Site work is underway for Brookland Park Apartments, which will incorporate the facade of a church building previously on the property. (Jonathan Spiers photos)
Nearly a decade after the seeds for the project were planted, officials celebrated the start of an apartment development that’s set to add more housing in Richmond’s Six Points area.
City and state officials joined Enterprise Community Development on Thursday for a ceremonial groundbreaking of Brookland Park Apartments, a 66-unit, $21 million development that’s underway in the 1200 block of East Brookland Park Boulevard.
The income-based apartments will consist of one-, two- and three-bedroom floor plans with rents for household incomes between 40 percent and 60 percent of the area median income. The units are to feature green building and energy-efficiency technologies that would offset most of their annual energy use, and seven of the units will be designed to Universal Design standards.
A rendering of the apartment project shows how the church building facade will be worked into the structure. (File image courtesy Enterprise)
The four-story building will fill the nearly 1-acre site that previously housed the former Mizpah Presbyterian Church and Nehemiah House Community Center, which have been razed. The façade of the church building has been retained and is planned to be worked into the new structure.
At Thursday’s ceremony, speakers noted the time it’s taken to get to this point and the challenges faced to pull off the project, as well as the need in the city for more housing options that the apartments are intended to help meet.
Rob Fossi
“This is difficult work during the best of times, and I think we can all acknowledge that the past several years may not rise to that standard,” said Rob Fossi, a senior vice president with Enterprise.
Noting challenges from the pandemic, supply chain issues and the rise in interest rates, Fossi added, “It really does speak to the commitment of everyone under this tent, that despite the challenges, they stayed with us. We often asked them to do a little bit more than they initially intended, and everyone stepped up to the plate and enabled us to get here today.”
Enterprise is a developer based in Baltimore, Maryland, that in 2016 converted the nearby Highland Park Public School building into senior apartments. It’s also planning a 43-unit new-construction build with ground-floor commercial space at 1203 E. Brookland Park Blvd., a half-acre lot beside the Highland Park Senior Apartments where Thursday’s ceremony was held.
Speakers Thursday included Habibah Al-Quddus, a three-year resident at the Highland Park apartments who was approved to live there after her husband died.
Habibah Al-Quddus
“I would have never had my own one-bedroom apartment, with big windows; I’ve got beautiful plants, I don’t pay for any of my utilities. Thank you, Enterprise,” she said.
Noting the company’s other projects, Al-Quddus told the crowd, “Thanks for helping us revitalize this Northside area, which has been doing a lot of things at the other end. This end is just going to look spectacular.”
Community amenities planned for Brookland Park Apartments include a fitness center, community room, community retail flex space and outdoor plaza. The development also will include off-street parking and bicycle storage.
Enterprise purchased the four parcels at 1218-1228 E. Brookland Park Blvd. in 2015 and 2016 and secured approvals for what was planned as a 76-unit project in 2018. The time since has been spent trying to secure financing for the project, representatives have said.
City Councilwoman Ellen Robertson, whose Sixth District includes the area, commended all involved for staying the course.
Ellen Robertson
“What you are doing in providing affordable housing is worth every minute of the time that we spend working with you – Enterprise and all of your investors – to make something like this become a reality,” Robertson said.
“The demand for affordable housing is larger than any numbers that we see on paper. It is larger for many reasons. One is, as you can tell from this effort, the length of time that it takes,” she said. “Surely what we expect the budget to have been eight years ago is not the same budget today.”
Financing for the project comes from 4 percent Low-Income Housing Tax Credits, a tax-exempt loan issued by Harrisonburg Redevelopment & Housing Authority, a construction loan from Truist Bank, Virginia Housing Trust Fund and Housing Opportunities Made Equal of Virginia funds, City of Richmond’s Affordable Housing Trust Fund, and a grant from Bank of America.
Torti Gallas + Partners is the project architect, and UrbanCore Construction is the general contractor. Enterprise Residential, Enterprise’s property management arm, will manage the property.
Demolition on the site started earlier this year. Construction is scheduled to last 18 months.
Site work is underway for Brookland Park Apartments, which will incorporate the facade of a church building previously on the property. (Jonathan Spiers photos)
Nearly a decade after the seeds for the project were planted, officials celebrated the start of an apartment development that’s set to add more housing in Richmond’s Six Points area.
City and state officials joined Enterprise Community Development on Thursday for a ceremonial groundbreaking of Brookland Park Apartments, a 66-unit, $21 million development that’s underway in the 1200 block of East Brookland Park Boulevard.
The income-based apartments will consist of one-, two- and three-bedroom floor plans with rents for household incomes between 40 percent and 60 percent of the area median income. The units are to feature green building and energy-efficiency technologies that would offset most of their annual energy use, and seven of the units will be designed to Universal Design standards.
A rendering of the apartment project shows how the church building facade will be worked into the structure. (File image courtesy Enterprise)
The four-story building will fill the nearly 1-acre site that previously housed the former Mizpah Presbyterian Church and Nehemiah House Community Center, which have been razed. The façade of the church building has been retained and is planned to be worked into the new structure.
At Thursday’s ceremony, speakers noted the time it’s taken to get to this point and the challenges faced to pull off the project, as well as the need in the city for more housing options that the apartments are intended to help meet.
Rob Fossi
“This is difficult work during the best of times, and I think we can all acknowledge that the past several years may not rise to that standard,” said Rob Fossi, a senior vice president with Enterprise.
Noting challenges from the pandemic, supply chain issues and the rise in interest rates, Fossi added, “It really does speak to the commitment of everyone under this tent, that despite the challenges, they stayed with us. We often asked them to do a little bit more than they initially intended, and everyone stepped up to the plate and enabled us to get here today.”
Enterprise is a developer based in Baltimore, Maryland, that in 2016 converted the nearby Highland Park Public School building into senior apartments. It’s also planning a 43-unit new-construction build with ground-floor commercial space at 1203 E. Brookland Park Blvd., a half-acre lot beside the Highland Park Senior Apartments where Thursday’s ceremony was held.
Speakers Thursday included Habibah Al-Quddus, a three-year resident at the Highland Park apartments who was approved to live there after her husband died.
Habibah Al-Quddus
“I would have never had my own one-bedroom apartment, with big windows; I’ve got beautiful plants, I don’t pay for any of my utilities. Thank you, Enterprise,” she said.
Noting the company’s other projects, Al-Quddus told the crowd, “Thanks for helping us revitalize this Northside area, which has been doing a lot of things at the other end. This end is just going to look spectacular.”
Community amenities planned for Brookland Park Apartments include a fitness center, community room, community retail flex space and outdoor plaza. The development also will include off-street parking and bicycle storage.
Enterprise purchased the four parcels at 1218-1228 E. Brookland Park Blvd. in 2015 and 2016 and secured approvals for what was planned as a 76-unit project in 2018. The time since has been spent trying to secure financing for the project, representatives have said.
City Councilwoman Ellen Robertson, whose Sixth District includes the area, commended all involved for staying the course.
Ellen Robertson
“What you are doing in providing affordable housing is worth every minute of the time that we spend working with you – Enterprise and all of your investors – to make something like this become a reality,” Robertson said.
“The demand for affordable housing is larger than any numbers that we see on paper. It is larger for many reasons. One is, as you can tell from this effort, the length of time that it takes,” she said. “Surely what we expect the budget to have been eight years ago is not the same budget today.”
Financing for the project comes from 4 percent Low-Income Housing Tax Credits, a tax-exempt loan issued by Harrisonburg Redevelopment & Housing Authority, a construction loan from Truist Bank, Virginia Housing Trust Fund and Housing Opportunities Made Equal of Virginia funds, City of Richmond’s Affordable Housing Trust Fund, and a grant from Bank of America.
Torti Gallas + Partners is the project architect, and UrbanCore Construction is the general contractor. Enterprise Residential, Enterprise’s property management arm, will manage the property.
Demolition on the site started earlier this year. Construction is scheduled to last 18 months.
Hopefully more of this type of housing will alleviate the RVA 15 month wait for free low income housing – even the low income housing voucher system is a 15 month wait. The counties are a little better, but still can be up to a year for just a housing voucher.
Please provide data to support your statement that the “counties are a little better” in providing “free low income housing”. List the specific counties and the data that supports your claim.
I am not trying to support a claim. I am giving an OPINION based on only anecdotal data from my family member. The wait after application for Henrico was approx. 12 months, and the wait in Richmond was 15-18 months because they did not have an emergency order. And these waits were for vouchers, and not the free housing (free housing would be longer) I am curious – what do you disagree with or are offended by, regarding the OPINION that I posted? If you want to learn more data about specific counties, please do your own research. Here is… Read more »
No offense taken. As I suspected, the comments in your op were an opinion, but you did not make that clear in your original post.
I am not offended by anything you said. I simply requested that you support a statement that you made with facts. I wish to point out that your OP failed to note that you were expressing your opinion. The way it was written appeared to present what you said as fact. BTW, the link you provided appears to be a radio station in Iowa. I don’t understand what you are intending to reference with this.
Stephen – see above. While I do not have raw data to back my post, I am conveying what has been relayed to me by two collegues who work in the field (they are case managers for non-profits) – one of whom has been in this line of work for 45 years. Given their level of expertise and experience, I have full confidence that they are correct in their assertions.
Agreed, Victoria – I do hope this helps to put a dent in the wait time for housing vouchers – any movement to alleviate the long wait, the uncertainty and other difficulties that folks who are seeking income-based housing go through is a step in the right direction, no matter how small. Two colleagues of mine work for non-profit, non-government housing/homeless organizations that specialize in assisting the homeless and finding housing solutions for people in need – and they have told me that depending on localities, the wait list for Section 8 vouchers is typically on average 12-18 months and… Read more »
I want to upvote your comment – but it just seems wrong to upvote something that is pretty depressing. ;<))
I highly doubt your claim because the counties aggressively avoid having low income residents. The counties provide very little to no affordable housing and the counties have little to no infrastructure to support low income people. Therefore, it’s a self fulfilling prophecy: the counties have very little transit and pedestrian infrastructure, which makes sure low income people can’t justify living in the counties.
Actually, the low income housing is not based on transit. Chesterfield for instance offers places all over and outside of public transportation. Henrico has more access to public transportation but also offers low income. I’ve seen people way out in the county where stores are far from where they live. So it’s not a prophesy. There are plenty that make it work and honestly it’s better spaces than the city.
I applaud retaining the façade of the church building and working it into the new structure. What a unique way to preserve a little history and, at the same time, create some charm.
Sadly, the quality of contruction of the new building will not even come close to that of the church that was demolished.
There was a lot more to the beautiful facade originally. I don’t know why they even bothered to retain that small section, it’s not the main window. It’s a poke in the eye to historic preservation.
https://goo.gl/maps/cENBztkSp3zDyCDR6