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Sbrocco’s delights MarieBette spinoff offers traditional take on donuts

Photo: Tristan Williams

Donuts have been on a certain trajectory for the last two decades: bigger, more toppings, more creativity—an arms race of candy, cookies, and fried pork.

After several years working with semi-traditionalists Jason Becton and Patrick Evans at MarieBette Café & Bakery, Melissa Sbrocco is going in a different direction. When she opens her namesake donut shop the second week of September (hopefully), dough nuts can expect to find a rotating lineup of classics: glazed, jelly-filled, chocolate iced, plain cake, chocolate iced cake.

“Jason is from New Jersey, and I grew up going to the Jersey Shore,” Sbrocco says. “We’re used to strip mall donut shops where you grab and go, kind of similar to a Dunkin’. That’s the concept.”

Sbrocco’s relationship with Becton and Evans began in 2020, when her temporary move to Charlottesville stretched long-term. A real estate agent before the move, Sbrocco’s plan was to stay until the pandemic ended, then go back to her life. But she and her husband fell in love with the town, and she found her way into baking, a passion project she’d always wanted to cultivate, via a job at MarieBette.

After four years together, Sbrocco, Becton, and Evans will partner up for Sbrocco’s Donuts & Espresso. Sbrocco will lean on her former bosses for consulting, she says, as well as for the brioche recipe they’ve developed at MarieBette. “We sometimes take the basic brioche dough scraps and fry them up,” Sbrocco says. “You can call any fried dough in a circle a donut.”

As the three partners prepare the new Sbrocco’s space on Maury Avenue in the former Anna’s Pizza spot, they’re also heavily involved in recipe development. Sbrocco’s favorite so far? Another traditional offering, the apple fritter. For that crispy hunk of nooks and crannies, Sbrocco uses a sturdier dough than the standard brioche base—kind of like a milk bread, she says.

A baker at heart, Sbrocco typically favors cake over yeast donuts; she says her 1,500-square-foot, eight- to 10-seat breakfast counter will always have two non-leavened crullers on hand. She and her partners have also experimented with a potato donut, a nod to Charlottesville’s spuddy pastry past.

As for coffee, Sbrocco hopes folks enjoy it the way she does. “We’ll have full espresso drinks,” she says. “But the classic is you have a donut and you have your drip.”

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News Real Estate

UVA Board of Visitors to meet this week over two private development projects

The 12-story Verve is one of two large student apartment buildings planned for construction within close proximity to the University of Virginia. Photo via ESG Architecture and Design.

The governing body of the area’s largest landowner will meet this week with five new members, at least one of whom has significant experience in real estate. Governor Glenn Youngkin’s latest appointees to the University of Virginia’s Board of Visitors begin their terms at a time when two private, recently approved student developments are moving toward construction and while UVA seeks to provide more housing for students.  

“UVA has committed to expanding its current first-year residency requirement to require all first- and second-year students to live on-Grounds while enrolled at UVA to better support students in their transition to University life, and as residents of the broader Charlottesville community,” reads a May 2024 solicitation for firms to partner to build the housing. 

At the same time, two large private developments near UVA continue to make their way through the finer details of the city’s permitting process. 

On Tuesday, the Charlottesville Planning Commission formally approved a site plan for the Verve, a 12-story student apartment building to be constructed in the heart of central Grounds. Several dozen apartments at the intersection of Jefferson Park Avenue and Emmet Street will soon be demolished to make way for the new building, which will have 442 units, according to the site plan.

City Council approved a rezoning in January for the Verve despite opposition from UVA officials, who argued the tall building would diminish UVA’s architectural character. The plans were submitted in time to qualify under the city’s old zoning rules, which required significantly fewer units to be designated as affordable. In this case, the developer will contribute $6.8 million to the city’s affordable housing fund rather than build units that are price-controlled. 

Earlier this month, the Charlottesville City Council granted approval of another technical step for a 10-story student apartment building at 2117 Ivy Rd. that was approved under the old rules. That project comes with a $3.25 million contribution to the city’s affordable housing fund and required council action to waive a requirement to build sidewalks on all road fronts.

“The waiver request is only for the easternmost portion of the property’s frontage on Copeley Road,” said Dannan O’Connell, a city planner. He added that they will build sidewalks on Ivy Road and a portion of Copeley Road. 

Meanwhile, UVA is planning to build up to 2,000 bedrooms for undergraduate students at both the former University Gardens as well as on Ivy Road. The Afghan Kabob restaurant will be demolished to make way for what UVA calls the Emmet North site. 

Because UVA owns those parcels of land, the city will not collect property tax revenue but they will for both the Verve and 2117 Ivy Rd. UVA officials want the first units to come online for the fall of 2027. 

One of the new members of the Board of Visitors is David F. Webb of Virginia Beach, whose day job is vice chair of development firm CBRE’s Capital Markets Group. Webb is now a member of the Buildings and Grounds Committee, which will meet on Thursday. One item on their agenda is a discussion of student housing. 

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News Real Estate

Closing arguments filed in challenge to city’s new zoning code

The developer of 303 Alderman Rd. will be among the first to take advantage of the new zoning, if and when this single family house is demolished to make way for six townhomes. Photo by Sean Tubbs.

The waiting game continues for a lawsuit filed earlier this year that seeks to nullify Charlottesville’s new zoning code. 

A group of residents filed suit against Charlottesville in January alleging that city officials failed to follow state guidelines to study the impacts higher residential density allowed in the Development Code would have on transportation infrastructure. The land-use rules were rewritten shortly after City Council adopted a new Comprehensive Plan on November 21 that called for more housing across the entire city. 

“A comprehensive plan and zoning ordinance must be submitted to [the Virginia Department of Transportation] for review when [they] will ‘substantially affect’ transportation on state-controlled highways,” wrote attorneys with the firm Flora Pettit in a filing with Charlottesville Circuit Court in late August. 

This spring, Charlottesville responded with a motion seeking to dismiss the case arguing that the plaintiffs do not have the right to sue, and added they cannot prove they will be harmed by the new rules. 

After a 90-minute hearing in late June, both sides filed written closing statements to inform Circuit Court Judge Claude Worrell’s eventual opinion. Lawyers with the firm Gentry Locke argue the suit should not proceed to trial.

“Plaintiffs do not like the policy choices in the new zoning ordinance,” the Gentry Locke attorneys wrote in their recent filing. “The City followed the process in enacting the NZO. The Plaintiffs, therefore, rely on strained legal theories and ignore facts in their effort.” 

Attorneys for the city also argue that Charlottesville followed the rules when submitting the mobility chapter of the Comprehensive Plan to VDOT, a key claim made by the defendants. 

“Plaintiffs cannot now—more than two years after the fact—fault the City for failing to double-check VDOT’s work product,” the closing argument continues. 

Flora Pettit attorney Michael Derdeyn represents those plaintiffs, as well an anonymous group that previously sought to overturn the Comprehensive Plan based on many of the same arguments. He argues that VDOT review should have been based on the theoretical maximum of new housing units that could be built under the new code. 

“There can be no question that the City failed to comply with its obligation,” Derdeyn wrote.

That will be up to Judge Worrell to decide, and a ruling will be issued at some point in the near future. 

Meanwhile, developers have slowly begun taking advantage of the provisions in the new code that allow more density without asking City Council for permission. That includes six units planned to be built at 303 Alderman Rd., a property that had been zoned for single-family residential but is now in the Residential B district. 

Another plan, submitted for land behind the Meadowbrook Shopping Center, will be the first to take advantage of bonus rules if units meet the city’s affordability guidelines. 

A firm called Greenshire Holdings has filed a major development plan to build 24 units on what is now an 0.83-acre lot at 2030 Barracks Rd. The materials sent to the city include a request to subdivide the property into two lots with 12 units to be built on each. 

No traffic management plan would be required because the total amount of construction is under the 50,000 square-foot threshold that would trigger one. 

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News Real Estate

Project Julius to help Home Depot’s redevelopment of Fashion Square Mall

Albemarle County entered into a public-private partnership with Home Depot in 2022. The home improvement hub plans to turn the former Sears at Fashion Square Mall into a new store and garden center. Image via MG2.

Shortly after the signalized intersection at Rio Road and U.S. 29 was converted to an underpass in July 2016, the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors adopted a small area plan to encourage redevelopment of the immediate area to be more dense to meet the needs of the 21st century. 

“The plan identifies the Rio Road/29 intersection as the heart of urban Albemarle County and it designated the four quadrants as critical for the commercial corridor’s future,” says Emily Kilroy, Albemarle’s interim economic development director. “It envisions a dense, walkable, bikeable transit-connected environment.” 

Nearly six years later, the county entered into a public-private partnership with Home Depot to redevelop the former Sears at Fashion Square Mall into a new store and garden center. The Atlanta-based retailer purchased the site, as well as dozens of individual retail spaces inside the mall, in September 2022. 

County officials have approved plans for the new store, but Home Depot’s development costs have increased. 

“It was primarily associated with the demolition of the former Sears and the Sears Auto Center, which had a requirement for asbestos abatement as well as brownfield remediation,” said J.T. Newberry, deputy director of the Albemarle Office of Economic Development. 

Newberry told the board of supervisors on August 21 that the higher costs may have been a barrier to Home Depot proceeding. The county and its Economic Development Authority negotiated terms for a tax increment financing agreement under the codename Project Julius to grant up to $750,000 in real property tax rebates over 10 years. 

In exchange, Home Depot has to be open by December 24, 2025. The company will also dedicate land for a future realignment of Hillsdale Drive, called for in the Rio Road plan.  

“They will help actively market the former Red Lobster site, which is currently vacant,” Newberry said. 

In addition to more property taxes to be generated from the site, Newberry said Albemarle expects the new store to produce between $400,000 and $500,000 a year in local sales taxes. He said the store is expected to create 100 jobs.     

Kilroy says Fashion Square Mall is ripe for a public-private partnership to try to implement that vision. She presented the Board of Supervisors with a slide depicting the decline in value from around $70 million in 2014 to just below $20 million this year. 

“Redevelopment of this parcel will correct what has been a stark decline in property value for this area,” Kilroy says, adding that the county’s investment will support the first major private reinvestment since the Rio Road plan was adopted. 

Belk Stores of Virginia continues to own its store, and developer Richard Hewitt owns the former JCPenney. Albemarle County now rents a portion of that property for a public safety fleet operations center. 

Other investments in the area have not had a public component. Earlier this year, the Carter Machinery Company purchased a 4.67-acre property to the east of the Northside Library for $3.53 million. It has since opened a rental store for construction and lawn equipment, eliminating parking spaces that had been rented for library patrons. 

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News Real Estate

The city’s first large student apartment complex on West Main turns 10 

Completion of The Flats at West Village 10 years ago marked a new era for the West Main Street corridor—one that included students and paved the way for more residential units in the area. Staff photo.

With the University of Virginia back in session next week, students are returning to Charlottesville—including the several hundred who live at 852 W. Main St. The first residents of the building known as The Flats at West Village moved in 10 years ago, beginning a trend of students moving into an area where they had not previously lived. 

Riverbend Development and an out-of-town group took the project through the approval process in December 2012, during which City Council voted 4-1 on a special use permit to allow the building to be eight stories high and to have up to 595 bedrooms. Councilor Dede Smith voted against the permit that night, arguing that the project would have negative impacts on surrounding neighborhoods. 

“Charlottesville was told that a large student complex on West Main would moderate rents across town, stimulate a vibrant mixed-use community, and reintegrate Westhaven and Fifeville into Main Street,” Smith says. “Unfortunately, few, if any, of these benefits have occurred.”

The current owner is an entity called Madison Loft LLC that purchased the property in November 2016 for $77.5 million. Previous structures on the property were automotive in nature, reflecting the role West Main Street played in the 20th century. 

Since people began living at the Flats, the city has collected $6.35 million in taxes, with a bill this year of $821,143.96. The property is now managed by Asset Living, one of the largest property maintenance firms in the United States. 

The Flats was followed by what’s now called The Lark on West Main and The Standard at Charlottesville, adding more students and millions more in tax revenue. 

Previous zoning on the property required the ground floors to be commercial, but that has not been a total success. The Flats opened with a restaurant called World of Beer that folded before the pandemic, and the space was vacant for many years until Mejicali recently opened. The convenience store next door has been the only permanent fixture, but another retail space on the ground floor has never had an occupant. 

The same is true across the street at the Standard, where two retail spaces sit vacant. The retail space at the Lark is currently occupied by Devil’s Backbone Backyard after two similar businesses failed at the location. 

Other buildings constructed to the east include the former Quirk Hotel (now The Doyle Hotel), the Marriott Residence Inn, and the apartment complex at 600 W. Main St. that preserved Blue Moon Diner. That project also has a retail space that has proved difficult to keep rented.

More buildings constructed on West Main will not need approval from the city council because the new zoning code allows taller heights without special permission. Residential density is unlimited, but the new rules require 10 percent of units to be affordable to households or individuals whose incomes are 60 percent below the area median income. 

Meanwhile, UVA is moving ahead with plans to build new residence halls for second-year students as part of an initiative to house more people on Grounds. This spring, the Office of Facilities Management asked firms to submit qualifications to build up to 2,000 new bedrooms either on Ivy Road or Emmet Street. The bid documents state that UVA would like those units to be in place by the fall of 2027.

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News Real Estate

A dangerous Charlottesville intersection could become more crowded

The entrance to Willoughby Place would be 350' from the intersection of Fifth Street SW and Harris Road along a winding road. Image via Shimp Engineering.

If implemented as planners hope, Charlottesville’s new development rules will provide more places for people to live by making it easier for builders to navigate the process. Less certain is what will happen when more of those homes are constructed on a road network with known areas of concern. 

Perhaps one of the most dangerous intersections in Charlottesville is at Fifth Street SW and Harris Road, which has seen at least three fatalities since 2016 and many more just to the north on a stretch of roadway designed to be a highway. Thousands of vehicles pass through this junction every weekday. 

To the west is the city’s Fry’s Spring neighborhood and the Willoughby Shopping Center and to the east and up a hill is the Willoughby neighborhood, which has several dozen homes with city addresses until the roadway passes into Albemarle County. 

Moores Creek LLC, a company associated with Woodard Properties, has plans pending before the city to build a development called Willoughby Place with 84 two-bedroom apartments in two buildings on 4.8 acres. The driveway to this by-right development would be 350′ from the Harris Road intersection. That’s one reason the Willoughby Property Owners Association is opposed to the development. 

“Line of sight expressed by [Moores Creek LLC’s] plans from Harris Road to [the Willoughby Place] entrance is two-dimensional and doesn’t take into account the hill,” reads an August 7 letter from the association to the city requesting a denial of a preliminary site plan. 

The Willoughby Place plans also show a connection to a parcel in Albemarle County, but correspondence between the city and the firm Shimp Engineering indicates there are no efforts to develop that land at this time. There was an effort to do so in 2014 that did not meet with the favor of the county’s planning commission. 

The plans for 610 Harris Rd. were filed under the city’s previous rules, which means that none of the units have to be rented at below-market rates to satisfy affordability requirements, known in the new code as “inclusionary zoning.” Plans filed now require 10 percent of the units to be affordable. 

The northwest quadrant of the Fifth and Harris intersection is a 46-unit townhouse community built by Southern Development in the mid-2000s. The future of the southwest quadrant is wide open with a new owner.

On August 5, an entity based in Staunton called TAP Investments LLC purchased 1113 Fifth St. SW for $1.375 million, slightly above the 2024 assessment. The new zoning code is Commercial Mixed Use 8, which would allow for an eight-story building with unlimited residential density as well as many commercial possibilities. 

A bank operated on the 0.9-acre property for many years and in the fall of 2022, City Council denied a special use permit allowing for Green Clean Albemarle LLC to operate a car wash on the property. 

So far, there are no applications to develop the property.

No matter what gets built, the city is working to make the roadway safer with plans for a “road diet” between Harris Road and Cherry Avenue. 

“We’re expecting to bring those conceptual plans to the public for review this fall,” says Afton Schneider, the city’s director of communications and public engagement. 

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News Real Estate

Chamber of Commerce to relocate after downtown building is sold 

The building at the corner of East Market Street and Fifth Street NW, which for more than 40 years has housed the Chamber of Commerce, is for sale. Photo via Cushman & Wakefield | Thalhimer.

For more than four decades, the Charlottesville Regional Chamber of Commerce has operated at the corner of East Market Street and Fifth Street NW just down the hill from the former Monticello Hotel. 

Now that property is on the market as the chamber continues a search for a new place to advance its mission in a community where economic growth is happening across many geographic locations. 

“They are still in the building but will be planning to move after the sale to something that better accommodates their current staff and allows them to serve the community more flexibly,” says Jenny Stoner, a senior vice president with Cushman & Wakefield | Thalhimer, the listing agent that was awarded an exclusive sales assignment. 

The chamber held an open house in July, and the open house invitation stated that putting the building on the market reflects a strategic direction as the second quarter of the century approaches. 

“This decision reflects a common practice amongst Chambers nationwide to reposition assets in response to the evolving needs of members and the broader business community,” reads the invitation. 

The organization doesn’t plan to go very far as it seeks new office space. 

“We haven’t selected a new location yet, but we plan to continue operating near downtown Charlottesville,” says Ann Marie Hohenberger, the chamber’s director of community engagement. “It is the geographic center of our service area.” 

Hohenberger says the chamber’s Board of Directors is still working on the development of a strategic vision for the future. 

The building at 415 E. Market St. was constructed in 1911 and offers 3,000 square feet on two floors. The Market Street Parking Garage is a block away. The footprint is 0.3 acres and the land is now zoned Downtown Mixed Use. Any demolitions or alterations would have to go through the Board of Architectural Review. 

The chamber itself dates back to 1913 and now has more than 675 members in business across the region. They bought the property in 1981 for $128,500, and the 2024 assessment is $885,400. The asking price is listed as negotiable. 

In recent years, the chamber has put a focus on the role the defense sector plays. They commissioned a study that in May 2023 estimated the industry has an annual economic impact of $1.2 billion. That same month, the Albemarle Board of Supervisors agreed to spend $58 million to purchase 462 acres around the Rivanna Station military base. 

In 2018, the chamber sought real estate expertise in finding a new headquarters in a place that could be seen as the “center of activities” in the region. Their request for proposals wanted double the space in a location with cheaper parking, but the initiative to move didn’t happen on the watch of Elizabeth Cromwell, who served as president from August 2018 to February 2023. 

The chamber is currently without a permanent president following the brief tenure of Natalie Masri, who served for seven months. Since January, former Board Chair Rebecca Ivins has been serving as interim president while a search is conducted. Chief Operating Officer Andrea Copeland served as interim president immediately after Cromwell’s departure and continues to run day-to-day operations. Realtor Sasha Tripp became the new chair of the Board. 

Hohenberger says the chamber is planning to launch a new search for a chief executive officer and a public announcement will be made when the time comes.

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News Real Estate

Businesses near the much-debated Belmont Bridge hopeful for a comeback

Tomas Rahal, who favored an underpass instead of a bridge, took over the former Spudnuts building in 2017 after the donut shop shuttered in 2016. Photo by Eze Amos.

Both Project Gait-Way and the Belmont Vortex created ways for planners to dream up ideas for the urban landscape around Avon Street. Since 2011, there have been many transformations while the new bridge and street layout awaited construction.  

In December 2014, what had previously been used as a hair salon and then a small grocery store became one of the area’s most sought-after restaurants: Lampo Neapolitan Pizzeria. The previous June, the owners of Lampo had used a crane to lower a three-ton oven from Naples into their space at 205 Monticello Rd. 

At least one exhibition on potential options was held next door in the space formerly occupied by the Bridge Performing Arts Initiative. The creative center moved to the Downtown Mall last year after Lightning Properties, the real estate umbrella of Lampo and Bar Baleno, bought both properties for $800,000 in April 2022 to allow for expansion. 

Lampo reopened after the pandemic in August 2022 while construction of the bridge was underway. 

“Finally feels like things are back to normal,” says Lampo co-owner Loren Mendosa. “The bridge was certainly a pain, but now that it’s done we’ve noticed a bit of an uptick.” 

In 2016, Charlottesville said goodbye to Spudnuts, a beloved purveyor of potato-flour donuts at 309 Avon St. that had been in business since 1969. Tomas Rahal, a former chef at Mas Tapas, took over the space in 2017 with Quality Pie. During construction of the bridge, Rahal took the city to task for not doing enough to support local businesses in the face of the disruption. He preferred the underpass option. 

“The roadway, not a bridge at all, serves as a visual scar across our viewscape, instead of healing the rift between north Downtown and Belmont,” Rahal says. “They have cleaned up most of their mess, [but] the damage to us was deep, persistent, long-lasting.”

Located one block to the north at 403 Avon St., Fox’s Cafe closed during the pandemic, and the building and two adjacent lots were purchased for $1.4 million in February 2023. There are currently no plans filed to redevelop the site except for an application for a building permit for a new alcove. Daddy Mack’s Grub Shack food truck currently operates from the site. 

Across the street at 405 Avon St. and 405 Levy Ave., the Charlottesville Redevelopment and Housing Authority continues to operate its maintenance division on 1.1 acres now owned by the City of Charlottesville. The CRHA adopted a master plan in the summer of 2010 that called for the former auto service station to become a new apartment building with affordable units. That never happened—in part because of opposition from Belmont residents. The nonprofit Community Bikes occupied the site for many years before the CRHA began to use the property. 

Earlier this year, several Belmont residents also opposed the notion of the city purchasing the property for a potential homeless shelter, while others welcomed that possibility. In January, City Manager Sam Sanders recommended that $4 million in leftover federal COVID-relief funds be used to buy the land and to allow CRHA to remain as a tenant while determining the property’s potential future. Afton Schneider, the city’s communications director, said there are no plans that can be shared with the public at this time. 

There are also no redevelopment plans filed for 310 Avon St., a property under the single ownership of Avon Court LLC, which formerly housed the original location of Better Living and an old lumber supply warehouse. That building was demolished in late 2009, leaving other commercial properties on the site. One of them was the original home of Champion Brewing Company, which opened in the fall of 2012 and closed at the end of June 2023. 

The construction of the bridge created new ways to get to 100 and 110 Avon St. just to the south of Lampo. The building at 100 Avon St. changed hands in December 2020 for $4.5 million, and the new owner renovated the existing structure to add several apartments. A site plan for an additional four-story building has been approved, but the units have not yet been built.

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News Real Estate

Two apartment complexes planned for either side of Albemarle/ Charlottesville border

A 3D rendering of the latest version of a redevelopment project at 1193 Seminole Trail in Albemarle County. The Hibachi Grill property is within city limits and is slated for a four-story building with a proposed 250 units. Image via WSG Architecture.

What happens when you build a pair of apartment buildings with hundreds of residents each on the busiest highway in the Charlottesville area? The community will find out in a couple of years if two proposed developments make their way through the process.

On July 16, the Albemarle Planning Commission held a public hearing on a rezoning for up to 165 units and two retail buildings at 1193 Seminole Trail. The site is currently home to the C’ville Oriental grocery store and two former automotive repair businesses that have recently closed. 

Meanwhile, Charlottesville planners continue to review a proposal to redevelop 1185 Seminole Trail, the site of Hibachi Grill & Supreme Buffet. Keane Enterprises of Ashburn, Virginia, has submitted a site plan for 250 apartment units on a four-acre lot. 

The projects’ proximity provides a unique test of the cooperation called for in the Comprehensive Plans for both jurisdictions. It is not often two parcels across the border redevelop simultaneously. 

“The City and County coordinate on planning efforts, both at the staff level and through decision-making bodies,” reads the city’s plan. 

Yet the Albemarle and Charlottesville planning commissions have not held a joint meeting for more than five years, a period in which both localities have been updating their respective development rules. 

Albemarle Supervisors last updated their plan in 2015, and it makes several references to cooperation with the city, such as “affordable housing that is connected to community amenities, parks, trails, and services in the City,” as reads one strategy in the document. 

Both projects are proceeding under older requirements to restrict rents for a certain percentage of units to make sure they are affordable to households with lower incomes. Thesis Living, the developer of the Albemarle parcel, filed their plans before Albemarle increased the number of units from 15 percent to 20 percent. 

The Keane site plan was turned in to Charlottesville’s Department of Neighborhood Services before the effective date of the city’s new zoning. Those rules require 10 percent of units to be made available to households with less than 60 percent of the area median income. 

The two buildings would be four stories-tall and would be sited on either side of the border between the two localities, with driveways extending onto a 10-lane section of U.S. 29. Neither application acknowledges the role the other might play in addressing mutual issues such as transportation or stormwater management. 

Children living in the Thesis Living complex would go to Albemarle schools and those in the Keane property would go to city schools, requiring two different sets of buses. Residents of 1185 Seminole Trail would be amid an island of commercial uses but might soon have new neighbors if one anticipated major redevelopment happens. Great Eastern Management Company, a local company with residential complexes such as Barclay Place and commercial shopping centers, has filed a site plan to redevelop the vacant Giant grocery store in Seminole Square Shopping Center with 350 units. 

In one sign of the benefits of mutual planning, a pedestrian bridge across U.S. 29 at Zan Road will be finished in fall of 2025. This was one of several projects called for in a joint master plan for the overall area.

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Abode Magazines

A traditional home gets a lighter, brighter kitchen

Photo: Virginia Hamrick

You’ve bought a 1950s home in the Rugby area. It’s lovely and spacious, but it needs a little re-organizing. One example: It has a small, dark galley kitchen; you have four kids who want to bring their friends over and hang out, which means it’s time to re-do the first-floor layout and design a kitchen that works for your family. 

“I spend 80 percent of my time at home in the kitchen,” says the homeowner. “I cook a ton, and the kids are always here—we’re the neighborhood gathering place. And I wanted a lot of pantry storage, and a big refrigerator and freezer. I mean, really big!”

Photo: Virginia Hamrick

She found her interior designer, Karen Turner of KTK Design, by word of mouth. Turner, who has been working in the Charlottesville area for four decades (“I went to UVA and stayed,” she says) had done a number of houses in the neighborhood, so she was familiar with both the charm and challenges of 1950s homes. Working with architect Bethany Puopolo, who did the overall renovation, Turner wanted to make sure that the new kitchen met the family’s needs and still fit the house’s original character.

The layout of the new kitchen had to work with the flow from the rest of the first-floor spaces. So on one wall, between two doors (one to the mud room and pool, another to the playroom/hangout space), Turner placed the large refrigerator and freezer side by side projecting out, with the floor-to-ceiling pantry cabinets behind them. That creates two “zones” within the kitchen. The two large appliances are placed opposite a counter with sink, where all the food prep takes place (and where the coffee setup is); opposite the pantry cabinets is a small desk/home office space.

Photo: Virginia Hamrick

The prep counter extends to the oven and gas range, placed between two windows overlooking the pool. The central island, where all the gathering happens, sits underneath a huge clerestory skylight that brings in more natural light to the space. “We couldn’t make a cathedral ceiling there, because of the structure above,” says Turner, so the clerestory was Puopolo’s solution. And for added light on dark days or at night, Turner added two stunning Harford pendant fixtures from The Urban Electric Company.

The central island is another of Turner’s zones. This area is for clean-up; there’s another sink, and next to it under the countertop is the dishwasher. And behind that is an elegant solution to another structural problem that precluded removing the wall: Turner decided to revive the mid-century breakfast room and opened the wall by designing a built-in, pass-through dish storage cabinet with glass-paneled doors on front and back. The doors let light through, visually connect the breakfast room with the kitchen, and let the homeowner put away clean dishes from one side and take them out to set the table on the other. (All the cabinetry work was done by Willis Woodworks in southwest Virginia.) 

Photo: Virginia Hamrick

An added benefit: This kitchen is sized to its family. “I’m 5 foot 10, and my husband is 6 foot 6,” says the homeowner. “All our counters are higher than usual, and we have lots of high storage.”

With all the working elements satisfied, the homeowner had one more requirement. “I wanted color—I’m in the kitchen so much, and I wanted it to be bright colors that I love.” 

The color scheme started with a backsplash tile that the homeowner found at Sarisand Tile, a lovely variegated blue-green, which set the tone for the kitchen’s navy color on walls and cabinets. Turner set the tile as a backsplash for the range, since that is the central feature on the kitchen’s window wall, and keyed the range hood, the upper and lower cabinets, and the pantry to its blue tones. Happily, Turner notes, the counters’ White Macaubas honed quartzite from Cogswell Stone has that blue in its veining.

The navy cabinets with their brass fittings fit the house in its conservative character—making everything shipshape—but also satisfies the homeowner’s need for color and warmth. “I couldn’t live in an all-white kitchen,” she says. “I embrace color and chaos. This blue—it’s a happy color.”