The First Precinct building at Q and 25th streets is to be demolished next year. (Jonathan Spiers photos)
A soon-to-be-vacated police precinct property and 40 acres of vacant land beside Whitcomb Court are among the latest crop of city-owned properties that are deemed to be surplus and being positioned for potential sale and development.
City administrators are recommending a real estate disposition plan that calls for unloading 28 surplus parcels totaling about 55 acres to housing nonprofits and private developers, with a goal of adding to the city’s tax base and increasing its supply of lower-income housing.
The parcels would add to dozens of other properties that the city has previously deemed surplus via the biennial plan, which is proposed every even-numbered year.
The bulk of the land is made up of five parcels between Whitcomb Court and Interstate 64. The vacant land – at 2100 Sussex St. and 1924, 1924-A, 1924-B and 2100 Whitcomb St. – include the former Whitcomb Court Elementary School site and are considered brownfields that would require environmental cleanup or remediation for potential development.
The plan states the parcels could be assembled for a large-scale housing development.
Also included in the plan is 2503 Q St., a 1-acre parcel at Q and 25th streets that’s currently home to the Richmond Police Department’s First Precinct. The property is slated to become surplus next year when the precinct is relocated to a new facility under construction beside the city jail on Oliver Hill Way.
The new First Precinct facility under construction beside the city jail, visible behind it.
The new $7.7 million facility is scheduled for completion by August 2025, and the existing precinct building would be demolished to position that property as an economic development site.
The disposition plan consists of 21 parcels intended for residential use, and seven parcels for commercial development. The residential parcels would be conveyed directly or through a solicitation for proposals to housing developers and nonprofits, while the commercial sites would most likely be sold through a request-for-proposals process or in response to unsolicited development offers.
If sold at their current assessed value, the parcels are expected to generate $5.4 million in direct revenue to the city.
Other residential sites on the list include two blocks of parcels fronting the northeast corner of the Elson Redmond Memorial Driving Range used by First Tee of Greater Richmond. The parcels – at 2001 Fendall Ave., 2001 and 2015 Joshua St., and 1900-1914, 2000 and 2013 Greenwood Ave. – are all potentially subject to FEMA restrictions due to flood risks.
On the south side of the driving range, five adjoining commercial parcels totaling 10 acres are recommended for disposition: 1500 and 1600 St. Peter St., 201 W. Fritz St., and 1501 and 1601 Fendall Ave. According to the plan, those parcels could be assembled for development with five others nearby that were previously deemed surplus in the 2020 disposition plan. The land would likely require landfill or dump site remediation.
Shaded in red are groups of parcels near Whitcomb Court and the First Tee driving range that the city has deemed surplus and is looking to unload. (Google Maps)
Rounding out the commercial parcels on the 2024 plan is 911 Hull St., a quarter-acre paved parking lot near the Manchester Courthouse building. Rounding out the residential side are 8301 Chippenham Road, a 1-acre parcel fronting Chippenham Parkway east of the Huguenot Road interchange; and four parcels straddling Belmont Road south of Walmsley Boulevard: 3410 and 3420 Belmont Road, and 5114 and 5118 W. Belmont Road.
The 28 parcels in the plan add to dozens of other properties that the city deemed surplus and positioned for disposition in previous plans. The 2020 plan, adopted by City Council the following year, consisted of 94 properties totaling 235 acres.
Among those, 36 parcels were earmarked for the Maggie Walker Community Land Trust, which manages the Richmond Land Bank. However, in 2022, the nonprofit determined that eight parcels that the city agreed to sell as part of a 15-parcel group were not immediately buildable due to issues such as utility easements, topographical challenges or ownership disputes. The land trust later sold six of the seven remaining parcels for development through a solicitation process.
A public hearing on the 2024 disposition plan is scheduled for City Council’s Jan. 13, 2025, meeting.