A nonprofit group that provides a place to stay for families of young patients at the University of Virginia Medical Center has made a significant property purchase in Fifeville.
Ronald McDonald House Charities of Charlottesville purchased a one-time auto repair garage at 316 Ninth St. SW for $700,000. The March 15 acquisition of the former Ronnie’s Auto Service means the charity now owns the entire 300 block of Ninth Street, blocks away from UVA Children’s hospital.
“RMHC-C’ville continues to be at full capacity and turn families away daily due to no available rooms,” says Alisa Powell, the organization’s recently named chief executive officer. “The purchase of this property will enable us to one day provide additional services to families whose children receive critical medical care from UVA Health.”
The local Ronald McDonald House provides between 800 and 1,000 family stays each year for those who need just one night, or those who will be in town for many months.
The four area properties now owned by Ronald McDonald House are within the scope of the Cherry Avenue Small Area Plan adopted in March 2021, which describes all but the main house at the top of the hill as “susceptible for redevelopment.”
The new purchase signals the nonprofit is willing to invest to guarantee it can provide services well into the future. The sales price is over double the 2024 assessment of $319,400 for the 0.11 acre parcel that is now zoned Commercial Mixed Use 3. As of now, the city’s assessor classifies this as a valid sale, meaning it will count toward reassessment in 2025.
The purchase comes just months after the University of Virginia bought the Oak Lawn estate for $3.5 million. Earlier this year, UVA sent out a request for firms interested in helping plan the transition of the existing building and site into a child-care facility.
UVA is also a close neighbor of the Ronald McDonald House. In August 2016, the university paid $8.73 million for 2.63 acres on Grove and King streets on the other side of Roosevelt Brown Boulevard. A March 2023 draft of the UVA master plan anticipates the land as a “redevelopment zone” that could one day include housing.
Another close neighbor is a 0.56 acre undeveloped property between UVA’s land and the Ronald McDonald House. A previous development had received site plan approval in 2015 for a mixed-use building, but the project never found enough tenants to proceed. The site plan is valid through June 24, 2026, but anyone developing the site must post bonds related to public improvements and erosion and sediment control.
So far, there are no plans filed for the Ronald McDonald House properties.