83-unit apartment building for seniors in the works in Swansboro

The 80,000-square-foot building will rise five stories at Bainbridge and 21st streets. (Images courtesy Project:Homes)

As it dips its toes into mobile home parks as an approach to improving housing supply in the region, local nonprofit Project:Homes is undertaking a new-construction development that’s likewise pushing it into new territory.

Known more for its construction, repairs and weatherization of single-family houses, Project:Homes is preparing to start work on an income-based apartment building for seniors at 2100 Bainbridge St., at the corner of Bainbridge and West 21st Street in Swansboro.

The 83-unit building will rise five stories and replace a century-old structure that once was used as a coal storage facility for trains. Project:Homes has secured a demolition permit to raze all of the existing structures on the site, save for one building fronting 21st Street that’s planned to be converted into a community space for residents.

The century-old structure was once used as a coal storage facility for trains. (Jonathan Spiers photo)

Matt Morgan, Project:Homes’ director of neighborhood revitalization who’s heading up the development, said the property’s past use and location in Richmond’s Southside made it a viable site for the project.

Matt Morgan

“It’s a funky little site there on Bainbridge,” Morgan said. “There are still some old train tracks there and bays where they would open up and dump the coal and then the train would keep going. I think the nature of the coal use is what had it sitting on the market for a while.”

Project:Homes bought the property last year, paying $400,000 to previous owner Feldman G III Investments, an LLC tied to local real estate firm Atlantic Beacon Cos. The city assessed the 0.8-acre property this year at $252,000.

Morgan said Project:Homes had been working with the City of Richmond on a brownfields grant through the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency that funded environmental testing of the site, which he said cleared the way for the property closing.

“It made the risk a little lower for us,” he said.

Totaling 80,000 square feet, the modern-design, L-shaped building is planned to front the streets and enclose the existing community-room structure. The rest of the site is to be filled with 43 parking spaces with access off 21st Street.

A site plan shows the buildings fronting Bainbridge and 21st streets with parking behind. (City documents)

The apartments will include 65 one-bedroom units and 18 two-bedrooms ranging in size from 560 to 860 square feet. Monthly rents haven’t been finalized but will be restricted to renters making 60 percent of the area median income: about $44,820 for a single renter.

Johannas Design Group is the architect on the project, and UrbanCore Construction is lined up as the general contractor. VHB is handling engineering work, and Nyfeler Associates provided a topographic survey. Baker Development Resources handled Project:Homes’ development plan applications to the city.

The $20 million project is planned to involve a 4 percent Low-Income Housing Tax Credit that Project:Homes is applying for from Virginia Housing. Morgan said the tax applications would be submitted in January, around the time demolition is scheduled to start. He said Ty’s Hauling & Paving is handling the demo.

The project also involves grant funds from the City of Richmond, and the Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development, as well as a Virginia Housing grant that Morgan said is covering some of the demo cost. City Council approved a grant agreement for the project in November that provides grant payments based on incremental real estate tax revenues generated by the project.

The development will preserve one existing building on the site that will serve as a community room.

Morgan described the apartments as a different look and type of project for Project:Homes, which traditionally focuses on single-family housing but has been branching out in a new direction with its investment in Bermuda Estates, a mobile home park in Chester that it’s been revitalizing and presenting as an overlooked housing supply option.

The nonprofit typically builds between 25 and 30 houses a year, and Morgan noted that it owns four senior apartment properties: the 100-plus-unit William Byrd building in Richmond, the 50-unit Omni Park Place Senior Apartments in Ashland, and the Parham Park Place I and II buildings in Henrico, totaling 137 units.

Like Bermuda Estates, Morgan said the Bainbridge apartments represent a new approach for Project:Homes in addressing housing availability and affordability in the region.

“This does represent a new path for us in developing multifamily new-construction,” he said. “It is new for us to be developing anew, but our goal isn’t just to develop what everyone else is doing and have it look the same. We want creative projects and neat-looking projects and to tackle infill with the highest and best use.”

Of the apartments’ design, Morgan added: “It’s pretty unique-looking. We wanted something that had a little more feeling to it.”

Pending financing approvals, Morgan said construction could start by late June, with completion anticipated in 18 to 24 months.

Project:Homes’ Madeline Petrie said the group has presented the project to City Councilmember Stephanie Lynch and plans to meet with neighborhood groups early next year.

The apartments site is around the block from another income-based project in the works in Swansboro. Across Hull Street, Canterbury Development Group is planning its 90-unit Swansboro Place apartment building for lower-income renters at 2008 Hull St.