A rendering of the six-story apartment building planned at Brook and Overbrook roads in the northeast corner of VUU’s campus. (Images courtesy VUU)
Virginia Union University’s multimillion-dollar plan to build hundreds of apartments on the edge of its campus now calls for a pair of six-story buildings, preserving part of the old Richmond Community Hospital and adding 100 more units at a mixed-use development underway nearby.
The developers and architects on the two projects presented their latest plans for up to 200 apartments on VUU-owned land at Brook and Overbrook roads, including the old hospital site, and for the mixed-use building at Brook and Lombardy Street that’s now planned to include apartments.
The plans were presented in a community meeting Thursday evening that followed several “listening sessions” with area residents over the summer. The Overbrook plan updates an earlier proposal that appeared to involve razing the 1930s-era hospital building, the first black hospital in Richmond.
A rendering of the hospital-site apartments as they would appear along Overbrook shows part of the two-story hospital building at left that would be preserved and worked into the development.
The new plan from developer Steinbridge Group calls for preserving part of the dilapidated structure and incorporating it into one of two six-story apartment buildings. The buildings would fill the hospital site at 1209 Overbrook Road and other university-owned land at 2410-2416 Brook Road, at the corner with Overbrook.
The preserved part of the hospital structure, which would include the 1932 cornerstone and the Richmond Community Hospital sign above the door, would commemorate the hospital’s history, VUU said in an announcement.
“The Virginia Union development intends to adaptively reuse much of the former Richmond Community Hospital and create the City’s largest honor for Black medical professionals — permanently preserving the hospital’s legacy after decades of the building being abandoned,” the announcement said.
The Richmond Community Hospital building along Overbrook Road. (BizSense file photo)
Commemorations would include naming structures and greenspaces for black medical professionals including Dr. Sarah Garland Jones, a hospital founder and the first woman to receive a medical license in Virginia, and Dr. Frank Royal, a physician and civic leader who chaired the National Medical Association and led VUU’s board of trustees for three decades.
Oral histories of the hospital and its legacy are also planned, and bricks from the razed part of the hospital structure would be repurposed in the development. The announcement said structural analysis of the building is ongoing.
The commemorative work represents a $5 million investment by Philadelphia-based Steinbridge on top of the development’s $40 million projected cost, VUU said. University President Hakim Lucas said Thursday that honoring the hospital was always a goal.
“We’ve always said from the beginning that we were going to find a way to preserve the legacy,” Lucas said. “We’ve always said that. It’s never been a question. It’s more than just memorialization of the site; it’s a continued legacy moment.”
A view of the hospital site apartments from Graham Road.
Plans show the hospital-site apartment building would be oriented with its lobby entrance fronting Graham Road to the south. The building would include a top-floor terrace and “party room” on that end, and parking would be accessed from both Graham and Overbrook. The building at Brook and Overbrook also would include top-floor terraces.
Meanwhile, the Brook and Lombardy project by local developer The Hanson Co. is now planned to include 100 apartments above ground-level commercial space and parking. A new rendering shows the apartments would fill the top four floors of a five-story building, with the top floor recessed on the Brook Road side to make the building appear to be four stories on that side.
Called “Gateway North,” the building would house 80 one-bedroom apartments, 20 two-bedroom units, 10,000 square feet of commercial space and 50 parking spaces. The apartments are a change from VUU’s previous plan for the building, which was envisioned to be a four-story structure with businesses on the street level and educational programming above.
Lucas said the commercial space would provide opportunities for educational programming and minority business development.
“Clearly the university will retain some of the square-footage to do some of its economic development work and to allow students the opportunity to work in these jobs that will be created by these businesses opening up in our ground floor,” he said.
The mixed-use building at Brook and Lombardy is now planned to rise five stories and include 100 apartments.
Hanson Co., whose developments include the Eggleston Plaza building in Jackson Ward, is working with local contracting firm Emerge Construction Group on the project, which is replacing the former Budget Inn of Richmond motel that VUU purchased five years ago. Demolition for the project got underway in June.
Thursday’s announcement presented the two projects as intending to help address Richmond’s declared housing crisis by adding 300 new units in the city’s Northside with a mix of market-rate and income-restricted rents.
The new housing would be available to the general public, including students and alumni, and would create a new revenue stream for the university, with profit from rents for the Overbrook units shared between VUU and Steinbridge through their joint venture.
The Steinbridge development is planned to start construction by the end of this year and be completed by the end of 2025. Officials have said the Gateway North building is also scheduled for completion next year.
Designers on the projects include Richmond-based KEI Architects and Martin Architectural Group in Philadelphia.
A rendering of the six-story apartment building planned at Brook and Overbrook roads in the northeast corner of VUU’s campus. (Images courtesy VUU)
Virginia Union University’s multimillion-dollar plan to build hundreds of apartments on the edge of its campus now calls for a pair of six-story buildings, preserving part of the old Richmond Community Hospital and adding 100 more units at a mixed-use development underway nearby.
The developers and architects on the two projects presented their latest plans for up to 200 apartments on VUU-owned land at Brook and Overbrook roads, including the old hospital site, and for the mixed-use building at Brook and Lombardy Street that’s now planned to include apartments.
The plans were presented in a community meeting Thursday evening that followed several “listening sessions” with area residents over the summer. The Overbrook plan updates an earlier proposal that appeared to involve razing the 1930s-era hospital building, the first black hospital in Richmond.
A rendering of the hospital-site apartments as they would appear along Overbrook shows part of the two-story hospital building at left that would be preserved and worked into the development.
The new plan from developer Steinbridge Group calls for preserving part of the dilapidated structure and incorporating it into one of two six-story apartment buildings. The buildings would fill the hospital site at 1209 Overbrook Road and other university-owned land at 2410-2416 Brook Road, at the corner with Overbrook.
The preserved part of the hospital structure, which would include the 1932 cornerstone and the Richmond Community Hospital sign above the door, would commemorate the hospital’s history, VUU said in an announcement.
“The Virginia Union development intends to adaptively reuse much of the former Richmond Community Hospital and create the City’s largest honor for Black medical professionals — permanently preserving the hospital’s legacy after decades of the building being abandoned,” the announcement said.
The Richmond Community Hospital building along Overbrook Road. (BizSense file photo)
Commemorations would include naming structures and greenspaces for black medical professionals including Dr. Sarah Garland Jones, a hospital founder and the first woman to receive a medical license in Virginia, and Dr. Frank Royal, a physician and civic leader who chaired the National Medical Association and led VUU’s board of trustees for three decades.
Oral histories of the hospital and its legacy are also planned, and bricks from the razed part of the hospital structure would be repurposed in the development. The announcement said structural analysis of the building is ongoing.
The commemorative work represents a $5 million investment by Philadelphia-based Steinbridge on top of the development’s $40 million projected cost, VUU said. University President Hakim Lucas said Thursday that honoring the hospital was always a goal.
“We’ve always said from the beginning that we were going to find a way to preserve the legacy,” Lucas said. “We’ve always said that. It’s never been a question. It’s more than just memorialization of the site; it’s a continued legacy moment.”
A view of the hospital site apartments from Graham Road.
Plans show the hospital-site apartment building would be oriented with its lobby entrance fronting Graham Road to the south. The building would include a top-floor terrace and “party room” on that end, and parking would be accessed from both Graham and Overbrook. The building at Brook and Overbrook also would include top-floor terraces.
Meanwhile, the Brook and Lombardy project by local developer The Hanson Co. is now planned to include 100 apartments above ground-level commercial space and parking. A new rendering shows the apartments would fill the top four floors of a five-story building, with the top floor recessed on the Brook Road side to make the building appear to be four stories on that side.
Called “Gateway North,” the building would house 80 one-bedroom apartments, 20 two-bedroom units, 10,000 square feet of commercial space and 50 parking spaces. The apartments are a change from VUU’s previous plan for the building, which was envisioned to be a four-story structure with businesses on the street level and educational programming above.
Lucas said the commercial space would provide opportunities for educational programming and minority business development.
“Clearly the university will retain some of the square-footage to do some of its economic development work and to allow students the opportunity to work in these jobs that will be created by these businesses opening up in our ground floor,” he said.
The mixed-use building at Brook and Lombardy is now planned to rise five stories and include 100 apartments.
Hanson Co., whose developments include the Eggleston Plaza building in Jackson Ward, is working with local contracting firm Emerge Construction Group on the project, which is replacing the former Budget Inn of Richmond motel that VUU purchased five years ago. Demolition for the project got underway in June.
Thursday’s announcement presented the two projects as intending to help address Richmond’s declared housing crisis by adding 300 new units in the city’s Northside with a mix of market-rate and income-restricted rents.
The new housing would be available to the general public, including students and alumni, and would create a new revenue stream for the university, with profit from rents for the Overbrook units shared between VUU and Steinbridge through their joint venture.
The Steinbridge development is planned to start construction by the end of this year and be completed by the end of 2025. Officials have said the Gateway North building is also scheduled for completion next year.
Designers on the projects include Richmond-based KEI Architects and Martin Architectural Group in Philadelphia.
So glad to see they can preserve such an important, historical building.
This looks like a wonderful project. It checks the boxes on preservations, neighborhood improvement, tie in with an important local institution, building out the city’s housing stock, and a pleasant design to top it all off. Very happy news.
Agreed, Don. I really like this project and love the design of the new buildings.
Good to see more mixed use, this is the way
Much improved from the original conceptual plan. And it appears to address community concerns to preserve the historic hospital building.
The presentation last night shows only a portion of the hospital being saved. It’s not really preservation (as many imagine it). There wasn’t much about what rents would be at the Hanson project, but it’s a nice project at an important corner. But the folks representing the 2 Steinbridge projects said that they aim for rents affordable to 98% of Area Median Income residents. Not sure exactly how many VUU students meet that income test. The hospital could–and should–be saved and become a beacon for VUU and the larger community. It’ll just take everyone committing to doing that and rolling… Read more »
Mark hit it on the head; they are NOT preserving it. They will keep an outside wall facade. They would not let the press conference be live streamed yesterday, the details are VERY vague on the reuse. It sound more like the “reuse” of the old public baths on Main (old Branch Baths) that was incorporated into VCU’s residential tower. PS per Kenya says they are talking $2000 a month rent at Community site.
Wow… that’s really disappointing. I was hoping that the entire building could be salvaged, renovated and put to use. Mind you, I love the other elements of the development and concur with Don’s previous comment. However, I do wish they’d do more than just the cursory “preservation” of such an important building in RVA’s history (and I’m NOT a preservationist by ANY stretch). To give it the same treatment that VCU did with the Gladding Residential Center would be a total shame. I’d really like to see a bit more elbow grease put into making sure the old hospital building… Read more »
I’m happy to see further development in the area. But every time I hear of someone “Preserving” a portion of something historical, I sub-conciously hear “Tax-grab”. 100 Apartments and 50 parking spaces with rents around $2000 a month?!?!
Again, I’m happy to see new development, but come on now…
I LOVE IT!! Just save the sign year everything else down 😩
GOOD!!! Those kids need the housing more than I need the rats that come into my yard from this abandoned building sitting rotting away 🤗
It’s was a black hospital made to help mend, well here is its chance to mend the housing issue for BLACK students!
If yall need a minority subcontractor I’m available to tear it down 😭😩
The gateway north building has some commercial space, that’s great, but why not the two larger complexes on Overbrook? The other commenters clearly did not read the article or perhaps they are stakeholders in this plan, because these are not mixed-use at all. No, instead they are tearing down 95% of Richmond’s first black owned historic community hospital except for the doorway and cornerstone, and sealing it all behind a fence. VUU’s President said, “We’ve always said from the beginning that we were going to find a way to preserve the legacy,” but that’s a lie because in the first… Read more »