While the city may have recently abandoned an expensive plan to upgrade West Main Street to be more of a destination, those who want to take a risk on business continue to make investments.
At least that’s what a Chesterfield-based firm did when it purchased 917 W. Main St. for $1.3 million in August 2022.
The city’s Neighborhood Development Services office issued a commercial building permit on July 30 for a tenant upfit. The cost of construction is at least $400,000, according to various permits. Los Angeles-based company Mochinut is listed as one of the contacts.
According to Mochinut’s website, it offers a unique product.
“Mochi donut is a donut that originated from Hawaii which is a combination of American doughnuts and Japanese mochi,” reads a description.
Mochi is a Japanese sweet rice cake; a mochi donut appears to be eight balls of this substance arranged in a circle.
So far, the company has no outlets in Virginia where one can buy the donuts. It also serves Korean-style hot dogs, which are breaded with a variety of different materials.
A request for confirmation and a timeline for opening was not answered at press time. At the moment, the site is still under construction and the sidewalk is blocked.
Such a store could benefit from the foot traffic of University of Virginia students who live in the apartment buildings in the neighborhood.
That’s also a reason there is now a 7 Day Junior franchise right across 10th Street on the lower floor of 1001 W. Main St. In the last 15 years, that entire building has been transformed from an auto repair shop into one that has served as multiple restaurants.
The building at 917 W. Main St. was constructed in 1950, and the current renovation of the facade unveiled an old sign for Charlottesville Office Machine Company. At one point, Habitat for Humanity of Greater Charlottesville had an office at the location but it has been vacant for at least three years since the nonprofit relocated in 2021.
Both buildings, as well as five others, are within the West Main Architectural Design Control District and any future demolition would have to be approved by the Board of Architectural Review. City Council added that protection in December 2013, when the construction of several large buildings in the neighborhood were proposed.
In the years that followed, council approved The Flats at West Village, The Standard, and Lark on Main. Special use permits for those mixed-use projects came with conditions that retail space be included on the ground floor, but all three of them have spaces that have never been utilized.
At the same time, the city had begun work on a project to widen sidewalks, add bike lanes, and add other amenities to West Main Street to improve the urban fabric of what was planned as one of the city’s most dense corridors. In 2022, council agreed to transfer the millions that had been committed to the project to instead expand Buford Middle School.
While the overall streetscape is desolate, the city is aware of the need to make improvements at a cost much lower than the defunct project’s $50 million estimate.
“The city does not presently have plans developed for this intersection, but will be kicking off a project looking at the West Main Street corridor [next year] and opportunities to improve safety through low-cost interventions and restriping,” says Afton Schneider, the city’s director of communications and public engagement.
