The Quality Inn Central hotel site had been eyed for nearly 400 apartments. (Mike Platania photo)
Editor’s note: This story has been updated to include information received from developer Trinsic Residential Group received Monday morning after publication.
A longtime Northside hotel is getting to extend its stay near The Diamond, at least for now.
The Quality Inn Central hotel at 3207 N. Arthur Ashe Blvd. is still being pursued for redevelopment by Texas-based Trinsic Residential Group, despite the recent expiration of the company’s contract to purchase the property.
The developer initially put the roughly 4-acre property under contract in late 2022, with plans to build a five-story, 375-unit apartment building to replace the hotel.
Though the contract expired in recent months, Trinsic representatives said Monday that it is still actively in conversations with the hotel’s owner and trying to raise capital for the project with the hopes of seeing it through to the finish line.
The 176-room hotel remains open for business.
Trinsic, which according to its website has built over 20,000 high-end units across the country, had been working on a rezoning request for the property but never filed a formal application, city planning files show.
The roughly 4-acre site is owned by an entity tied to Bill Patel, who couldn’t be reached. The city most recently assessed the real estate at $6 million.
While it remains open as a hotel, the property also remains in the line of progress in a rapidly changing part of the city. It sits just north of the city’s planned Diamond District site and the Flying Squirrels’ new ballpark that’s under construction. It’s also within eyeshot of the Hermitage Richmond retirement community, which recently unveiled a $120 million expansion.
Interesting, is it profits have tanked (or just not high enough for them) in the luxury market or was this going to be their Lavoro brand and they realized tax credits were out of reach. Is it all interest rates because given this is 2nd abandonment before it started in recent months and the Outlier legal mess it seems the Boulevard is not the endless pot of gold it once seemed to be to out of state investment/development firms.
The idea that someone would want to put luxury there is a little odd. Are the small apts with the high rents on the OTHER side of 95 considered “luxury”? I mean, out in the suburbs, houses that are merely on a major thoroughfare with setbacks and 25 mile/h speedlimits go for a lot less, this area is right on the busiest interstate in the USA with Blvd and Hermitage on the other sides…. even if you were from NYC you probably would not prefer living there unless you were from a particularly bad corner and would miss the background… Read more »
This was not going to be a luxury apartment development. I attended the first neighborhood meeting where it was presented as market rate housing. Neighborhood wanted retail on the first floor, developer did not. As pointed out elsewhere, access to the parking deck was rather odd and inconvenient. Developer was also promoting it as being within greater Scott’s addition/ diamond district, which it was not.
The developer probably realized that this is the least desirable location for apartments on Arthur Ashe Boulevard. It’s at the entrance to I-95, and you have to go in the opposite direction to enjoy any of the amenities in the area. It would, in my opinion, be better suited for a new motel, with convenience to I-95.
Yeah, the site is not ideal, right? Also as Michael alluded to, there is the well known interest rate thing.
I have watched the what the developers said about the apt market for a while and for many years they were surprised at how no matter how many they built, they filled them up, but it could be that people are getting less enthusiastic about risks and wanting to focus more on the best projects?
That’s coincidental, I was just at that light coming off of 95 onto Boulevard, and was wondering what was happening with this deal – since absolutely nothing has happened since it was announced.
Best thing for that site is small scale commercial strip like it used to be.
It’s an oddly shaped property with an inconvenient traffic pattern, especially getting in/out of the deck. I’m sure they can figure it out, but it makes sense this will take awhile.