A new-construction, five-story apartment building is planned to rise behind the Branch Public Baths building (right) and an adjacent office building. (Mike Platania photos)
A stretch of Broad Street in Shockoe Bottom and Church Hill is being targeted for a pair of new developments that would bring nearly 70 new apartments to the area.
The Vogele family is planning to build a five-story apartment building that would connect to the Branch Public Baths building at 1801 E. Broad St. and an adjacent building at 1805-1809 E. Broad St. The two existing office buildings would be converted into apartments, bringing the total project unit count to 31.
A block to the east is a vacant lot at 1906-1910 E. Broad St., where a group led by local architect Bill Laffoon of RML Architecture is in the early stages of planning an infill project that might reach up to five stories and total about 36 apartments.
The Vogeles’ redevelopment effort is led by Tom Vogele, a California-based attorney, and local architecture firm Johannas Design Group. The family has owned the Branch Bath House and adjacent building since 2017, when they bought the properties for $2 million. They also own the 15-unit Southland Wine Co. Lofts around the corner at 415 Oliver Hill Way, which they bought in 2018 for $1.9 million.
Vogele said Richmond wound up on his radar thanks to his daughter and an old friend.
He said a few years ago his daughter was living in Williamsburg, and while en route for a visit, he and his wife stopped in Richmond and got dinner with local attorney Grant Grayson, who was in the same fraternity as Vogele when they were at Northwestern University.
“We were talking about Richmond as a place to invest and (Grayson) said, ‘Oh yeah you ought to do it,’’ Vogele said. “We looked around and that was our first foray into it. We’ve kept our investment focus on Richmond because it’s been good for us.”
Vogele said they’ve been buying these properties through an LLC that they’ll eventually hand down to their kids.
“I like to call us terminal buy-and-hold,” he said. “It’s impossible, the way (the LLC is) set up, for them to liquidate the properties and take the money.”
Once a public bath house in the early 1900s, the Branch building now sits empty. Vogele said the 1805 E. Broad St. building is heading toward a similar fate as its main tenant, PR firm The Hodges Partnership, is preparing to relocate.
Vogele said the two buildings are “grossly underperforming.”
“It started before the pandemic, but after the pandemic accelerated it, there was no demand for office space and there was a lot of demand for apartments, so we looked at converting them,” he said.
Vogele’s plan is to convert the Branch building into five apartments and the 1805 E. Broad St. building into six units.
Behind them would rise a new, five-story, 20-unit building on a plot that’s currently a parking lot, though Vogele said four spaces would be kept for the new apartments.
The new-construction building would be set about 10 feet behind the existing buildings, with a new stairwell connecting the structures. Vogele said the new building would include a roof deck and solar panels.
“We want to use solar anywhere we can because the existing buildings use a lot of electricity,” he said. “Our objective is to make a building that’s architecturally attractive, distinctive and maintains the architectural distinctions of the existing buildings, and we want to do it in a way that’s relatively sustainable. We’re looking at mass timber as an approach to building so we don’t have a lot of concrete and steel.”
The project requires a Certificate of Appropriateness because its site sits in the Shockoe Valley historic district. Vogele and Johannas presented their plans to the city’s Commission of Architectural Review in late December, and Vogele said they’re hoping to go back to the CAR soon for approval.
New construction in play for 1906-1910 E. Broad St.
The vacant lot on East Broad Street where Laffoon and company are planning a new apartment building.
Down the street and uphill toward Church Hill is Laffoon’s roughly quarter-acre plot at 1906-1910 E. Broad St., for which his group recently submitted plans to the city for a 36-unit apartment building. However, Laffoon said those plans are subject to change.
Laffoon, whose work as an architect includes designing Triple Crossing Beer’s Fulton brewery, said they’re in the early stages of the East Broad Street project and are currently trying to clarify the development parameters with the city. Laffoon’s group has owned the land dating back decades.
While Laffoon and Vogele’s projects are still in the planning process, one of the more dense projects in the neighborhood is now rising and turning heads in Shockoe Bottom.
Louis Salomonsky’s redevelopment of the Weiman’s Bakery property at 127 N. 17th St. is well underway. Last year the prolific local developer kicked off site work on the project that’ll eventually see a 12-story, 212-unit apartment project and three-story wing with commercial space and townhomes rise along 17th Street.
A five-story parking deck for the project, dubbed the Bakery Loft Apartments, is currently taking shape at the corner of East Grace and North 18th streets.
A new-construction, five-story apartment building is planned to rise behind the Branch Public Baths building (right) and an adjacent office building. (Mike Platania photos)
A stretch of Broad Street in Shockoe Bottom and Church Hill is being targeted for a pair of new developments that would bring nearly 70 new apartments to the area.
The Vogele family is planning to build a five-story apartment building that would connect to the Branch Public Baths building at 1801 E. Broad St. and an adjacent building at 1805-1809 E. Broad St. The two existing office buildings would be converted into apartments, bringing the total project unit count to 31.
A block to the east is a vacant lot at 1906-1910 E. Broad St., where a group led by local architect Bill Laffoon of RML Architecture is in the early stages of planning an infill project that might reach up to five stories and total about 36 apartments.
The Vogeles’ redevelopment effort is led by Tom Vogele, a California-based attorney, and local architecture firm Johannas Design Group. The family has owned the Branch Bath House and adjacent building since 2017, when they bought the properties for $2 million. They also own the 15-unit Southland Wine Co. Lofts around the corner at 415 Oliver Hill Way, which they bought in 2018 for $1.9 million.
Vogele said Richmond wound up on his radar thanks to his daughter and an old friend.
He said a few years ago his daughter was living in Williamsburg, and while en route for a visit, he and his wife stopped in Richmond and got dinner with local attorney Grant Grayson, who was in the same fraternity as Vogele when they were at Northwestern University.
“We were talking about Richmond as a place to invest and (Grayson) said, ‘Oh yeah you ought to do it,’’ Vogele said. “We looked around and that was our first foray into it. We’ve kept our investment focus on Richmond because it’s been good for us.”
Vogele said they’ve been buying these properties through an LLC that they’ll eventually hand down to their kids.
“I like to call us terminal buy-and-hold,” he said. “It’s impossible, the way (the LLC is) set up, for them to liquidate the properties and take the money.”
Once a public bath house in the early 1900s, the Branch building now sits empty. Vogele said the 1805 E. Broad St. building is heading toward a similar fate as its main tenant, PR firm The Hodges Partnership, is preparing to relocate.
Vogele said the two buildings are “grossly underperforming.”
“It started before the pandemic, but after the pandemic accelerated it, there was no demand for office space and there was a lot of demand for apartments, so we looked at converting them,” he said.
Vogele’s plan is to convert the Branch building into five apartments and the 1805 E. Broad St. building into six units.
Behind them would rise a new, five-story, 20-unit building on a plot that’s currently a parking lot, though Vogele said four spaces would be kept for the new apartments.
The new-construction building would be set about 10 feet behind the existing buildings, with a new stairwell connecting the structures. Vogele said the new building would include a roof deck and solar panels.
“We want to use solar anywhere we can because the existing buildings use a lot of electricity,” he said. “Our objective is to make a building that’s architecturally attractive, distinctive and maintains the architectural distinctions of the existing buildings, and we want to do it in a way that’s relatively sustainable. We’re looking at mass timber as an approach to building so we don’t have a lot of concrete and steel.”
The project requires a Certificate of Appropriateness because its site sits in the Shockoe Valley historic district. Vogele and Johannas presented their plans to the city’s Commission of Architectural Review in late December, and Vogele said they’re hoping to go back to the CAR soon for approval.
New construction in play for 1906-1910 E. Broad St.
The vacant lot on East Broad Street where Laffoon and company are planning a new apartment building.
Down the street and uphill toward Church Hill is Laffoon’s roughly quarter-acre plot at 1906-1910 E. Broad St., for which his group recently submitted plans to the city for a 36-unit apartment building. However, Laffoon said those plans are subject to change.
Laffoon, whose work as an architect includes designing Triple Crossing Beer’s Fulton brewery, said they’re in the early stages of the East Broad Street project and are currently trying to clarify the development parameters with the city. Laffoon’s group has owned the land dating back decades.
While Laffoon and Vogele’s projects are still in the planning process, one of the more dense projects in the neighborhood is now rising and turning heads in Shockoe Bottom.
Louis Salomonsky’s redevelopment of the Weiman’s Bakery property at 127 N. 17th St. is well underway. Last year the prolific local developer kicked off site work on the project that’ll eventually see a 12-story, 212-unit apartment project and three-story wing with commercial space and townhomes rise along 17th Street.
A five-story parking deck for the project, dubbed the Bakery Loft Apartments, is currently taking shape at the corner of East Grace and North 18th streets.