Scott’s Addition development heated back up in 2024 – and looks to stay hot next year

The Ace rose eight stories along Arthur Ashe Boulevard in 2024. (Mike Platania photos)

Cranes and construction sites abound in and around Scott’s Addition, as development in the neighborhood picked up renewed steam in 2024 and has plenty going for it into the new year.

The epicenter of the action has been one of its main thoroughfares: Arthur Ashe Boulevard.

Perhaps the most noticeable site along that stretch is 1117-1201 N. Arthur Ashe Blvd., where The Ace, a nearly 300-unit mixed-use development, has quickly risen to its full eight stories. 

Contrasting The Ace is 1101 N. Arthur Ashe Blvd., a 0.3-acre plot where work on a 29-unit, 148-bedroom “cohousing” development has stalled out. Construction on the long-planned project got underway in February, but only a few concrete columns were erected on the site before its main contractor took to the courts, claiming that the developer, D.C.’s Outlier Realty Capital, hasn’t paid for the work. It’s unclear if or when work will resume. 

It isn’t all multifamily development along the boulevard. Work is underway across the street to convert the old Mowbray Paints building into a showroom for building materials company Cosentino, and HCA is planning a standalone emergency center on a plot near the Wawa after Thalhimer Realty Partners scrapped a planned apartment building. 

North of the train tracks, work is well underway on the Flying Squirrels’ new ballpark, and across the street from that is Novel Scott’s Addition, the 275-unit market entrance from North Carolina’s Crescent Communities that recently began moving in residents. 

Greystar bought 2700 W. Leigh St. in late November and has already cleared the 6-acre site.

A pair of sizable projects are also now in the pipeline on streets around Arthur Ashe Boulevard.

Shamin Hotels filed plans in March for a 12-story, 299-room hotel that’ll rise where a vacant Hardee’s currently stands near Boulevard’s intersection with Broad Street, and site work recently got underway on a six-acre plot behind Movieland where Greystar, one of the nation’s biggest apartment developers, is building a nearly 400-unit, seven-story apartment building. 

The Scott’s Addition Historic District has also been in on the action. Henrico-based Capital Square remained busy in the heart of the neighborhood, where its redevelopment of the N. Chasen & Son complex into 352 apartments across three buildings continues to take shape along Marshall and Clay Streets.

The local developer also closed a record-breaking land deal along Roseneath Road when it paid nearly $12 million for the 2-acre Dairy Bar complex. Capital Square then got city approval to redevelop the site into an eight-story apartment building. Another 168 units are also in the works a few blocks down, as in recent weeks a Maryland developer bought a former industrial site at 1701 Roseneath Road.

The Soda Flats building stands at the corner of Broad and Sheppard streets.

Elsewhere in the historic district, the Soda Flats, an 89-unit project from locally based Bank Street Advisors, now stands over Broad Street next to the Hofheimer building.

With stadium work in the Diamond District underway, gears are also starting to turn in the area around it. The former Feed More headquarters is being eyed for 180 condos, a national developer bought and recently razed an old embroidery facility at the corner of Ownby Lane and Hermitage Road to make way for 300 apartments, and construction of the first phase of VCU Athletics’ Athletic Village is scheduled to get underway in January.