The Quirk Hotel, soon to be renamed and rebranded, conveniently stands on West Main Street. Supplied photo.
Four years after opening its doors, the Quirk Hotel in Charlottesville was sold for $24 million to Blue Suede Hospitality Group on Monday, April 29. The hotel will undergo a complete rebrand—including a renaming—later this fall.
Originally opened in March 2020, the Charlottesville Quirk Hotel is the sister location of the popular Richmond-based Quirk Hotel. The Ukrop family—best known for its Richmond-area grocery store chain and baked goods—purchased the Charlottesville site for $3.75 million in 2017.
Both Quirk Hotels were operated by Retro Hospitality and owned by the Ukrops family prior to the sale. The Ukrops also sold a minority share of ownership in the original Quirk in January 2024.
Since its launch in New York two years ago, new owner Blue Suede Hospitality Group has acquired four boutique apartment hotels, with locations in Miami, Memphis, Tennessee, and Ann Arbor, Michigan. The acquisition of the 80-room Quirk in Charlottesville marks the group’s first Virginia location and is of a similar size to its Miami holdings.
“We are very excited to continue the great legacy of this remarkable hotel, and further enhance its connection to downtown Charlottesville,” said Blue Suede CEO Kenny Lipschutz in a comment via email. “We look forward to doing our small part to contribute to the dynamic and growing momentum downtown, and are inspired by the opportunity to further support the unique and vibrant Charlottesville community.”
Retro Hospitality will hand over management of the property at the end of June, but BSHG says it will honor the hotel’s existing reservations and events. Since its opening in 2020, the Quirk has become a popular venue choice for couples planning weddings, with a large rooftop bar, changeable indoor and outdoor spaces, and customizable menu options from its full-service restaurant.
The biggest changes will come this fall, when the hospitality group anticipates rebranding the Quirk and announcing a new food and beverage partner.
Despite the rebrand, the Quirk Art Gallery will remain the same, according to Ted Ukrop.
“Katie and I want to thank our guests, artists, and investors for supporting Quirk Charlottesville over the past four years,” said Ukrop in a press release issued by real estate group CBRE, who brokered the deal.“Not all ventures or pursuits go as planned and opening two weeks before Covid certainly presented many challenges. Katie does plan to keep Quirk Gallery open in its current hotel location.”
Quirk Gallery is a major draw for both the Richmond and Charlottesville locations, which prompted the launch of the original hotel. The Ukrops opened the Richmond gallery in 2005 before opening the flagship hotel in 2015. Currently, the Charlottesville Quirk is highlighting artist Kiki Slaughter’s exhibit “Twenty Years,” a retrospective of her two decades as a painter, which will run until June 2.
The sale of the Quirk is the latest shake-up in Charlottesville’s hotel scene, which has seen marked changes over the last several years with the renovation of the Omni Hotel, completed in late 2023, and the opening of the University of Virginia’s Forum Hotel in April of this year.
Another hotel is also currently being discussed by the Board of Architectural review following a proposal from Heirloom Development. The group, which counts luxury apartment building Six Hundred West Main among its local projects, previously obtained approval for a special use permit to build an apartment building at 218 W. Market St., but now hopes to pivot the space to hospitality.
Charlottesville’s Priscilla Whitlock and Richmond-based artist Mary Holland complement each other’s work in a dual exhibition at Quirk Gallery. Photo courtesy of the artists
As daily temps start to climb, and we await the vibrant colors of spring, Quirk Gallery offers a visually stunning show celebrating the work of two artists, Priscilla Whitlock and Mary Holland, whose work is guaranteed to lift winter’s gray grip.
Whether producing vignettes of her garden, open meadows, or mountain vistas, Whitlock’s “Eden” conveys with paint the essence of a place—not just its physical manifestation, but also the experience of being there. She clearly revels in depicting nature, and her manipulation of paint and her lively gestural style expose a deep appreciation for the purely visual aspects of painting, too.
The trio “Spring, Greens,” “Goldenrod Thistles” and “Wild Field, Mustard” are heady depictions of a world in full bloom. The paintings buzz with life. Whitlock captures the effects of nature—wind, shifting light and shadow, and the sense of ever-present insects—to reflect this bombinating sensation, but her painterly approach infuses the works with vitality. With “Spring, Greens,” Whitlock zooms in beyond the vegetation depicted in the other two works and emphasizes the riotous sensual quality of the place as a whole.
“Dogwoods, Spring Mountain” has an entirely different mood. Its muted colors suggest dawn or dusk, a quieter, more somber time. In the work, a vista of mountains rises above a grove of dogwood trees. The mountains are rendered in broad mauve and blue brushstrokes. Whitlock uses jagged lines to describe variations in the terrain, but for the most part this area has a distinct serenity as compared to the foreground. Visually, this situates the mountains in the distance, but it also fittingly depicts their grandeur and permanence. In front, the trees of the title are animated with wind and light. They seem to bend and twist before our eyes, brought to life by Whitlock’s adept handling of the paint.
Photo courtesy of the artists
With the showy “Bee Balm, My Garden” and “Blues, Pinks, Whites, My Garden,” Whitlock ventures closer to the world of abstract painting. Yes, these works are representations of plants in the patch of earth by her studio, but how she arranges her composition and the way she applies paint demonstrate an emphasis on the formal aspects of painting. Just look at the riotous blobs of pigment in “Blues, Pinks, Whites,” and the daubs of scarlet, green, and blue overlaid with the scrawl of oil stick in “Bee Balm.”
Like her paintings, Whitlock’s monotypes (unique images printed from a plate that has been painted by the artist) are about putting pigment down on a flat surface. These delightful, small-scale works possess a thrilling freshness and dynamism that holds its own against the larger works. “Flow,” “Spring, Peaches” and “Orchard, Spring” are visually striking examples, but I was particularly taken with the perfectly balanced “Water, Blues” and “My Garden.”
Whitlock has been producing monotypes for years. “I’ve stayed with it so long because it’s like playing another instrument,” she says. “You see something new that you wouldn’t have if you just stuck to your primary medium.”
At the other end of the gallery hangs Holland’s “Compositions in Blue: Cyanotype.” Cyanotype is a photographic printing process discovered in the mid-19th century that uses paper coated with a photo-sensitive solution and sunlight to produce an image of a stencil or object. The indigo hue produced by the cyanotype process has profound emotional resonance. Whether it strikes primordial chords within our subconscious, referencing natural phenomena like the night sky or deep water, this bold yet quiet color has an undeniably mysterious and romantic quality.
In 14 works, Holland takes full advantage of this. The reduced palette of blue and white sets off her striking arrangements of both natural and manufactured objects. Some of these she leaves as is. With others, she introduces collage and watercolor, occasionally adding the bling of silver foil to augment the white.
Holland’s assortments of leaves lend themselves well to the cyanotype technique. The veiny beech frond skeletons of “Forest Bathing,” the silvery disks of “Money Plant,” and the graphic power of the fan-shaped leaf blades in “Gingko Pattern,” all present a different kind of foliage. Holland’s approach reveals an affinity for the individual qualities of each specimen. With the first two, she employs collage to enhance the basic thrust of the work, adding silver to underscore the mica-like money plant pods and inserting silver hands in the allegorical “Forest Bathing.” When it comes to the distinctive gingko leaves, she adds nothing, deeming the rhythm of their silhouette powerful enough.
In other pieces, Holland turns to the world of handicrafts, using antique lace doilies, placemats, and embroidered handkerchiefs as her subjects. These are poetic works that highlight the intricacy of needlework and the filmy quality of fabric. Against the blue field, these stark white pieces are transformed to reveal works of intricate design and superb workmanship. One can’t help thinking about the anonymous creators of these bits of needlework.
“I think women’s work is undervalued,” says Holland. “Especially old crochet, and lace, and all these things women did. You can pick them up at junk shops and vintage places for very little, which is amazing when you think how beautiful they are and the amount of time that was put into them.” Holland gives these pieces a second chance and shines new light into their origins.
Enjoy Charlottesville Ballet’s The Nutcracker from home this year. Publicity photo
Sippin’ in slippers: Don’t let the coronavirus knock you off your feet this holiday season. But do feel free to stay home in your slippers to enjoy the beloved story of Clara’s Christmas journey in Charlottesville Ballet’s The Nutcracker: A Virtual Gala. The evening will be filled with special guests and local musicians, and the Quirk Hotel is providing curbside pickup for accompanying sweets, eats, and grownup treats (read: craft cocktails).
The Pink Grouse’s Chef de Cuisine Dennis Merritt says he was inspired to become a chef after watching a seed grow into a plant and became something nourishing. Publicity photo
Foodies rejoice! Charlottesville’s high-end dining circuit just got a little larger with the reopening of The Pink Grouse, the signature restaurant at the Quirk Hotel. Initially unveiled along with the hotel in March of 2020, The Pink Grouse’s launch was short-lived due to widespread shutdowns in April. The extra time was used to fine-tune the restaurant’s vision and bring on Chef de Cuisine Dennis Merritt. The result is a contemporary take on American food, driven home by a modern dining room, open kitchen, and creative platings.
Merritt got his start as sous chef at The Clifton, and has spent the last 10 years honing his craft at several of the country’s top restaurants, including Chicago’s Roister. When asked what he was most excited for, regarding his return to Charlottesville, Merritt says, “Being able to show my interpretations of both new and classic dishes.” One example that speaks to the avant-garde spirit of The Pink Grouse is the vivid White Stone oysters topped with coconut, passion fruit mousse, pickled mango, and calabrian chilis.
Keep the Kouign-amann coming
In August, MarieBette Café was awarded a $25,000 grant from Discover’s Eat It Forward program, which supports Black-owned businesses countrywide. It’s no secret that COVID-19 has put tremendous strain on the restaurant industry, especially in Black communities, and the Eat It Forward program aims to protect these “cornerstones of community” by offering awards based on customer nominations. On its Instagram, MarieBette writes, “To say that we are excited for how much this helps us in this difficult time would be an understatement. We are so proud to be part of the Charlottesville community.”
Meet me on the patio
Many of our iconic restaurants have begun to reopen after months of closure, adding or adjusting patio spaces, and dining outside never tasted so good.
Among them is Tavola,* now offering reservations (are pigs flying too?) for limited indoor, plus outdoor dining, where guests can enjoy a new patio along with the much-missed Italian food and wine. Paradox Pastry has repaved its patio into a larger and more accommodating space, and Little Star and Oakhart Social have both tented their spacious outdoor dining areas. Diners have also gained new appreciation for a long list of reopened al fresco spots on the Downtown Mall, including Rapture, The Fitzroy, Chap’s, and Fleurie (check out its beautifully appointed deck!).
New beginnings
Splendora’s, the Downtown Mall gelato café, closed its doors last month after 16 years of creating frozen masterpieces from imaginative ingredients. (We are still dreaming of the Strawberry Pink Peppercorn and the Miso Cherry.)
Owner PK Ross hopes to use this transition as an opportunity to focus on collaborating with other businesses, meaning we may see Splendora’s on some of our favorite menus in the near future. Splendy’s is still offering pickup and delivery through the rest of September, while Ross searches for a new location off the mall. More information can be found on Splendora’s Facebook page.
Bluegrass Grill & Bakery, a favorite brunch spot for locals in the know since 2001, was forced to vacate its downtown location when the pandemic struck. But never fear, the biscuit making will continue. Bluegrass recently partnered with Devils Backbone to operate a pop-up restaurant at The Summit, a repurposed train station on DB’s Roseland property. For the next three months, find BGB’s classic, Southern dishes served by familiar faces, now in the spectacular foothills of the Blue Ridge.
And sadly, BreadWorks Bakery & Deli, which has provided job training and employment to people with disabilities since 1967, will close its doors due to the economic fallout of the coronavirus.—Will Ham
*co-owned by C-VILLE’s Culture editor Tami Keaveny
Charlottesville-born Champion Brewing opened a Richmond location in 2017. Photo: Ash Daniel
Is love in the air? It appears so–at least between the cities of Richmond and Charlottesville, as witnessed by the number of businesses that have decided to open locations in both cities. Charlottesville, with its beautiful setting and college town vibe, has long made lists of best places to live and work. And in the past few years, Richmond has experienced a renaissance of sorts, with praise seemingly pouring in weekly for its long-underrated, still burgeoning arts, dining, and entrepreneurial scene. So it’s not surprising that a mutual admiration society has developed between the two cities.
Hardywood Park Craft Brewery and Sugar Shack donuts, both born in the River City, added Charlottesville locations on West Main Street–Hardywood in February 2017 and Sugar Shack in June 2018 (bringing with it sister business Luther Burger not long after).
Also coming to Charlottesville in early 2020: Quirk Hotel, which first debuted in Richmond in 2015. Why are they interested in C’ville? “First and foremost, the numbers indicate that Charlottesville is a stronger hospitality market than Richmond,” says Quirk Hotel co-owner Ted Ukrop. “Second, UVA is a major and sustainable economic and cultural engine. Having said that, there are also plenty of innovative companies, organizations, and people that align with Quirk’s brand.” The proximity to Hooville–just an hour away–also made a second Quirk location appealing, Ukrop adds.
Meanwhile, Richmond has already experienced an influx of Charlottesville-based businesses, like Roots Natural Kitchen (opened July 2018 in the VCU area), Three Notch’d Brewing Company (opened in 2016 in Scott’s Addition as the RVA Collab House), and Citizen Burger Bar (also opened in 2016, in Carytown). The city’s developing reputation as a supportive, destination craft beer scene was a big draw for Hunter Smith, who founded Champion Brewing in Charlottesville and opened a Richmond location in January 2017 on Grace Street downtown.
“The two cities and their respective governments operate quite differently, which was informative from a business perspective, and has helped me to evaluate additional locations,” says Smith. “I appreciate [chef] Jason Alley from Pasture and Comfort for introducing me to the beautiful former bank space we’re now lucky enough to occupy.”
Up next? Starr Hill Brewery, which is opening Starr Hill Beer Hall & Rooftop in Richmond’s Scott’s Addition this summer. Also coming soon: Common House, the “contemporary social club” that opened in C’ville in 2017, will make the RVA’s Arts District its home sometime in 2019. You’ll be able to find the newest Common House at 305 W. Broad St., just steps away from the original Quirk Hotel.
“Richmond feels like it’s in the midst of a cultural revolution that we are anxious to participate in,” says Common House co-founder Derek Sieg. “The food is world-class, the art scene is electric, and the energy in the entrepreneur community rivals that of any city its size.” While Sieg says his team has been looking at other creative markets in the Southeast in anticipation of growth, the proximity to Charlottesville helped clinch the second location.
“We have a lot of Richmond-based members who use Common House as a landing spot when they’re in Charlottesville, and vice versa, so we see this cross-pollination firsthand and look forward to being a fruit of that pollination ourselves,” he says.
Bulldozers continue to change the Charlottesville landscape. Photo by Skyclad Aerial
By: Lisa Provence and Samantha Baars
It’s the 50th anniversary of the Summer of Love, and while we’re celebrating that, C-VILLE decided to take a look at construction projects underway that will change the way the city looks—and in some cases, inconvenience us mightily during the coming months.
These are projects visibly in the works. And they won’t come cheap. Among the upcoming residential efforts, “affordable housing” will not be a phrase used to describe them.
Other projects are lining up for the future, including the demolition of the Main Street Arena next summer to construct tech hub Taliaferro Junction. And you can say you learned it here first: It’s pronounced “tolliver.”
Get your hard hats and earplugs ready for the summer of mud. And snap those “before” pictures now, because by 2067, you won’t see the landscape we currently inhabit.
Downtown
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William Taylor Plaza
Fairfield Inn and Suites
Ridge Street and Cherry Avenue
Owner: Virginia Hotel Properties LP
Number of rooms: 119
Development status: Completed by second quarter of 2018.
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When the 2.9-acre parcel on the corner of Ridge Street and Cherry Avenue was rezoned for mixed use in 2009, neighbors didn’t necessarily foresee a hotel as the commercial component of the project. And when developer Charlie Armstrong pitched a Fairfield Inn and Suites sans residential portion in 2015, the project temporarily ground to a halt until Southern Development came back with a residential component.
Southern Development sold part of the property to Keystone Hotel Management, which is developing the hotel and will manage the property for Marriott. The construction of the 100-plus-room hotel, with underground parking, is well underway. Marriott VP Dave Medis says to look for its opening in the second quarter of 2018.
And there’s still a residential portion to come. Management Services Corporation has BAR approval for a 27-unit upscale apartment project.
Home2 Suites
201 Monticello Ave.
Developer: Baywood Hotels, Greenbelt, Maryland
Number of rooms: 113; four stories
Development status: Under construction.
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Baywood is a development company that does only hotels, senior VP Vik Patel told C-VILLE last year, and the Coran Capshaw-owned former Portico Church location’s “proximity to the Downtown Mall attracted us to this site,” Patel said. Home2 Suites by Hilton are extended-stay hotels with a “boutique-y feel,” according to Patel. Although the hotel will have a fitness center and indoor pool, it won’t have a restaurant or a bar.
West2nd
200 Second St. SW
Developer: Keith Woodard
Number of condos: 65; 10 stories
Development status: Ground-breaking scheduled for this summer.
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Formerly called Market Plaza, this $50 million project will be built on the metered parking lot that used to house City Market, and the space will still serve as the permanent home of the uber popular Saturday shopping destination. When the market is not in session, the half-acre lot will be used for other events.
Developer Keith Woodard calls West2nd’s 65 condos, which will range from $400,000 to more than $1 million, “very deluxe” and says every room will have a spectacular view of the city.
The complex is scheduled to open by summer 2019. It will also include retail and office spaces, a restaurant and a bakery/café.
Landmark Hotel/The Dewberry
201 E. Water St.
Developer: John Dewberry
Number of rooms: 112
Development status: Board of Architectural Review meeting June 20; structural integrity report due July 1.
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Charlottesville’s most prominent eyesore is on the Downtown Mall, where it has been in skeletal disarray since construction ceased in 2009. But it has seen signs of life this year.
When developer John Dewberry purchased the Landmark Hotel for $6.25 million in 2012, his conversion of a Charleston, South Carolina, federal building into a five-star hotel was ahead of Charlottesville on his construction to-do list. The Dewberry Charleston opened last summer, he scored incentives from the city earlier this year, and the next hurdle is the Board of Architectural Review June 20.
Oh wait, there’s yet another hurdle—and we’re not talking about the 75 spaces the city promised Dewberry in the litigation-prone Water Street Parking Garage. A structural integrity report is due July 1 to determine whether the framework is still sound after years of being exposed to the elements.
Dewberry’s deluxe vision includes a spa, a rooftop bar on the 11th level with terraces on the north and south ends of the building, along with the 1,800-square-foot Founder’s Room.
Former Bank of America building
300 E. Main St.
Owner: Hunter Craig
Development status: Underway.
When Bank of America announced it was closing shop in its vintage 1916 building on the Downtown Mall last year, it left a banking void—for about five minutes. Another financial institute, Citizen & Farmers Bank, will occupy an 850-square-foot suite in the structure and is expected to open in July, but banking will be a minority activity in the historic
building. The 60,000-square-foot property spreads a couple of
doors down, and includes C-VILLE Weekly’s home.
The soaring bank lobby is slated to become a steakhouse. Pantheon Restaurants LLC, the people behind Lampo Neapolitan Pizzeria, has leased 9,000 square feet for a restaurant, according to Loren Mendosa. Construction has not begun there, although Mendosa notes that Lampo was nominated for best steakhouse in Best of C-VILLE 2017.
Another 25,000 square feet have been leased by CVL Society. Partners in the development haven’t announced details publicly, but the project will include executive offices and other areas designed to support downtown Charlottesville’s start-up scene with co-working, business incubation and accelerator space.
550 Water Street
550 E. Water St.
Developer: Andrew Baldwin with Core Real Estate and Development
Number of units: Five residential, three commercial
Development status: Under construction; scheduled to open next spring.
Click to enlarge. Staff photo
In this six-story building, the first two floors feature commercial office space while the top four are full-floor condos, and a low-rise wing structure offers a fifth residence and another commercial office suite. Condos are priced “north of $2 million,” according to developer Andrew Baldwin, who says only two residential units are still available.
At approximately 3,500 square feet each, the condos also offer 500-square-foot outdoor terraces, large windows with sliding glass exterior doors, private parking and high-end security systems.
C&O Row
1065 E. Water St.
Developer: Riverbend Development
Number of homes: 23
Development status: The first phase is under construction, the second should begin next spring or early summer, and the third phase is to be determined.
Click to enlarge. Staff photo
Local builders Martin Horn Inc. and Evergreen Home Builders offer different floor plans and customized home interiors, including options for all-brick interiors, dramatic open stair systems from the first to third floors and steel bathtubs. Ten of 12 lots in the first phase have already sold, with six of the homes in phase two hitting the market in late summer or early fall. The three-plus-bedroom homes with two-car garages range from 3,200 square feet to more than 3,700 square feet depending on finished space and rooftop access. Phase one prices range from $899,000 to $1.1 million.
“There is no one buyer profile,” says Lindsay Milby, an associate broker with Loring Woodriff Real Estate Associates. “Young families, single professionals and empty nesters are attracted to the concept. They like the idea of a brand new, easy-to-maintain custom home walkable to downtown.”
West Main
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The Autograph Hotel
1106 W. Main St.
Developer: Carr City Centers
Number of rooms: 150
Development status: Completed in fourth quarter of 2017.
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We feel like we’re getting into that pattern of “remember where Studio Arts used to be?” That’s where the latest luxury boutique hotel is going, another Marriott venture—the hotel chain’s third on West Main. The 10-story Autograph got underway after SunTrust Bank signed off on a $25.8 million loan to Carr City Centers last summer, according to Virginia Business. Whether it will be finished by the end of the year, well, we’re still waiting to hear from Carr City Centers.
The Standard
853 W. Main St.
Developer: Landmark Properties
Number of units: 189 apartments; 499-space parking garage
Development status: Targeted completion before school starts in 2018.
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The site of the former Republic Plaza, which was demolished over the winter, is mostly red dirt now, but when it’s complete, it will rise 70′ with six stories. The high-end student apartments—the third such project on West Main—has some calling the street West Grounds. Athens, Georgia-based Landmark Properties specializes in deluxe student housing, and it suffered a delay in completing a complex at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville last fall, leaving about 600 students homeless at the beginning of the semester, according to the UT Daily Beacon.
Six Hundred West Main
600 W. Main St.
Developer: Jeff Levien
Number of units: 53 apartments; six stories
Development status: Set for construction this summer.
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This 65,000-square-foot apartment complex will house a mix of studio and one- and two-bedroom units with parking underneath the building.
Design-wise, developer Jeff Levien looks to Oakhart Social, a restaurant across the street from his site, which used the building’s historic character in its design aesthetic by featuring the space’s original exposed brick walls and showcasing both “old and new,” he says. Architect Jeff Dreyfus is also on the job.
The building will incorporate two historic structures: the Hartnagle-Witt House and the Hawkins-Perry House, which are more easily recognizable as Blue Moon Diner and a small convenience store.
Quirk Hotel
501 W. Main St.
Developer: Bank Street Advisors
Number of rooms: 78-80; four floors off West Main Street and five off Commerce Street
Development status: Groundbreaking in early 2018; opening in mid-2019.
Click to enlarge.
This new hotel will be modeled after the original 75-room, four-floor Quirk Hotel and art gallery in Richmond. It will incorporate two historic structures, including Paxton Place, a home built in 1824, on a site where architect Bill Atwood was unable to get his six-story office building off the ground.
Owners Katie and Ted Ukrop—members of the family that operated the Ukrop’s Food Group and upscale grocery chain in Richmond—“will combine inspiration and passion from the Richmond location with the culture and creativity of the new Charlottesville home for a unique and welcoming concept,” according to a press release.
Urban ring
Sunset Overlook
Corner of Sunset Avenue Extended and Old Lynchburg Road
Developer: Andrew Baldwin
Number of homes: 27 townhomes, 14 detached homes
Development status: Construction completed within the next two months.
Developer Andrew Baldwin says these homes will be available within the next 30 to 45 days, with prices ranging in the $200,000s for townhomes and mid-$300,000s and up for single family houses.
The development is one mile away from Interstate 64, two miles away from 5th Street Station and 3.5 miles from the Downtown Mall.
Oak Hill
1132 Sunset Ave. Extended
Developer: Stanley Martin
Number of homes: 49 single family homes approved (83 proposed)
Development status: Under construction.
Sunset Overlook’s neighbor is Oak Hill, another subdivision in the works on the sleepier side of town. Developer Stanley Martin did not respond to requests for more information.
Beacon on 5th
100 Dalton Ln.
Developer: Castle Development Partners
Number of homes: 207 apartments, two carriage-style apartments and 32 townhouses
Development status: Completed by September.
More than 100 dwellings are already leased at this complex, which has a deluxe gym and pool, a cyber café, and is situated close to 5th Street Station, UVA and downtown.
“The views are outstanding,” says representative Debbie Joiner. “Some are almost like tree house homes.”
Homes in the pet-friendly community range from $1,200 to $2,129 per month.
Hillsdale Drive Extended
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Like most public road projects around here, the Hillsdale Connector has been talked about for decades—since the late 1980s, as far as we can tell. That’s why it’s somewhat shocking to learn that a completion date—October 30—is in sight.
The finished Hillsdale Drive will join East Rio Road with Hydraulic Road at Whole Foods, and provide a parallel way to head north without having to venture onto Route 29.
The last, southern section of Hillsdale already wends behind Homewood Suites, circles a roundabout at Zan Road and has torn through the north wing of Seminole Square Shopping Center, where it took out 6,700 square feet of commercial real estate and about 60 parking spaces, according to Great Eastern Management’s David Mitchell.
Great Eastern, which owns the shopping center, is trying to get permission to build retaining walls behind the north wing to add employee parking and delivery access, as well as reorient “the look of the building and the flow,” says Mitchell.
“We’re going to build walkways and bike paths behind and around the shopping center,” he says. “We’re not just sitting there looking at our building cut in half.”
Besides the construction that’s hit Seminole Square since late last year, the center does have another gaping hole, figuratively speaking: the vacant store that once housed Giant and has been leased by Kroger, which heralded a 100,000-square-foot, $28 million store, its “largest west of Richmond,” in an August 2016 press release.
“The project is on hold,” says Kroger real estate manager Fenton Childers. “Kroger is re-evaluating multiple projects across Virginia.” He declined to elaborate on the reason for putting on the brakes.
With Kmart closing in July, another empty big box looms. That site has been leased by Coran Capshaw and Hunter Craig and is looking for high-end tenants.
“We are actively negotiating with multiple great tenants that could be part of the future of the property,” writes John Pritzlaff, vice president of Cushman & Wakefield | Thalhimer, in an email. “Plans have not been finalized as of yet, so we do not have any defined commencement date for construction.”
Seminole Square still has Marshalls, and Ferguson Bath, Kitchen & Lighting Gallery will be opening in the former Office Depot space.
“It’s a great location,” says Mitchell. And once Hillsdale is complete, he predicts more people will turn north at Whole Foods, opening new opportunities for commercial real estate.
