As work gets underway on the city’s new baseball stadium, a sizable new apartment project just wrapped up across the street.
The Novel Scott’s Addition apartment building at 2902 N. Arthur Ashe Blvd. recently finished construction. The 275-unit building sits directly across the boulevard from where the Flying Squirrels’ new ballpark recently broke ground.
Novel was built by locally based Thalhimer Realty Partners and Crescent Communities, a North Carolina-based developer that used the project as its entrance into the Richmond market. Crescent’s portfolio counts over $7 billion in residential and commercial developments nationwide, including a nearly 500-unit apartment tower in Denver.
The Novel development’s origins go back to late 2019, when TRP bought the site, then a warehouse for electrical supply company Wesco Distribution, for nearly $4 million. A few years later TRP and Crescent created a joint venture for the project, filed plans and kicked off construction in the spring of 2022.
A seven-story building now stands on the 3-acre site and recently began welcoming in residents. The building has a mix of studio, one-bedroom and two-bedroom units in over 50 different floor plans. Some of the units on the building’s top floor have lofts. Monthly rent at Novel Scott’s Addition ranges from around $1,500 to $3,000, TRP principal Matt Raggi said.
Raggi declined to disclose the total project cost.
Residents will have an array of traditional and eclectic amenities. The building has a dog park, rooftop deck, gym and coworking spaces, as well as a podcast recording studio, saltwater pool and a speakeasy hidden behind a moveable bookshelf.
“The interior courtyard, library and speakeasy have been the most well-received to date,” Raggi said of the amenities. “We’re also excited to be delivering next month the second courtyard and dog park as well as the rooftop lounge, which will overlook the new baseball stadium.”
Southern California-based firm KTGY was the project architect and CID Design Group out of Florida was its interior designer. Local firms Clancy & Theys Construction, Kimley-Horn and LandDesign were its general contractor, engineer and landscape architect, respectively.
TRP is part of the development team that’s leading the nonbaseball first phase of the Diamond District and also has a few projects lined up in Manchester, including 301 Hull St., where it’s planning 250 apartments on the former Sampson Coatings paint building.
Raggi said TRP has spent most of the year waiting for interest rates to come down before beginning construction on that project in earnest.
“We’re closer on Sampson and currently preparing the site to go vertical, which we expect to happen in the next few months,” Raggi said.
Other sizable new apartment buildings to be completed in the city recently include the 15-story Parc View at Commonwealth building on Grace Street near VCU and Soda Flats, an 89-unit building next to the Hofheimer Building on Broad Street.