Commercial Real Estate

A Big Apple firm has taken a bite out of Richmond’s West End as part of its entrance into the commonwealth with the purchase of the 86,000-square-foot shopping center.

Midas of Richmond owner Mark Smith confirmed he is under contract to buy the property at East Broad and North 21st streets, where local developer Zac Frederick had once planned a residential infill project.

The newly formed company filed plans last month for a 224-unit complex southwest of the Chesterfield golf club and says it has hundreds more units in the pipeline.

The years-in-the-making project from developers Michael Hallmark and Susan Eastridge was OK’d at Monday’s meeting and now goes to City Council for a deciding vote.

Changing ownership for the second time in two years, a downtown apartment building is now in the hands of yet another out-of-town investor.

The deal for the Food Lion-anchored center encompasses over 135,000 square feet across about 15 acres in the 13100 block of Midlothian Turnpike.

The buildings at 917 and 919 W. Grace St. currently house Ipanema Cafe, Verify Recording Studio and Refine Hair Studio, and was previously home to a fraternity that recently moved out.

Genesis Properties is no longer pursing the purchase of Dominion Energy’s Eighth & Main office tower and a neighboring parking deck. The properties are now back on the market.

A local hotelier and financier are teaming up to buy the downtown office tower and carry out a previously proposed plan to turn it into hundreds of apartments. 

“It’s a second home to a lot of racing people. I don’t think the county realized what that place meant to so many people,” said Lin O’Neill of the Save Southside Speedway movement that has advocated for a return of car racing to the venue.