A rendering of the Rise II apartment complex planned for Regency. The project includes more than 300 apartments and is set to be built next to the mall’s existing Rise at Regency complex. (Images courtesy Rebkee Co.)
More residential units are in store for Regency.
Thalhimer Realty Partners and Rebkee Co., which co-own the western Henrico mall, are planning to break ground by mid-2024 on more than 300 new apartments as part of their ongoing redevelopment of the property.
The upcoming project follows the completion of the Rise at Regency, the center’s first apartment complex, which was built on the site of a now-demolished Sears store.
The new apartments project, called Rise II, is slated to take shape on a roughly 2-acre portion of the mall’s parking lot that is located between the Rise at Regency complex and Starling Drive on the western side of the mall.
The project is expected to cost $76.2 million, a figure that includes construction, land, permitting and other expenses.
The Henrico Board of Supervisors approved a resolution last week in support of Regency’s application to Virginia Housing, the state’s housing authority, to acquire financing for Rise II. That financing program requires 20 percent of the units constructed at the new complex be reserved for people who make less than 80 percent of the area median income. The first phase of the Regency apartments utilized the same program.
“We want to ensure we’re supplying housing to that segment of the market,” Rebkee Co. Principal Rob Hargett said in an interview last week, adding that the first phase of apartments are 96 percent leased.
The Rise II apartments are expected to be largely comparable to Rise’s 320-unit first phase, and will accordingly feature mostly one- and two-bedroom units with a few three-bedroom apartments.
However, the upcoming apartment complex won’t include a parking deck, as had formerly been the plan for the Rise II project. In eliminating the parking structure, there was space available to increase the unit count from a previous plan of about 230 units.
The new apartments also will feature different finishes and color schemes than the existing complex, as well as a pool, fitness center and other amenities.
“We’re going to take it up a notch because we want to differentiate it,” Hargett said.
The upcoming Rise II apartments is planned to be the second phase of residential development at the western Henrico mall.
The developers decided to nix an additional parking structure as part of the second phase because the one that was built along with the first apartments is considered underutilized. Residents at the yet-to-be-built apartments will be directed to share the existing 372-spot parking deck with residents at the existing apartments and utilize surface parking, which current residents already do.
Hargett said the hope is to have a building permit in hand by early March in anticipation of breaking ground on the upcoming apartment project no later than June 1.
Purcell Construction is the project’s general contractor, and Poole & Poole Architecture is handling design of the apartments. Both firms worked on the first phase of Regency’s apartments.
The mall property is zoned for as many as 1,250 apartments.
Regency’s shift away from retail and toward a new chapter as a mixed-use development took another step forward Friday with the opening of Performance Pickleball. The indoor-outdoor pickleball facility is located below the mall’s Surge Adventure Park entertainment venue, and the two businesses split an anchor space formerly occupied one of two Macy’s stores that once operated at the mall.
In the works next to the Rise apartments is a revamp of the mall’s food court into an outdoor plaza and food hall. Also on the horizon is a plan by the Regency developers to extend their project across Parham Road to a triangular-shaped lot at 1401 Eastridge Road in the southeast corner of Parham’s intersection with Eastridge and Quioccasin roads.
A rendering of the Rise II apartment complex planned for Regency. The project includes more than 300 apartments and is set to be built next to the mall’s existing Rise at Regency complex. (Images courtesy Rebkee Co.)
More residential units are in store for Regency.
Thalhimer Realty Partners and Rebkee Co., which co-own the western Henrico mall, are planning to break ground by mid-2024 on more than 300 new apartments as part of their ongoing redevelopment of the property.
The upcoming project follows the completion of the Rise at Regency, the center’s first apartment complex, which was built on the site of a now-demolished Sears store.
The new apartments project, called Rise II, is slated to take shape on a roughly 2-acre portion of the mall’s parking lot that is located between the Rise at Regency complex and Starling Drive on the western side of the mall.
The project is expected to cost $76.2 million, a figure that includes construction, land, permitting and other expenses.
The Henrico Board of Supervisors approved a resolution last week in support of Regency’s application to Virginia Housing, the state’s housing authority, to acquire financing for Rise II. That financing program requires 20 percent of the units constructed at the new complex be reserved for people who make less than 80 percent of the area median income. The first phase of the Regency apartments utilized the same program.
“We want to ensure we’re supplying housing to that segment of the market,” Rebkee Co. Principal Rob Hargett said in an interview last week, adding that the first phase of apartments are 96 percent leased.
The Rise II apartments are expected to be largely comparable to Rise’s 320-unit first phase, and will accordingly feature mostly one- and two-bedroom units with a few three-bedroom apartments.
However, the upcoming apartment complex won’t include a parking deck, as had formerly been the plan for the Rise II project. In eliminating the parking structure, there was space available to increase the unit count from a previous plan of about 230 units.
The new apartments also will feature different finishes and color schemes than the existing complex, as well as a pool, fitness center and other amenities.
“We’re going to take it up a notch because we want to differentiate it,” Hargett said.
The upcoming Rise II apartments is planned to be the second phase of residential development at the western Henrico mall.
The developers decided to nix an additional parking structure as part of the second phase because the one that was built along with the first apartments is considered underutilized. Residents at the yet-to-be-built apartments will be directed to share the existing 372-spot parking deck with residents at the existing apartments and utilize surface parking, which current residents already do.
Hargett said the hope is to have a building permit in hand by early March in anticipation of breaking ground on the upcoming apartment project no later than June 1.
Purcell Construction is the project’s general contractor, and Poole & Poole Architecture is handling design of the apartments. Both firms worked on the first phase of Regency’s apartments.
The mall property is zoned for as many as 1,250 apartments.
Regency’s shift away from retail and toward a new chapter as a mixed-use development took another step forward Friday with the opening of Performance Pickleball. The indoor-outdoor pickleball facility is located below the mall’s Surge Adventure Park entertainment venue, and the two businesses split an anchor space formerly occupied one of two Macy’s stores that once operated at the mall.
In the works next to the Rise apartments is a revamp of the mall’s food court into an outdoor plaza and food hall. Also on the horizon is a plan by the Regency developers to extend their project across Parham Road to a triangular-shaped lot at 1401 Eastridge Road in the southeast corner of Parham’s intersection with Eastridge and Quioccasin roads.
The Regency apartment success story is interesting in that it’s a micro- market of sorts, sitting in geographic isolation in the parking lot of a tired regional mall. It’s in a commercial “dead spot” between Short Pump and the City, and between the interstate and the James. Yet it’s working for them as a multi-family community, at least in a limited fashion. Rebkee and Thalhimer took a real chance with this redevelopment and it’s growing. I tip my hat. I’d be interested in a demographic study of its residents: what percentage were raised within 3-4 miles of the Mall? Richmond… Read more »
The online dictionary defines provincialism as a way of life that is unsophisticated or narrow-minded. Is that how you really feel about people who grew up in the Richmond area?
No, not at all, when they argue whether 1 block north of Patterson is still “Tuckahoe”
It’s really all relative —- but I have seen a lot of what you describe in Richmond in pretty much every class of people. Even the old money big shots are often not aware of how small a pond it is. But compared to a LOT of other places, it isn’t bad in this way at all, and there are a lot of worse things to be than Provincial — truth is, most places have rather provincial-minded people — even NYC back in the 1980s (watch Saturday Night Fever) had entire neighborhoods that were more provincial than some much smaller… Read more »
I wouldn’t call it a “dead spot”. Clearly you don’t live in the area. Plenty to do outside of Short Pump and the city limits…
Overall I really like the work done at Regency, and I wish the retail and the apartments were closer together to make for mixed use of buildings (first floor retail). It is a shame they are keeping so much of the surface parking because that defeats the purpose of making the development dense. I have the impression people park on surface parking because it saves time instead of having to go in/out of the deck. However that would change if they built it more densely.
This shows how much wasted space was empty parking lot at the old mall. The Chesterfield Mall to me is another mall that needs to have 800 to 1,000 apartments added to a section of it.
Agreed.
i am not opposed to this idea, but it will be time for a serious traffic study for parham road between route 64 to the north and the willey bridge to the south. that area is pretty overwhelmed with rush hour traffic as it is.
I believe they are actually lower than before I-288 opened, especially Patterson to Wiley, because Parham used to be a major commuter route between Chesterfield and Innsbrook/West Creek. Plus the demise of Regency as a mall becuase of Short Pump removed a lot of non-local traffic.
Let’s hope these are better buildings than much of what’s been going up around here lately, or they’ll be “re-re-developing” with bulldozers in another 20 years.
I think that is the plan, new every 20! I mean no one is going to see any historical preservation value in the low quality pine frame formed colored concrete panels and vinyl windows we use today.
I remember this time of year people fighting over a parking spot at Regency.Parking lots aren’t very attractive I’ll agree,but it’s nothing more ugly than a parking deck/garage.
Lots are way uglier and more wasteful than a garages
Depends on whether they build it nice of not.
Bruce: Regency isn’t a commercial “dead spot.” The redevelopment of Regency has included perimeter retail that’s fully leased, and Wal-Mart just across the road is remodeling its store. The recently opened Sheetz, where the Sears Tire store was formerly located, appears to be doing well. The surrounding shopping centers get a bonus with the additional apartments.
Furthermore, there are four (4) supermarkets within a three-minute drive of Regency. That’s not my definition of a “dead spot.”
I see your point Brian. There’s successful grocery anchored retail serving the large residential area. (for those who aren’t aware, Brian has had a wonderful career in retail brokerage.)
Yes but what are the plans for Penny space?? The center went from the regional powerhouse to basically a strip center with apartments behind it. No it is not “dead” but the inside of the old mall (with the exception of Foot Locker) has no national retailers and others are right this mixed use is a little on the odd side. I was hoping in the end it would look more like the West Broad Village (not stores types but the design layout). Instead it looks more like the Fairfield Commons/Eastgate redevelopment with a little more polish and a residential… Read more »
As they mention is the article, they are working on opening it up more with the next phase.
The article says they are not building the new parking deck and using the existing parking lots for the residents….what opening up? I was talking about a semi street grid the retail ground and apartments above. This apartments in one section and retail along the road with a sea of pavement.
“In the works next to the Rise apartments is a revamp of the mall’s food court into an outdoor plaza and food hall.” I thought you meant making it more open air like Westbroad Village.
I think the change in topography across the site would make it hard to do even a modified street grid through the entire site.
It doesn’t make financial sense to have a store at Regency when they could just put it at Short Pump. That’s why Regency (and Stony Point and Virginia Center Commons) are dead/almost dead today. It’s not 1990 anymore, malls are dead for the most part. The redevelopment of Regency (and Eastgate and Virginia Center Commons) is a wonderful thing.
Compared to what Regency once was it’s certainly a dying star now—it still shines but it lacks its previous status as a retail destination. I grew up loving Regency and the redevelopment hasn’t been quite what I wanted. However I realize they are not done yet.
Agreed, and I can’t wait to see what the final actual build out at Willow Lawn becomes. Projects never look like PC rendering but Federal Realty projects come close and I am hopefully the visual appearance here will be more like West Broad Village when it is done.
I know these aren’t apartments but I’d like to see more residential developments like Monument Square.
The townhomes at West Broad are ok but it’s a lot of step climbing.The apts there over the storefronts are junk.
If this is for low income tenants, I am curious as to how they will make the rent affordable to that demographic.
The article states that 20% of units will be affordable for folks making less than 80% of AMI. I think usually “affordable” is defined as around 30% of household income, so total guess but I’d imagine here that rates would be set no higher than 30% of 80% of AMI. At any rate, I suspect by forgoing the parking deck and adding 100 extra housing units to the project, that allowed the finances to pencil out to dedicate those 20% of units as affordable, because it creates enough extra top line revenue being driven by the extra market-rate apartments instead… Read more »
Really, more apartments! So if they will revert them to condos later, why not sell them as condos now? Condos have owners who invest in the area. Not so much for renters. Is it true that it is cheaper to build apartments and not be responsible for the construction after 5 years and that is why apartments are being built?
What evidence do you have that people who rent do not invest in the area where they live? This mindset is not accurate at all, and honestly it’s kindof offensive. You may not have thought about it before but it paints this false narrative that people who rent are second class citizens. I’ve also seen people who own who don’t invest in their area at all, just here today and gone tomorrow. I rented in Richmond for 6 years, and became a very invested resident of the area with a deep social circle and supporting local businesses, fundraising for local… Read more »
“Offensive”…..
I think there are two sides to this comment — often renters become owners, and yes, owners take a more “owner mindset” than do renters — ask any landlord.
My favorite part of this whole news is that they are forgoing a parking deck and instead building 100 extra housing units and making 20% of them affordable for lower incomes! This is how we solve the housing crisis, one step at a time 😍😍😍