Located east of Willow Lawn, the Broad Street site had been eyed by a Phoenix-based developer last year. (Mike Platania photo)
A few hundred more apartments are back on the menu for a long-vacant site in the Westwood area.
The site at 4400 W. Broad St. is under contract to be sold to a mystery developer who’s planning a 340-unit apartment complex.
The pending deal was confirmed this week by Mark Motley, whose Motleys Asset Disposition Group owns the nearly 6-acre parcel that straddles the Richmond-Henrico County line.
Motley said the deal came together not long after Alliance Residential Co.’s deal for the land fell through earlier this year. The Phoenix-based firm also had been planning 340 apartments for the site, but issues with utility access derailed the project.
While he said easements for the property are still being worked on, Motley said the latest design has so far received a thumbs-up from the county. Beyond the 340-unit count, he said he couldn’t say much more about the project.
The Westwood area has caught the eye of plenty of developers in recent years, including local firm Spy Rock Real Estate Group, which has a 245-unit apartment building taking shape along Dabney Road.
Across Broad a few blocks from the Motleys site, Maryland-based Breakwater Cos. recently received zoning approved for a six-story mixed-use building at 4605-4625 W. Broad St. More development is also in the works farther west with a massive project near Broad’s intersection with Staples Mill Road.
Deepwater deal
The 54-year-old warehouse was the only one of 18 warehouses that wasn’t razed to make way for the new Deepwater project. (Courtesy Google Earth)
While he’s preparing to be a seller in the Broad Street deal, Motley was on the other side of the negotiating table for a recent deal in the Southside.
Earlier this month, Motleys Logistic Systems, a division of Motleys Asset Disposition Group, bought a 52,000-square-foot warehouse at 3205 Commerce Road for $2.9 million.
The warehouse sits on 3 acres adjacent to the Lowe’s-anchored Deepwater Industrial Park.
When Hourigan Development built Deepwater in 2021, it cleared 17 other warehouses that had been on the 110-acre site, but the 3205 Commerce Road building avoided the wrecking ball. Hourigan sold the new development’s main 1.2-million-square-foot warehouse last year for $128 million, then sold Deepwater’s two other new warehouses this fall for an additional $40 million.
The warehouse site at 3205 Commerce Road was the last parcel in the area that Hourigan owned. Following the Dec. 1 deal, it’s now part of Motleys Logistics’ portfolio of nearly 600,000 square feet of industrial space throughout the region.
The city most recently assessed the parcel at $1.5 million. Porter Realty’s Wilson Flohr and Robert Porter III represented Motleys in the sale.
About 20,000 square feet of the 52,000-square-foot building is available, and Motley said the plans are to do some renovations on the 54-year-old warehouse, including new light fixtures, fresh paint and site cleanup.
Located east of Willow Lawn, the Broad Street site had been eyed by a Phoenix-based developer last year. (Mike Platania photo)
A few hundred more apartments are back on the menu for a long-vacant site in the Westwood area.
The site at 4400 W. Broad St. is under contract to be sold to a mystery developer who’s planning a 340-unit apartment complex.
The pending deal was confirmed this week by Mark Motley, whose Motleys Asset Disposition Group owns the nearly 6-acre parcel that straddles the Richmond-Henrico County line.
Motley said the deal came together not long after Alliance Residential Co.’s deal for the land fell through earlier this year. The Phoenix-based firm also had been planning 340 apartments for the site, but issues with utility access derailed the project.
While he said easements for the property are still being worked on, Motley said the latest design has so far received a thumbs-up from the county. Beyond the 340-unit count, he said he couldn’t say much more about the project.
The Westwood area has caught the eye of plenty of developers in recent years, including local firm Spy Rock Real Estate Group, which has a 245-unit apartment building taking shape along Dabney Road.
Across Broad a few blocks from the Motleys site, Maryland-based Breakwater Cos. recently received zoning approved for a six-story mixed-use building at 4605-4625 W. Broad St. More development is also in the works farther west with a massive project near Broad’s intersection with Staples Mill Road.
Deepwater deal
The 54-year-old warehouse was the only one of 18 warehouses that wasn’t razed to make way for the new Deepwater project. (Courtesy Google Earth)
While he’s preparing to be a seller in the Broad Street deal, Motley was on the other side of the negotiating table for a recent deal in the Southside.
Earlier this month, Motleys Logistic Systems, a division of Motleys Asset Disposition Group, bought a 52,000-square-foot warehouse at 3205 Commerce Road for $2.9 million.
The warehouse sits on 3 acres adjacent to the Lowe’s-anchored Deepwater Industrial Park.
When Hourigan Development built Deepwater in 2021, it cleared 17 other warehouses that had been on the 110-acre site, but the 3205 Commerce Road building avoided the wrecking ball. Hourigan sold the new development’s main 1.2-million-square-foot warehouse last year for $128 million, then sold Deepwater’s two other new warehouses this fall for an additional $40 million.
The warehouse site at 3205 Commerce Road was the last parcel in the area that Hourigan owned. Following the Dec. 1 deal, it’s now part of Motleys Logistics’ portfolio of nearly 600,000 square feet of industrial space throughout the region.
The city most recently assessed the parcel at $1.5 million. Porter Realty’s Wilson Flohr and Robert Porter III represented Motleys in the sale.
About 20,000 square feet of the 52,000-square-foot building is available, and Motley said the plans are to do some renovations on the 54-year-old warehouse, including new light fixtures, fresh paint and site cleanup.
I’m glad new life will be on the way to this vacant lot and I hope the county can work with the city to make this development pedestrian oriented and incorporate retail. Before the issue was most of the lot is in the county and the developer wanted to tie into the city’s water/sewer system, which is easily accessible from W Broad. However, the county would not allow it. From the county-side of the lot, which is near Jacques St water/sewer access would cost a significant amount and the developer did not want to tie in that way.
I agree with you about the development being pedestrian oriented! Hold Henrico County to ensuring there are consistent sidewalks in good shape, bike-friendly lanes, etc. And bus transportation close by! The City will do that on their end, but looking down Staples Mill – westward is a disaster!
I’m glad this big empty flat chunk of pavement is going to turn into housing and buildings. I hope they can add some landscaping along Board Street in that this area looks kind of dead with it all being pavement.
I really hope they turn the car dealership in this area into 200 to 500 apartments due it being big mass of empty pavement.
I believe the county line is 250′ east of broad street. Look for the development to put as much of the “value” as possible on the county side of the line.