VCU now controls all 4 corners of Broad-Belvidere intersection after $4.6M Rite Aid buy

vcu rite aid Cropped scaled

The Rite Aid at Broad and Belvidere has been open for over a decade. (Mike Platania photos)

VCU now has control over all four corners of a major gateway to its Monroe Park campus. 

An entity tied to the university’s Real Estate Foundation last month purchased the 1-acre assemblage at 510-520 W. Broad St., 304 N. Henry St. and 519 W. Marshall St. for $4.65 million, city records show. The property is anchored by the Rite Aid drug store at 520 W. Broad St., along with surface parking lots. 

The Rite Aid property was the last of the four corners of the intersection of Broad and Belvidere that VCU didn’t own. It paid nearly $6 million over two deals in 2015 and 2017 for the southeastern corner, where it is actively building a $253 million arts and innovation center. The other two corners are occupied by VCU’s Institute for Contemporary Art and a 400-plus bed dormitory that it recently renovated. It has owned those two parcels since 2002 and the 1990s, respectively. 

vcu rite aid3 Cropped

The site is north of where VCU’s currently building a major arts center.

The seller of the Rite Aid parcels was an entity tied to New Jersey-based investment firm Arctrust. The sale closed Jan. 23, per city records. The property was most recently assessed by the city at $4.4 million. 

A VCU spokesperson said there are “no specific purposes identified by the university” for the property and that Rite Aid will continue to lease its building and parking lot.

Last year Rite Aid closed its Hull Street location in Manchester amid a bankruptcy battle that it’s since emerged from. The only other remaining Rite Aid location in the Richmond region is in Chester. 

This latest deal is the second VCU’s Real Estate Foundation has closed in as many months. In December, it bought an adjacent, two-story building at 508 W. Broad St. for $540,000. 

vcu rite aid Cropped scaled

The Rite Aid at Broad and Belvidere has been open for over a decade. (Mike Platania photos)

VCU now has control over all four corners of a major gateway to its Monroe Park campus. 

An entity tied to the university’s Real Estate Foundation last month purchased the 1-acre assemblage at 510-520 W. Broad St., 304 N. Henry St. and 519 W. Marshall St. for $4.65 million, city records show. The property is anchored by the Rite Aid drug store at 520 W. Broad St., along with surface parking lots. 

The Rite Aid property was the last of the four corners of the intersection of Broad and Belvidere that VCU didn’t own. It paid nearly $6 million over two deals in 2015 and 2017 for the southeastern corner, where it is actively building a $253 million arts and innovation center. The other two corners are occupied by VCU’s Institute for Contemporary Art and a 400-plus bed dormitory that it recently renovated. It has owned those two parcels since 2002 and the 1990s, respectively. 

vcu rite aid3 Cropped

The site is north of where VCU’s currently building a major arts center.

The seller of the Rite Aid parcels was an entity tied to New Jersey-based investment firm Arctrust. The sale closed Jan. 23, per city records. The property was most recently assessed by the city at $4.4 million. 

A VCU spokesperson said there are “no specific purposes identified by the university” for the property and that Rite Aid will continue to lease its building and parking lot.

Last year Rite Aid closed its Hull Street location in Manchester amid a bankruptcy battle that it’s since emerged from. The only other remaining Rite Aid location in the Richmond region is in Chester. 

This latest deal is the second VCU’s Real Estate Foundation has closed in as many months. In December, it bought an adjacent, two-story building at 508 W. Broad St. for $540,000. 

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David Smith
David Smith
7 days ago

If it’s owned by VCU’s Real Estate Foundation but leased to a for profit company is Richmond still getting real estate taxes on it?

Bruce Milam
Bruce Milam
7 days ago
Reply to  David Smith

Yes, I believe that’s the case. If At some point it becomes an integral part of the University and the property transfers to the state, the tax situation changes.

John Sutphin
John Sutphin
7 days ago
Reply to  David Smith

Several years ago, a rep of the Foundation posted that the Foundation is a separate non-state funded arm of the University. Thus, they pay taxes on property they own.

Lonzo Harris
Lonzo Harris
7 days ago

VCU owns half of Richmond

Tyler Benson
Tyler Benson
7 days ago
Reply to  Lonzo Harris

Does make you wonder in 200 years, how much of Richmond VCU will have gobbled up

Bruce Milam
Bruce Milam
6 days ago
Reply to  Tyler Benson

Who’s to say how important bricks and mortar will be in higher education 200 years from now? The future might be just the opposite of what it is today. Schools like Phoenix and Liberty already discount the need for physical presence in favor of virtual classrooms.

Craig Davis
Craig Davis
4 days ago
Reply to  Lonzo Harris

thank god – broad street looked like a bombed out part of Syria before VCU started buying properties and developing the area.

Ian James
Ian James
7 days ago

VCU has no right to ever claim they are hurting for $$$. They continue to buy up every piece of property, while over charging students, under paying professors and providing an average at best education.

Bruce Milam
Bruce Milam
6 days ago
Reply to  Ian James

The Foundation purchases and manages property from gifts and profits from its properties, not tuition or tax revenues. It’s more of a commercial enterprise whose sole function is for the benefit of the University.

Michelle Reynolds
Michelle Reynolds
4 days ago
Reply to  Bruce Milam

Sometimes it feels like their sole function is to take properties off the Richmond tax role.

Craig Davis
Craig Davis
4 days ago
Reply to  Ian James

when did the VCU Foundation (or VCU for that matter) claim they are hurting for money? The critique of their tuition and the value of their degree is in the eye of the beholder I suppose.

Michael Boyer
Michael Boyer
7 days ago

VCU has space inside existing buildings that are just setting there not being used.