The new building abuts the Hofheimer building on West Broad Street. (Mike Platania photos)
A long-planned Scott’s Addition development has reached the finish line.
The Soda Flats Apartments building from developer Bank Street Advisors was recently completed at 2820 W. Broad St.
The new structure stands next to the Hofheimer building near the intersection of Broad and Arthur Ashe Boulevard. It counts 89 apartments plus Broad Street-facing commercial space.
The development process for the building traces back to the spring of 2020 when Bank Street filed plans for the 0.4-acre site that at the time housed a car repair shop.
Bank Street, which has done plenty of work in the Arts District/Monroe Ward area with the One Canal apartments and the Quirk Hotel, kicked off construction of Soda Flats in 2022 by razing the auto shop and digging down for the building’s 58-space, subsurface parking deck.
The majority of its 89 apartments are one-bedroom units.
The building was designed by SMBW and built by CK Bosworth Construction. Bank Street principal Christian Kiniry said they wanted the building to have a “classic” look to it.
“It’s, to me, an architecturally timeless design. The idea was, we’d rather do something timeless than something that’s new and flashy,” Kiniry said. “We spent a lot of time on the windows and the skin of the building. We tried to make it more of a classic style.”
Named for a soda bottling facility that was once in the area, Soda Flats reaches seven stories with units offering views of the Fan, Diamond District, Science Museum and Scott’s Addition.
“Honestly, there’s not a bad view from one apartment in the building,” Kiniry said. “I think that’s one of the small design things that help a building be successful.”
A handful of the units have already been leased, Kiniry said. One-bedroom units, which make up the majority of the units at the Soda Flats, average around 660 square feet and range in rent from $1,600 to $1,755. Amenities include a pool, gym, clubhouse and dog-washing room.
On the ground floor is 5,500 square feet of commercial space for which Taylor Long Properties’ Robert Marshall has the listing. Kiniry said the commercial space could be divided into two suites, and that they’re open to all sorts of tenants.
“We’ve spoken to restaurants, personal trainers, physical therapy groups and office-type users,” he said. “I would love to do a market concept there, we just have to find the right operator.”
Soda Flats’ pool and patio area is in the rear of the building.
With this project completed, Kiniry said Bank Street is now monitoring the financial market and interest rate environment as they plot their next development.
He said they’re working through the plan of development process with the city for 219-225 W. Broad St., where they’ve been planning an 8-story mixed-use building.
“We would love to do 219-225 West Broad. We have to make sure we get the right banking tools,” Kiniry said. “Like a lot of other developers, we’re just trying to make the numbers work. Construction costs are still high and interest rates are still high.”
Bank Street is also on a team with Machete Group, the Houston firm that’s helping design the new Flying Squirrels ballpark, that’s vying for Richmond’s City Center development RFP process. Bank Street and Machete’s proposal for the area that now houses the Richmond Coliseum includes a 40-story hotel, among other buildings.
The new building abuts the Hofheimer building on West Broad Street. (Mike Platania photos)
A long-planned Scott’s Addition development has reached the finish line.
The Soda Flats Apartments building from developer Bank Street Advisors was recently completed at 2820 W. Broad St.
The new structure stands next to the Hofheimer building near the intersection of Broad and Arthur Ashe Boulevard. It counts 89 apartments plus Broad Street-facing commercial space.
The development process for the building traces back to the spring of 2020 when Bank Street filed plans for the 0.4-acre site that at the time housed a car repair shop.
Bank Street, which has done plenty of work in the Arts District/Monroe Ward area with the One Canal apartments and the Quirk Hotel, kicked off construction of Soda Flats in 2022 by razing the auto shop and digging down for the building’s 58-space, subsurface parking deck.
The majority of its 89 apartments are one-bedroom units.
The building was designed by SMBW and built by CK Bosworth Construction. Bank Street principal Christian Kiniry said they wanted the building to have a “classic” look to it.
“It’s, to me, an architecturally timeless design. The idea was, we’d rather do something timeless than something that’s new and flashy,” Kiniry said. “We spent a lot of time on the windows and the skin of the building. We tried to make it more of a classic style.”
Named for a soda bottling facility that was once in the area, Soda Flats reaches seven stories with units offering views of the Fan, Diamond District, Science Museum and Scott’s Addition.
“Honestly, there’s not a bad view from one apartment in the building,” Kiniry said. “I think that’s one of the small design things that help a building be successful.”
A handful of the units have already been leased, Kiniry said. One-bedroom units, which make up the majority of the units at the Soda Flats, average around 660 square feet and range in rent from $1,600 to $1,755. Amenities include a pool, gym, clubhouse and dog-washing room.
On the ground floor is 5,500 square feet of commercial space for which Taylor Long Properties’ Robert Marshall has the listing. Kiniry said the commercial space could be divided into two suites, and that they’re open to all sorts of tenants.
“We’ve spoken to restaurants, personal trainers, physical therapy groups and office-type users,” he said. “I would love to do a market concept there, we just have to find the right operator.”
Soda Flats’ pool and patio area is in the rear of the building.
With this project completed, Kiniry said Bank Street is now monitoring the financial market and interest rate environment as they plot their next development.
He said they’re working through the plan of development process with the city for 219-225 W. Broad St., where they’ve been planning an 8-story mixed-use building.
“We would love to do 219-225 West Broad. We have to make sure we get the right banking tools,” Kiniry said. “Like a lot of other developers, we’re just trying to make the numbers work. Construction costs are still high and interest rates are still high.”
Bank Street is also on a team with Machete Group, the Houston firm that’s helping design the new Flying Squirrels ballpark, that’s vying for Richmond’s City Center development RFP process. Bank Street and Machete’s proposal for the area that now houses the Richmond Coliseum includes a 40-story hotel, among other buildings.
Sounds nice, but seems like a lot of money for not a lot of space.
Dorm rooms for adults.
X/Twitter UAE Falconry Finance: Dorm Room for Adults.
They nail it.
It’s baffling how directly across the street from this development there are still massive, vacant buildings. There’s a pulse stop, restaurants, breweries, and now additional housing. There really is no excuse to continue waiting and sitting on vacant land.
Will – ask any developer why development has slowed down, and they will mention interest rates. It’s actually a pretty valid excuse to wait and sit on land.
The south side of West Broad in that area definitely needs to be redeveloped. Hopefully, with interest rates set to start going down, things start moving forward.
Should be called soda bottle for that price and space.
Love it! 😂😂
Locals already call it flat soda but time will tell if it fizzles.
Timeless design??? It looks almost like every other building going up. Brutalist meets prefab concrete blocks. I mean look at the pool and patio area. I have seen larger kid pools and the decor/amenities at the pool at just stellar. You know the media is coming and you don’t at least rent some staging furniture??
What a great addition of density to the area.
It is too bad that with such a prime location and great visibility, some sort of retail isn’t considered. It would be nice if Richmond residents did not have to leave Richmond for at least some national retail.
I’m sure this developer and the rest of them would love to have national retail tenants (or any retail tenant). The problem is that the retailers – especially the national retailers – don’t want to be in the city.
Sure there are many large name national retail stores that have no interest being in the city. However, there are some that do. I would have never expected West Elm to come to the city. Ditto with Publix and Whole Foods which were both great developments. There are some brands that do well in urban settings that could be prime tenants at someplace like this. Something like a CB2, Madewell, Athleta, Lululemon, Tecovahs, or even H&M would all do well in the city. I’ve also seen them have brick and mortars outside of malls in other cities like Charlotte or… Read more »
H&M was in the city at Stony Point and it closed. Lululemon…..Tecovas on Broad Street in downtown (or midtown/Scott ‘s Addition. That is like those saying Manchester will support a grocery store. You must have RVA confused with NW DC or the Mosaic District in Fairfax? Yes NOVAidians are moving to RVA but not that many. Take out the 1/4 of the city population that lives below the poverty line and 1/4 of population that are college students. Then add in the City median individual and household incomes. Then do the same for a 5 mile radius around those listed… Read more »
I’ll grant you that Stony Point Mall is within the city limits but I don’t consider that location as in the “city”. It’s not an urban style development with all that surface parking. I agree however that this site isn’t likely to draw national retailers especially soft goods.
💯 %, Michael. This is exactly the problem. The city simply doesn’t have the population and income metrics that would attract national retailers into the city the way NOVA/DC or other booming cities such as Charlotte, Nashville and Raleigh do. The city populations – and the income density in those cities are very attractive to national retailers. Charlotte (just under 900K in the city), Nashville (just under 700K in the city) and Raleigh (450K in the city) have the city populations that Richmond (235K) simply doesn’t. The percentages of higher incomes are also significantly larger in those three cities than… Read more »
Those cities you list as having much higher population also have much larger boundaries. Nashville has 500 sq mi of land area. Charlotte NC has 312 sq mi of land area. Raleigh has 150 sq mi of land area.
Richmond City has only 60 sq mi of land area. You could add Henrico county to Richmond City and the land area would still be less than Charlotte’s land area.
Those cities also have a broader swath of incomes because their land area is so vast as the city essentially has its own suburban-style enclaves within it…
You’re absolutely correct, Michelle. Those other cities basically became land eaters. Charlotte expanded by repeated annexations of host Mecklenburg County. Raleigh can do the same with host Wake County. Nashville and Davidson County consolidated in 1963. (Similarly, Jacksonville and Duval County, FL consolidated in 1968.) Unfortunately, Richmond is constrained and completely hamstrung by two thing none of these other cities face as impediments to their growth: 1.) Virginia’s “independent city” paradigm, instituted by the General Assembly in 1871. (NOTE: the only major cities outside of the Commonwealth who are “independent cities” are Baltimore and St. Louis.) 2.) Virginia’s (now) statewide… Read more »
Ahhh – I get the name now. The nearby soda bottling facility was the old Coca Cola bottling plant at Marshall and Roseneath. When I was a kid, I spent part of my summers each year hanging out in my father’s office at the printing company he managed on Leigh Street. (My mother worked there part-time in the summers when school was out). I remember walking by that Coca Cola plant and looking at the ground-level display windows on Roseneath. They had placed several vintage bottles on display and had little placards with a description of the history of each… Read more »
Looks like if you’re swimming you’ve got quiet the audience.
89 apartments and 58 parking spaces…how’s that going to work??? Parking nightmare for its own future residents as well as all patrons of other businesses in that area.
No worries, ride GRTC.
If you’ve got the money to waste on a shoe box, have at it. Not for me!