A rendering of the proposed apartment building. (County documents)
A new proposal for a site previously approved for a six-story apartment building would add more residential density – and height – beside Willow Lawn.
Aurelie Capital is looking to build an eight-story apartment building at 4907-4911 Augusta Ave., Henrico documents show.
The 188-unit structure would replace a one-story office building that’s currently on the site next to the Gold’s Gym at the shopping center.
Based out of New York City, Aurelie Capital is best known locally for Ainsworth, a mixed-use development that brought nearly 300 apartments and townhomes to the Laurel area of Henrico.
As work at Ainsworth began to wrap up this spring, Aurelie began plotting this next move by purchasing the 0.7-acre Augusta Avenue property for $3 million from local developers Jeremy Connell, Jon Rasich and Scott Boyers, who in 2022 began planning a six-story, 160-unit apartment building.
Connell, Rasich and Boyers’ project never got underway and Aurelie is now looking to go taller and add more density on the site.
Aurelie recently filed both a rezoning request and provisional-use permit application with Henrico to entitle the new development. The existing office on the site would be razed to make way for the new structure.
Aurelie Managing Principal Pavan Malhotra declined to comment on the project at this time.
The new building would count 120 one-bedroom and studio apartments plus 68 two-bedroom units, with no commercial space planned. Amenities would include a pool and 188 parking spaces, 176 of which would be in a sub-surface parking deck, county documents show.
A one-story office building currently sits on the site. (Google Earth)
Planning documents list Timmons Group and Hickok Cole as the project engineer and architect, respectively.
Aurelie’s rezoning and PUP requests are both listed on the agenda for the Henrico Planning Commission’s Oct. 10 meeting. Roth Jackson’s Jennifer Mullen is representing Aurelie in the entitlement process.
Aurelie’s building would be one of many new residences en route to the Willow Lawn area.
Last year the owner of the shopping center had the 37-acre property rezoned, as it’s planning a major redevelopment of the property that’ll add thousands of residential units and new commercial space over the next 20-plus years.
The county also recently approved a rezoning request for the Reynolds Crossing complex a bit farther west, where the Reynolds family is looking to redevelop much of the complex’s existing parking lots into over 1,200 new dwelling units.
A rendering of the proposed apartment building. (County documents)
A new proposal for a site previously approved for a six-story apartment building would add more residential density – and height – beside Willow Lawn.
Aurelie Capital is looking to build an eight-story apartment building at 4907-4911 Augusta Ave., Henrico documents show.
The 188-unit structure would replace a one-story office building that’s currently on the site next to the Gold’s Gym at the shopping center.
Based out of New York City, Aurelie Capital is best known locally for Ainsworth, a mixed-use development that brought nearly 300 apartments and townhomes to the Laurel area of Henrico.
As work at Ainsworth began to wrap up this spring, Aurelie began plotting this next move by purchasing the 0.7-acre Augusta Avenue property for $3 million from local developers Jeremy Connell, Jon Rasich and Scott Boyers, who in 2022 began planning a six-story, 160-unit apartment building.
Connell, Rasich and Boyers’ project never got underway and Aurelie is now looking to go taller and add more density on the site.
Aurelie recently filed both a rezoning request and provisional-use permit application with Henrico to entitle the new development. The existing office on the site would be razed to make way for the new structure.
Aurelie Managing Principal Pavan Malhotra declined to comment on the project at this time.
The new building would count 120 one-bedroom and studio apartments plus 68 two-bedroom units, with no commercial space planned. Amenities would include a pool and 188 parking spaces, 176 of which would be in a sub-surface parking deck, county documents show.
A one-story office building currently sits on the site. (Google Earth)
Planning documents list Timmons Group and Hickok Cole as the project engineer and architect, respectively.
Aurelie’s rezoning and PUP requests are both listed on the agenda for the Henrico Planning Commission’s Oct. 10 meeting. Roth Jackson’s Jennifer Mullen is representing Aurelie in the entitlement process.
Aurelie’s building would be one of many new residences en route to the Willow Lawn area.
Last year the owner of the shopping center had the 37-acre property rezoned, as it’s planning a major redevelopment of the property that’ll add thousands of residential units and new commercial space over the next 20-plus years.
The county also recently approved a rezoning request for the Reynolds Crossing complex a bit farther west, where the Reynolds family is looking to redevelop much of the complex’s existing parking lots into over 1,200 new dwelling units.
Beautiful rendering. Hoping this really spurs things to get going at Willow Lawn.
Aurelie’s Ainsworth community is seen as a feather in the hat for Henrico’s rebirth of the Laurel area. Supervisor Dan Schmitt said as much at its grand opening. Likewise, this building will likely be the pace setter for the Willow Lawn rebirth. Mike Platania points out that there are a lot of plans of higher densities around the 500,000 sf retail center but the fact is none of the projects are moving forward. Someone has to lead the charge and Aurelie wants to be in that lead. This design by Hickok Cole,if approved by the county, is a game changer… Read more »
From your keyboard to God’s eyes, Bruce. 👍 Praying your prediction indeed comes to pass. Man – this project is VERY exciting and will be a huge win for the county and this part of the near West End. Looking forward to seeing it rise, hopefully in the VERY near future.
This rendering looks great and I love the added height for the location. The one story building being replaced here isn’t in the best of condition, either, so this will be a huge upgrade.
This is fantastic. The design is a cut well above the norm for multi family in Richmond. Adding housing in the West End is a must. Hoping for speedy construction—this is the direction we need to move in.
It’s crazy to see how far Willow Lawn has come – it truly is a case study in how aging shopping centers can find new life. I hope other shopping centers can view this as it’s near future – you can have a lively retail environment, housing, office, and bus rapid transit and it only makes it more of a destination. Hopefully we’ll see more walkability and bike-ability improvements to rein in this development…
Keep up the great work Pavan!
So maybe the digital maps are off but it looks like from city GIE the front quarter of that parcel’s existing building along Augusta is still in the City of Richmond. Is all of the new building on the Henrico portion of the property?
I’m not sure. I can’t remember how that was worked out with the original plan, and this appears to be a larger building, albeit most of that largeness is coming from height. That’s a very good question, though. Given that nothing was mentioned about filings with the city, it’s probably safe to say that it’s been designed to fit completely on the county side of the line. (Don’t quote me on that – I’m just an armchair observer.)
A portion of the site is in the city proper. The site approval has been deferred in favor of Henrico as well as its utility services. A similar issue of County-City property lines exists along the north side of West Broad Street wherein the city line is 200’ north of the road right of way.
Thanks for the clarification, Bruce!
It’s one of the best looking new apartment buildings in Richmond. Most of the others look like an ugly cardboard shoe box.
Couldn’t agree more, Robert. It’s a gorgeous building. Would love to see more like these popping up down the road.
Let’s hope the architects have implemented methods to cut down on bird strikes with such a tall, largely glass building.
YES!! We love to see density in the west end, this + the willow lawn redevelopment and other projects nearby in Henrico are all amazing steps, alongside the pulse already having a stop there, if they just redesigned more roads that way for more pedestrian accessibility I think we could get some real activity and density over here rivaling neighborhoods downtown
This building looks nice compared to those brutal atrocities that have been springing up in Richmond but why exactly does this particular area need more density? I get it in some areas of the city but part of the appeal (as a nearby home and business owner) of this area is that there are lots of trees, grass, etc.
Craig, If done right there can be tree-line green spaces to go along with density to keep the areas attractive in that regard. It is not well pointed out to the average American, but the days of the single-family home on a lot have long passed their ability to awe governments of suburban-sprawl counties like Henrico. Simply put: They don’t pay for themselves; They destroy the environment with inefficient use of land, heating/cooling, demand for car usage and just minimal usage of utilities installed and general purpose infrastructure like storm drains and even street lights (which most counties in Virginia… Read more »