in the rendering). The railings look like shipping crates and the overall shape looks like a shoebox. Fingers crossed the final product is a little more lively.
Typical Walter Parks design.
All come all new construction (at least with these Soviet Era looking housing units) look so ugly? Whatever happened to aesthetics…