Recently re-permitted Westover Hills site goes back on the market

A rendering of the planned development. (BizSense file photo)

There’s been another turn in the saga of a long-planned Forest Hill development.

The grassy plot at 1005 Westover Hills Blvd. that in March earned city approval for a three-story mixed-use development is back on the market and listed for sale with a $730,000 asking price. 

The listing comes just weeks after owner and would-be developer Sugar Mill Construction received a special-use permit to build a dozen apartments and commercial space on the site. It’s located just south of the intersection of Westover Hills Boulevard and Forest Hill Avenue. 

The development’s roots date back to 2019, when local developers Zach and Danielle Kennedy bought the quarter-acre lot. A few years later they began planning the mixed-use development for the site and had a special-use permit for it approved in June 2021. 

A few months later the Kennedys sold the site to Fairfax-based Sugar Mill for $550,000. But, since Sugar Mill did not apply for a building permit for the site within two years of the initial SUP being approved, the entitlement expired in June 2023. 

Sugar Mill, which is also planning to redevelop some aging properties along Lombardy Street near Virginia Union University into a pair of five-story mixed-use buildings, re-filed for the SUP last fall and had it approved by City Council in late March. 

It’s unclear why Sugar Mill is now looking to sell the site. The company did not respond to requests for comment by press time. 

Real estate agent Jenny Maraghy of Compass has the listing, which describes it as a development opportunity for between eight to 12 condos or apartments, along with the ground-floor commercial space. 

Elsewhere in the neighborhood, The Lawson Cos. recently spent $2 million on a 6-acre site at 700 W. 44th St., where the developer’s planning a 144-unit affordable housing complex.