Commercial Real Estate

The hillside around Tredegar is alive with activity with structures taking shape for the Richmond Amphitheater and new CoStar tower and expansion.

The four-story townhomes are a change from an earlier plan that called for an office development to support the larger Bacova community.

The work signals the start of a mixed-use development that VUU has planned for the 1-acre site, which it purchased five years ago for nearly $3 million.

The land on Ashland Road is where Panattoni Development Co. had been pursuing the codenamed industrial development before pulling the plug on the project late last year.

For the second time in as many years, Gagan Marwaha saw a totally empty office building as an opportunity. “We don’t go buy stabilized assets,” he said.

The properties, which include the buildings housing Hild’s shuttered Dogtown Brewing, Hot Diggity Donuts and Butterbean cafe, will soon be headed to auction.

The utility giant recently began work to restore and reopen the sidewalks and traffic lanes around the vacant city block it owns at 701 E. Cary St., while future plans for the site are still unknown.

Georgia-based U.S. Cabinet Depot has signed on for nearly 195,000 square feet in the second phase of North Richmond Industrial Park, a 75-acre park near Ashland’s southern boundary.

Stanley Martin Homes recently purchased 4.3 acres at West Village, the 12-acre, $50 million development at the northwest corner of Broad Street and Gayton Road, where it’s approved to build the two-over-two units.

The move to Two James Center will give the Boston-based firm and its 60 local employees more space as it also looks for more cohesion between its Richmond and Hampton Roads operations.