More development planned around Hardywood on Ownby Lane

IMG 0962

The site is just north of the train tracks along Hermitage Road. (Mike Platania photo)

The area around Hardywood Park Craft Brewery’s downtown taproom continues to draw developer interest. 

With hundreds of apartments already in the works in the vicinity, plans were filed with the city this week for a 314-unit apartment building that would rise at 1316 Ownby Lane. 

Washington, D.C.-based Capital City Real Estate is behind the proposal, which would rise about a quarter-mile from Hardywood’s recently renovated taproom. The 3.4-acre site Capital City has in mind is the latest in the historically commercial area near Overbrook and Hermitage roads to be targeted for residential development. 

Across the street at 2300 Hermitage Road is the former Cobb Lumber site, where Breeden Construction is planning a mixed-use project with over 140 apartments and office space, and surrounding Hardywood is Brewers Row, a multi-building development from Spy Rock Real Estate Group and StyleCraft homes that’s adding over 300 residences. 

Capital City entered the Richmond market in 2021 when it bought a 1-acre parking lot at 15 W. Seventh St. in Manchester, on which it’s now building The Commodore, a five-story apartment building.

Capital City Managing Director Chris Love referenced all the development around the Ownby site, including the proposed Diamond District and VCU’s Athletic Village, as reasons why his firm is pursuing this second project in the city. 

“We’re just very bullish on the Richmond market and we think that’s a dynamic location,” Love said. “It has access to lifestyle amenities – it’s within walking distance to distilleries and breweries and it’s three blocks from Whole Foods. We just think it’s a phenomenal location.”

capital city ownby2

A conceptual rending of The Porter. (City documents)

Capital City has drawn up a five-story building with 248 one-bedroom apartments, 64 two-bedroom apartments and four three-bedroom apartments. Amenities would include a 2,500-square-foot rooftop deck and lounge and a 450-space above-ground parking deck. 

Bohler Engineering is listed as the project engineer and Niles Bolton Associates is the architect. 

A 41,300-square-foot warehouse currently sits on the property that’s owned and occupied by embroidery firm Vatex Corp. Love declined to comment on whether Capital City is under contract to buy the land. 

The property is bound by Hermitage Road to the west and a CSX-owned railroad to the south. The city most recently assessed the real estate at $4.1 million. 

Love said the developer is anticipating going through the planning process in the coming months, with eyes on a mid-2024 groundbreaking. 

Capital City is calling the project “The Porter,” a reference to the dark style of beer and a nod to the many nearby craft breweries in the area, including Hardywood and Castleburg Brewery, both of which are on Ownby Lane. 

Meanwhile to the north, work on Brewers Row looks to be entering the home stretch. City records show that in November sales began to close on the condo units in The Outpost at Brewers Row at 2413 Ownby Lane, with 11 condos selling to date for an average of $522,000. 

IMG 0962

The site is just north of the train tracks along Hermitage Road. (Mike Platania photo)

The area around Hardywood Park Craft Brewery’s downtown taproom continues to draw developer interest. 

With hundreds of apartments already in the works in the vicinity, plans were filed with the city this week for a 314-unit apartment building that would rise at 1316 Ownby Lane. 

Washington, D.C.-based Capital City Real Estate is behind the proposal, which would rise about a quarter-mile from Hardywood’s recently renovated taproom. The 3.4-acre site Capital City has in mind is the latest in the historically commercial area near Overbrook and Hermitage roads to be targeted for residential development. 

Across the street at 2300 Hermitage Road is the former Cobb Lumber site, where Breeden Construction is planning a mixed-use project with over 140 apartments and office space, and surrounding Hardywood is Brewers Row, a multi-building development from Spy Rock Real Estate Group and StyleCraft homes that’s adding over 300 residences. 

Capital City entered the Richmond market in 2021 when it bought a 1-acre parking lot at 15 W. Seventh St. in Manchester, on which it’s now building The Commodore, a five-story apartment building.

Capital City Managing Director Chris Love referenced all the development around the Ownby site, including the proposed Diamond District and VCU’s Athletic Village, as reasons why his firm is pursuing this second project in the city. 

“We’re just very bullish on the Richmond market and we think that’s a dynamic location,” Love said. “It has access to lifestyle amenities – it’s within walking distance to distilleries and breweries and it’s three blocks from Whole Foods. We just think it’s a phenomenal location.”

capital city ownby2

A conceptual rending of The Porter. (City documents)

Capital City has drawn up a five-story building with 248 one-bedroom apartments, 64 two-bedroom apartments and four three-bedroom apartments. Amenities would include a 2,500-square-foot rooftop deck and lounge and a 450-space above-ground parking deck. 

Bohler Engineering is listed as the project engineer and Niles Bolton Associates is the architect. 

A 41,300-square-foot warehouse currently sits on the property that’s owned and occupied by embroidery firm Vatex Corp. Love declined to comment on whether Capital City is under contract to buy the land. 

The property is bound by Hermitage Road to the west and a CSX-owned railroad to the south. The city most recently assessed the real estate at $4.1 million. 

Love said the developer is anticipating going through the planning process in the coming months, with eyes on a mid-2024 groundbreaking. 

Capital City is calling the project “The Porter,” a reference to the dark style of beer and a nod to the many nearby craft breweries in the area, including Hardywood and Castleburg Brewery, both of which are on Ownby Lane. 

Meanwhile to the north, work on Brewers Row looks to be entering the home stretch. City records show that in November sales began to close on the condo units in The Outpost at Brewers Row at 2413 Ownby Lane, with 11 condos selling to date for an average of $522,000. 

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Ashley Smith
Ashley Smith
1 year ago

That rendering is absolutely hideous

Justin Fritch
Justin Fritch
1 year ago
Reply to  Ashley Smith

The Commodore is shaping up to have a high quality aesthetic so I am hoping that this will as well. These quick renderings seem to rarely do these projects justice.

Shawn Harper
Shawn Harper
1 year ago
Reply to  Justin Fritch

Good to hear!

Shawn Harper
Shawn Harper
1 year ago
Reply to  Ashley Smith

No sugar coating it huh? Yeah, it is like an 1980s video game background and worse it doesn’t seem to just be the rendering but the facade itself — I am not a fan of Juliet style balconies unless of course they make the facade more beautiful or interesting. I like balconies that you can actually want to use. That is one of the wonderful things about the Fan that there are so many porch-like balconies.

Victoria Woodhull
Victoria Woodhull
1 year ago

Well I am glad to see that these developers have selected an area where Hi-Rise apartments are appropriate. I’m wondering why they are not going taller (10-25)? One question I have is that there are no roads/sidewalks connecting Hermitage Road with Arthur Ashe. They need at least two more cross streets or at least sidewalks connecting the two roads. Maybe that is coming with the Diamond reduex.

Peter James
Peter James
1 year ago

1.) This is not a high-rise and barely qualifies as a mid-rise. 2.) Why not taller? Construction costs.Note the size of the project footprint. It’s much less expensive to build on larger floor plates and have fewer of them (meaning, not as tall) than it is to shrink the square-footage of each floor plate and build more of them (go taller). The height of this building is about what one would expect for that location (5 to 8 story range), given the current economic uncertainty and the large size of the parcel being developed. And just so you know, I’m… Read more »

Last edited 1 year ago by Peter James
Peter James
Peter James
1 year ago
Reply to  Peter James

Forgot to mention: To your point, Victoria, about cross streets connecting Hermitage to Arthur Ashe Blvd — those will be built out as part of the overall Diamond District redevelopment. If I remember correctly, the first of the new cross streets will be immediately north of the location of the new ballpark in the southern-most third of the district.

Shawn Harper
Shawn Harper
1 year ago
Reply to  Peter James

Thank you for these details that I did not know about a larger Truth that I did know — that “Form Follows Cost and Demand” It is clear that Zoning is not the only thing that dictates what is built where, and indeed Zoning, much to the chagrin of those who try to control things by declaring themselves “stakeholders” just by being in the proximetry, FOLLOWS DEMAND. You see this all the time in cities and suburbs alike — “why are so many multiunits of a certain height? In many less dense areas, the best use of land (and hence… Read more »

Bill Rice
Bill Rice
1 year ago

Parking is already horrendous in this area. Are there plans for parking (decks) for these new buildings?

Peter James
Peter James
1 year ago
Reply to  Bill Rice

Most likely still to be worked out.

No actual project renderings are available yet and the developers are still in the planning and design phase.The art in the RBS story is a conceptual drawing only.

Not sure what the parking reqs are for that property or what the zoning is, but my guess is that it would be integrated/structured parking as part of the building (similar to the large deck behind the Novel Scott’s Addition on Arthur Ashe across from the Diamond.)

Justin Fritch
Justin Fritch
1 year ago
Reply to  Bill Rice

450-space above-ground parking deck”

Susan Mossem
Susan Mossem
1 year ago
Reply to  Bill Rice

I agree about the parking issue in this area. When I cast my vote in favor of your comment it showed a negative and not a positive when I clicked on the arrow. I’ve been very frustrated by trying to find parking around Hardywood and the other two breweries since most of the nearby on street parking is now off limits. I like visiting other breweries and restaurants that are in different parts of town from where I live, but I’ve pretty much given up on visiting these businesses because of this. European cities have been building more underground parking… Read more »

Justin Reynolds
Justin Reynolds
1 year ago

Why does this article say this is “downtown,” when it’s not anywhere near downtown? This is in Carver. Aside from that I’m glad to see more development in this under utilized area.

Michael Grabow
Michael Grabow
1 year ago

It says hardywood’s downtown taproom- as opposed to their west creek location.

This isn’t carver. It isn’t even newtowne west. The city neighborhood this is in is called “the diamond.”

Richard Manning
Richard Manning
1 year ago

Gotta love all these huge projects going up and there is no discussion or planning for the huge traffic that will come with them. Boulevard is going to be like the southbound I-5 in Los Angeles very soon.

Victoria Woodhull
Victoria Woodhull
1 year ago

Yep, it seems the City thinks that all these THOUSANDS of people moving into these apartment buildings don’t use vehicles. Not only will Boulevard be packed, but Hermitage and Robin Hood Rd. will be worse than they already are now. Hermitage to Broad St. will be just awful. Especially since they took 2 lanes of Broad Street to put in the Pulse.

Ed Christina
Ed Christina
1 year ago

The darn antifas