Schell Brothers planning 26-home subdivision at Short Pump-area crossroads

The proposed layout for the subdivision at Pouncey Tract and Shady Grove roads. (County documents)

An area homebuilder that’s been busier south of the river is looking to up its Henrico output with a small subdivision at a prominent crossroads north of Short Pump.

Schell Brothers is planning a 26-home subdivision on 9 acres at 4700 Shady Grove Road. The wooded site is northeast of Shady Grove’s intersection with Pouncey Tract Road, across from Christ Church Episcopal and just north of Striker Park.

A holdout among the residential sprawl between Short Pump and Wyndham, the property has been under the same family ownership since 1980, when it was last purchased for $22,000, Henrico property records show.

Schell Brothers has the site under contract, said Tricia Smith, the company’s Richmond division president. Records list the owner as Hilton Davis Jr., and the county’s latest assessment put the property’s taxable value at $1.8 million.

Tricia Smith

Smith said the site came to Schell’s attention before it could be listed publicly. She said Zack Lapinski, the company’s land acquisition and development manager, came across a contact who was connected to Davis.

“It’s been in the family’s ownership for 40 years,” Smith said. “They grew up in the west end and had been playing on the land his whole life, and he’s at a point that he no longer wanted to hold onto it.”

Schell is seeking rezoning approval for the subdivision, which would consist of 26 homes ranging from three to six bedrooms and 2,000 to 3,500 square feet in size. Smith said the homes would be similar to some that it’s built in HHHunt’s River Mill development near Virginia Center Commons.

“The 26 lots will be kind of a boutique feel, like a quaint little village-like neighborhood where everything’s connected,” Smith said. “It’ll continue the connectivity and be a piece of the (Short Pump area’s) development that was undeveloped so far.”

An example of the home types Schell Brothers is planning for the subdivision.

Smith said it’s too early to put prices on the homes or the overall development. Should its rezoning application progress according to schedule, she said construction would start as soon as building plans and permitting are approved, a process she said can take up to nine to 12 months.

In a report, county planning staff suggests enhancing proffered buffers along the roads to protect residents and increase consistency with nearby developments. A community meeting was held in late February and drew 16 attendees.

Schell is working with engineering firm Koontz Bryant Johnson Williams on its request, which the Henrico Planning Commission recommended for approval last week. The Board of Supervisors will decide the request at a future meeting.

The project would add to other development along Pouncey Tract Road. To the south, Robert Babcock and Lawrence Liesfeld are developing 32 four-story townhomes at Pouncey Tract’s intersection with Liesfeld Farm Drive. Rezoning for that project was approved last year, and a development plan is currently under review.

Across the river in Chesterfield, Schell Brothers is working on a 68-home subdivision on 31 acres off Baldwin Creek Road just west of Harpers Mill.