Local builder pays $26M for site planned for 800-home Swift Creek Station project

With work underway on a 400-home development nearby, a twice-as-large project that’s been years in the making is set to move forward with a new builder behind it.

Main Street Homes is now driving Swift Creek Station, a 230-acre development approved for nearly 800 homes south of the Hull Street Road-Route 288 interchange.

The Midlothian-based builder recently paid $26.5 million to acquire the undeveloped acreage, which is just south of Swift Creek Commons Apartments and the Village at Swift Creek Shopping Center.

The seller was Realty Ventures Group, a local development firm that had owned the land since 2007, when it purchased it for nearly $5 million. The land is currently assessed by Chesterfield County at just under $7 million.

RVG principals Herbert Fitzgerald, left, and Richard Nuckols in 2016. (BizSense file photo)

RVG, whose developments include Tarrington on the James, reached out to about 10 other firms to solicit interest in the project, which RVG secured zoning for five years ago.

“Development is a young person’s game and we’ve got a little age on us, so the timing worked out well for us,” said RVG’s Herbert Fitzgerald, who leads the firm with fellow principal Richard Nuckols.

“We were happy to select Main Street. We’re excited to watch Vernon and his team implement our vision for the property.”

Vernon McClure, Main Street’s president, said the firm had been eyeing that area for years when it heard from RVG over a year ago.

Vernon McClure

“We’ve worked with RVG for 20-plus years. I think that helped with the comfort level on both ends,” said McClure, whose firm is active farther west along Hull Street Road with its Cosby Village and Oasis developments flanking Cosby High School.

“Chesterfield’s our home, and this is a neighborhood that we’ve been looking at for a long time,” McClure said of Swift Creek. “To compete in our market as a larger builder, you have to compete in land development also. That’s really the driver, and we really liked this 288 and Hull Street corridor.”

Swift Creek Station’s timing has hinged on a planned connector road that would bisect the property and connect Bailey Bridge Road and Brad McNeer Parkway, which connects with Commonwealth Centre Parkway and its interchange with 288.

Construction on the $23 million connector road, which is federally funded and includes a crossing over Swift Creek, is anticipated to start next year. Roundabouts are planned at each end of the new road.

A rendering of the connector road’s roundabout at Brad McNeer Parkway. (Image courtesy VDOT)

The connector is expected to alleviate traffic on Hull Street Road and provide more access and connectivity in the area, which McClure said also was a draw.

“It’s going to be great access,” he said. “If you live out at Cosby, you still have 10 minutes to get out to 288. This is going to be closer to other work areas and the courthouse, and if you work downtown, it’s just 10 minutes closer to everything and you don’t have to drive down Hull Street. That’s a real plus, being really close to Powhite (Parkway), 288 and Hull Street.”

Swift Creek Station is approved for 799 homes, some age-restricted, including 280 apartments as well as single-family homes, duplexes, quads, and “two-over-two” townhomes and condos. Commercial uses such as a pharmacy, restaurants, a coffee or donut shop, and a gas station are to be integrated with the homes, which McClure said would be developed as 16 land bays.

Main Street Homes’ preliminary plan for Swift Creek Station, which will be developed as 16 land bays. (Image courtesy Main Street Homes)

McClure said an initial phase of 75 homes would start next fall, when work is expected to start on the connector road. The phase will include three-story townhomes priced in the upper $400,000s, and cottage-style homes with first-floor primary bedrooms priced around $500,000.

He said the first batch of homes would finish by fall 2026, while complete buildout for Swift Creek Station is expected to take seven years, depending on market conditions. With nearly 800 homes in the half-million-dollar range, McClure described Swift Creek Station as a $400 million development.

Images of structures and design styles planned for Swift Creek Station when it was rezoned in 2019. (BizSense file)

At least 75 acres of the site are to be preserved as open space, and planned amenities include a clubhouse, dog park, shared-use paths, a connection to county bike paths, and a sidewalk along the connector road. Engineering firm Timmons Group is working with Main Street on the project.

Swift Creek Station is just south of another massive development, Cloverleigh, that’s adding about 400 homes, a restaurant and a hotel on 105 acres north of Hull Street Road between 288 and Brandermill.

Northern Virginia-based Kettler is behind that development, which is underway after an entity tied to the firm bought that land last year for $8 million. A 62-acre portion planned for 230 condominiums was sold to a different Kettler entity this May for $17 million.

Meanwhile, Main Street continues work on Cosby Village, which has been underway for about eight years. The company has built 235 townhomes there, and McClure said it’s adding 104 condos at Cosby Village early next year.

At Oasis, on the eastern side of Cosby High School, Main Street has 100 lots on the ground and 20 homes sold so far, McClure said. The 47-acre former Oasis Sports Park property is planned for 400 homes, half of those age-restricted.

Main Street purchased Swift Creek Station in two deals that closed Nov. 13, five days before developer Guy Blundon’s nearby Commonwealth Apartments sold to Mesa Capital Partners for $59 million.