The development would rise on undeveloped land adjacent to Legacy at Imperial Village, pictured at right. (Google Maps)
Dozens of income-based apartments could be in store for an area near the Bellevue neighborhood in Northside.
Out-of-town firm Surber Development and Consulting is planning to build a 78-unit complex at 3940 Rosedale Ave.
Dubbed Bellevue Gardens, the $26 million development would span two buildings on a currently undeveloped 6-acre parcel adjacent to the recently renovated Legacy at Imperial Village senior living complex.
Each building would reach three stories, with one containing 40 units and the other with 38 units. All of the units would be income-based, which Surber owner Jen Surber said is her firm’s specialty.
The Bristol, Virginia-based company has 15 such projects in its portfolio and 10 more in the pipeline. Its prior work in the Richmond region has included Bickerstaff Crossing in eastern Henrico and the recently completed Watermark Gardens senior apartments in Chesterfield.
“Everything we do is affordable,” Surber said. “You can’t build (affordable units) quick enough. They lease up quickly and they stay full.”
The Bellevue Gardens buildings would total about 40,000 square feet and would be much smaller in scale than the nearby Legacy at Imperial Village towers, Surber said.
“It’s a good location, a nice community and it’s close to the interstate for access,” she said. “I really like that neighborhood.”
A conceptual drawing for one of the buildings at Bellevue Gardens. (City documents)
Surber said her firm is under contract to purchase the land, which is owned by Brentwood Investment Group and Bluestone Group, the firms that bought Imperial Plaza in 2021 for more than $70 million.
The apartments at Bellevue Gardens would be for individuals and families earning between 30 and 80 percent of the area median income and would not be age-restricted. Plans show that of the project’s 78 apartments, 37 would be three-bedroom units, 36 would have two bedrooms and five would have one bedroom.
“We’re not finding a lot of demand for one-bedroom units in what you’d call senior housing,” Surber said. “Folks want an extra room for a spare bedroom, hobby room, office – something like that.”
Surber said the project will be financed in part via low-income housing tax credits from Virginia Housing. She said she’s also applied for funding through the state’s Department of Housing and Community Development.
The complex would also have 118 parking spaces and a private entrance.
The project engineer is Koontz Bryant Johnson Williams and South Carolina-based architect Donald C. Harwood is the designer. Surber said she has not bid out the project to general contractors yet.
Surber said she’s hoping to finalize the project’s financing, close on the land and begin construction next summer. Until then, the next steps involve getting approval for Bellevue Gardens’ plan of development with the city. The plan was filed this week. The needed zoning for the project is already in place.
Richmond’s multifamily housing boom has been continuing for years now, however new income-based apartment developments are greatly outnumbered by their market-rate counterparts. When asked what she think needs to happen for more affordable units to be built in the region, Surber said the answer is simple:
‘There needs to be more (tax) credits,” she said. “Most of the affordable deals are built with heavy investment from the low-income housing tax credit program.”
The development would rise on undeveloped land adjacent to Legacy at Imperial Village, pictured at right. (Google Maps)
Dozens of income-based apartments could be in store for an area near the Bellevue neighborhood in Northside.
Out-of-town firm Surber Development and Consulting is planning to build a 78-unit complex at 3940 Rosedale Ave.
Dubbed Bellevue Gardens, the $26 million development would span two buildings on a currently undeveloped 6-acre parcel adjacent to the recently renovated Legacy at Imperial Village senior living complex.
Each building would reach three stories, with one containing 40 units and the other with 38 units. All of the units would be income-based, which Surber owner Jen Surber said is her firm’s specialty.
The Bristol, Virginia-based company has 15 such projects in its portfolio and 10 more in the pipeline. Its prior work in the Richmond region has included Bickerstaff Crossing in eastern Henrico and the recently completed Watermark Gardens senior apartments in Chesterfield.
“Everything we do is affordable,” Surber said. “You can’t build (affordable units) quick enough. They lease up quickly and they stay full.”
The Bellevue Gardens buildings would total about 40,000 square feet and would be much smaller in scale than the nearby Legacy at Imperial Village towers, Surber said.
“It’s a good location, a nice community and it’s close to the interstate for access,” she said. “I really like that neighborhood.”
A conceptual drawing for one of the buildings at Bellevue Gardens. (City documents)
Surber said her firm is under contract to purchase the land, which is owned by Brentwood Investment Group and Bluestone Group, the firms that bought Imperial Plaza in 2021 for more than $70 million.
The apartments at Bellevue Gardens would be for individuals and families earning between 30 and 80 percent of the area median income and would not be age-restricted. Plans show that of the project’s 78 apartments, 37 would be three-bedroom units, 36 would have two bedrooms and five would have one bedroom.
“We’re not finding a lot of demand for one-bedroom units in what you’d call senior housing,” Surber said. “Folks want an extra room for a spare bedroom, hobby room, office – something like that.”
Surber said the project will be financed in part via low-income housing tax credits from Virginia Housing. She said she’s also applied for funding through the state’s Department of Housing and Community Development.
The complex would also have 118 parking spaces and a private entrance.
The project engineer is Koontz Bryant Johnson Williams and South Carolina-based architect Donald C. Harwood is the designer. Surber said she has not bid out the project to general contractors yet.
Surber said she’s hoping to finalize the project’s financing, close on the land and begin construction next summer. Until then, the next steps involve getting approval for Bellevue Gardens’ plan of development with the city. The plan was filed this week. The needed zoning for the project is already in place.
Richmond’s multifamily housing boom has been continuing for years now, however new income-based apartment developments are greatly outnumbered by their market-rate counterparts. When asked what she think needs to happen for more affordable units to be built in the region, Surber said the answer is simple:
‘There needs to be more (tax) credits,” she said. “Most of the affordable deals are built with heavy investment from the low-income housing tax credit program.”
As a long rime home owner in the adjacent neighborhood of Rosedale, I am not happy about this at all.
It’s going to add traffic in our neighborhood because Imperial Plaza is not going to allow construction trucks, nor future residents to use THEIR entrance on Bellevue Ave. They are going to force all traffic thought our neighborhood to use the rear gate to the property. That is unacceptable.
Cry about wanting more housing in Richmond. Get more housing. No, not that housing not near me! Suck it up.
I certainly hope you loudly and constantly advocate for dramatic improvements to active and public transportation then, since getting people out of cars is the only thing improves traffic.
I had same thoughts about the neighborhood. I think land currently was tied to develop of Imperial Plaza back in the day and the access is limited out that back gate and no tie in is allow for additional development if it is sold off (memory from old SUP expansion of IP back years ago). I think they will have to use Bellevue Ave. I mean the Bellevue does have a stop light.
Unfortunately it sounds like a marginal project with NO public transportation, No universal design features in the design of the apartments, and stuck in the back of a neighborhood dragging down home values for people who are vested in the neighborhood. To me, this is a money grab to not build quality housing that will probably be flipped into subpar condos. If they were built to condo level standards and included universal design safety features, that would be much better! My bet is that this will kill home values as fast as it is built.
WHY do “developers” insist on using every square inch of available green space left in the city? Richmond used to have open spaces where people could look out and see trees and grass and gardens. The spate of INFILLS that are taking over are ruining our once beautiful places, not to mention trashing the traditional housing and inserting some of the worst architecture in history. Old-timers around here are really getting sick and tired of see our neighborhoods be destroyed by “developers” who come from somewhere else and then move on once they’ve made their millions. I agree with Gordon,… Read more »
Bizarre. Most people approve of infill development.
I am a proponent of green spaces in urban areas, but most of these urbanists want more density. Of course, the perfectionists demand more density AND more greenspace!!!
You seem hostile to people making a good profit — weird.
Public transportation brings in homelessness and crime.
Crime happens everywhere and naturally the more people in an area the more crime there is. However public transit itself doesn’t bring crime or homelessness. Causation isn’t correlation.