The conceptual rendering above is of Afton Scientific’s expanded manufacturing operations in Albemarle County. Founded in 1991, the company makes technology that can safely create small batches of pharmaceuticals for clinical trials. Image via Scott Collins, Collins Engineering.
Albemarle County’s campaign to grow the biotechnology industry showed a major sign of progress earlier this month when one company announced plans to invest $200 million into an expansion project.
“We want to expand our manufacturing to make sterile medicines, put in clean rooms, and create really, really great jobs,” said Afton Scientific’s Tom Thorpe during an announcement at the county’s headquarters off Avon Street Extended.
Thorpe founded Afton Scientific in 1991 to make technology that can safely create small batches of pharmaceuticals for clinical trials. In late August, Afton Scientific paid $4.25 million to a subsidiary of Coran Capshaw’s Riverbend Development for the 6.78 acres in the same industrial park for the expansion. The property is just to the south of the Charlottesville border and overlooks Moores Creek.
According to the trade organization CvilleBioHub, there are at least 75 companies in the area related to the biotech industry, with more than 1,950 employees. Afton Scientific is pledging to add 200 more jobs and will use resources from the Virginia Partnership for Economic Development to find skilled workers.
Albemarle first identified the biotechnology field as one of its targeted sectors in a 2012 study that also prioritized defense, information technology, and financial services.
“Afton Scientific started in our community 30 years ago and we couldn’t be more proud of this business, of this industry being in our community today,” said County Executive Jeff Richardson.
One of Afton Scientific’s neighbors is Lighthouse Instruments, another industry representative. Its website describes the company as “the leading global provider of optical-based, non-destructive headspace analysis systems and analytical services.” That means they’re also involved in the pursuit of making medicines safer.
Virginia’s secretary of commerce and trade was on hand for the announcement and said the Charlottesville area is becoming known as a hub for the industry.
“In Charlottesville, just in the last year, we had more than $400 million of federal research grants,” said Caren Merrick. “We’ve also had more than 90 million in equity investments in our startups.”
But are there enough people in the area who can provide the labor? To answer that question and prepare for the future, CvilleBioHub is seeking state funding for a study of what workforce programs are needed. In addition to private sector jobs, there will be a need for people who can work in the many laboratories that will serve the Manning Institute of Biotechnology that’s currently under construction at the University of Virginia’s Fontaine Research Park.
“What do we need to be preparing our workforce for now so that we can serve the growth that’s anticipated as a result of the things that are happening?” said Nikki Hastings, CEO of CvilleBioHub at a recent meeting of the Albemarle Economic Development Authority.
The EDA helped negotiate some of the details of the Afton Scientific expansion, including access to the Commonwealth’s Opportunity Fund. The secret deal went by the code name Project Olympian.
Local mogul Coran Capshaw’s Riverbend Development has plans for the former Kmart shopping center on Hydraulic, now known as Hillsdale Place.
Another Tar-jay?
Local mogul Coran Capshaw’s Riverbend Development has plans for the former Kmart shopping center on Hydraulic, now known as Hillsdale Place. The company went before the Planning Commission May 14 for entrance corridor approval (after C-VILLE went to press).
The plans keep the existing footprint of the center that’s been closed since 2017. An 8,000-square-foot plaza lined
with shops and restaurants will be the space’s new focal point.
A Target-red-colored anchor, an outdoors store that looks suspiciously like an REI, and a mysterious storefront dubbed “Bells & Whistles” are depicted in the drawings.
Quote of the week
“There’s no way to prepare for a madman.” —WINA’s Dori Zook reports on the May 11 machete attack of two hikers on the Appalachian trail, one of whom was killed. James Louis Jordan, 30, of Massachusetts, faces federal charges.
ICE wins
The Albemarle-Charlottesville Regional Jail Authority Board voted 7-4 to continue voluntarily notifying U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement when an undocumented inmate is released from jail, prompting explosive reactions from some people in the audience. Activists had been pressing the board to change its policy for more than a year.
Hit and run
Police are searching for the driver of a dark-colored sedan that grazed a pedestrian around 11pm May 9 on Pine Street near the Islamic Society of Central Virginia. Police do not believe the victim was intentionally targeted, but the mosque, which is holding nightly prayers during Ramadan, has a GoFundMe campaign to pay for additional security measures, and is now paying a police officer $40 an hour to be there every night.
Photo by Edward Thomas
Cop on a roll
An unusual sight on Seventh Street caught the eyes of many passersby last week, when a Charlottesville police cruiser rolled backward over a steep embankment, narrowly missing an apartment window. Only its front end could be seen peeking over the hill, putting it in a pretty challenging position for a tow. Cops say an officer exited his car to chase a suspect on foot—and you can probably guess what happened next.
Sheared
Greene County Commonwealth’s Attorney Matt Hardin cut his 10-inch tresses and donated them to Locks of Love May 8.
New ride
Megabus is launching a route from Charlottesville to Dulles Airport beginning May 16. The service will leave from the Seventh Street SW entrance of the Amtrak station and run Thursdays through Mondays, for $25 to Dulles and $20 back. Megabus entered the local market last fall, causing the Starlight Express to halt, and a trip to New York City that once took about six and a half hours now takes nine or 10.
Sheepskin stats
UVA will hand out 7,090 degrees over the upcoming weekend, about the same as last year.
4,211 baccalaureate degrees, 151 of which were earned in a speedy three years, and five in a super-fast two years.
457 medical and law degrees.
2,448 total graduate degrees, including 311 Ph.D.s, 12 doctors of education, 20 doctors of nursing practice, and 10 doctors of juridical science.
Residents of the 1976-built Crescent Halls have complained for years about its deteriorating condition. Jack Looney
Music and real estate mogul Coran Capshaw’s Riverbend Development, known for 5th Street Station, the Flats, and City Walk, among many other projects, is now aligning itself in a different direction: a partnership with Charlottesville Redevelopment and Housing Authority to build new public housing for residents of the crumbling Crescent Halls.
Riverbend and the nonprofit Virginia Community Development Corporation will build units on city-owned Levy Avenue—now a parking lot for city employees—and green space on South First Street.
“They’re not looking to make a profit,” says former mayor and current CRHA redevelopment project coordinator Dave Norris. “They’ve agreed to waive the developer’s fees.”
The housing authority owns and manages all public housing in Charlottesville, and had a request for proposal for a redevelopment partner, says Norris. “Riverbend submitted a proposal and rose to the top because they’re local, they know the community, and they know how to negotiate the process.”
Says Norris, “They want to be part of the solution. I don’t think it’s a coincidence Coran’s office is across the street from Crescent Halls.”
Residents have complained for years about the deteriorating condition of the Monticello Avenue highrise, including its malfunctioning elevators and air conditioning, and, earlier this year, a plumbing backup that left the first floor smelling like sewage.
The actual redevelopment of Crescent Halls is not part of phase 1, which relocates the building’s 105 households, says Norris. He says they will be given the option of replacement units, housing vouchers, or assistance moving into market-rate housing.
The project is going to be resident-directed, he says, and Riverbend’s willingness to work with the residents is “pretty extraordinary.”
Not all are comforted by Riverbend stepping in. Community activist Jojo Robertson says, “There is much skepticism and mistrust in the community, which we must acknowledge. I am concerned that people may be homeless during this process.”
Norris acknowledges that those living in Crescent Halls have been hearing for years about redevelopment plans. “I think what residents want to see is action rather than talk.”
He notes that it’s a “long, long wait” to get in public housing, and the redevelopment plans are “not just about improving the quality, but also the quantity” of public housing.
City Councilor Wes Bellamy calls Riverbend’s foray into the affordable housing arena “major. It is absolutely major.” He says city officials have been working on the issue for years.
“I think it’s specifically to curry favor, and I’m all in favor of currying favor,” says Belmont resident Joan Schatzman, who has been a critic of Riverbend’s Belmont plans, but commended its involvement in public housing.
The notoriously press-shy Capshaw did notreturn a request for comment from C-VILLE, nor did Riverbend president Alan Taylor.
Capshaw also manages the Dave Matthews Band and owns Red Light Management. Last week’s announcement of DMB’s upcoming tour said a portion of proceeds from the two shows at John Paul Jones Arena will support redevelopment of public housing in Charlottesville.
This historic Woolen Mills property will become the new headquarters for WillowTree, thanks to developer Brian Roy's four-year dream of restoring the mill. Photo by SkycladAP
What a difference a decade makes. Ten years ago, the housing bubble had burst, the hottest area in real estate was foreclosures, and the Downtown Mall was littered with vacancies. Today, the county development scene is “white hot,” according to Albemarle Director of Community Development Mark Graham, and in the city, Director of Economic Development Chris Engel says the commercial market is “healthy and robust.”
Still, developer Keith Woodard’s washing his hands of his downtown West2nd project has roiled the landscape. City Councilor and architect Kathy Galvin offers a more nuanced description of development in the city in the wake of the West2nd implosion: “Confused: from bad to really good.”
The good news for the Charlottesville area is that people still want to live here. “We’re seeing the continuing trend of people who want to be close to urban centers,” says Nest Realty’s Jim Duncan. And he’s not just talking downtown Charlottesville. People are flocking to Crozet, U.S. 29 North, Pantops, and the 5th Street Station area anchored by Wegmans—the county’s designated growth areas.
“If you live and work on 29 North, there’s no reason to go to Charlottesville,” he says.
More than 150 projects that involve moving more than an acre of dirt are underway in Albemarle, according to Graham, and Crozet alone has eight active construction sites, he says.
Last year, 851 residential units, which include apartments, were permitted. This year, he says, by August the county had issued permits for 900 units.
And unlike the boom in 2005 through 2008, Graham says most building is taking place in the designated development areas. “Before, we saw a lot of McMansions being built in the rural areas.”
Since the 5th Street Station build out, “commercial development has cooled a bit,” says Graham, and 85 percent of what’s being built in the county is residential. “A ton of apartments are being built.”
In the city, Galvin provides a brief history of development this century. In 2003, neighborhood development focused on “expediting development reviews instead of long-range planning.”
During the redevelopment of West Main in 2012—and the construction of the behemoth Flats—“that’s when many of us realized our zoning was out of sync with our vision,” says Galvin in an email. “The public wants new rules of the game that give us more affordable housing, better buildings, and healthy, attractive places. Turn around times for development review must improve, but we have to get these rules right.”
Engel points to the 450,000 square feet of office space that will be available in the next few years in a city that hasn’t seen Class A offices built in the past 10 years. With 39,500 jobs and unemployment low, “We’ve become a regional job center,” he says.
Where those workers will live is another matter. Affordable housing continues to be an issue while luxury condos and rowhouses continue to be built.
The city would like to see more affordable and workforce housing, says Engel.
And there are a few. Galvin lists affordable housing projects that provide “healthy, well-connected neighborhoods” for residents with walkable streets and close-by essential resident services and amenities, like childcare, parks, and community spaces: Friendship Court’s resident-driven master plan for redevelopment without displacement; Sunrise Park on Carlton and Southwood in the county; Burnett Commons III; and Dairy Central on Preston.
West2nd fallout
Realtor Bob Kahn doesn’t see the “robust year” in commercial real estate slowing, despite interest rates ticking up.
The black eye in city development, he says, is Woodard’s “unfortunate cancellation” of West2nd after a Board of Architectural Review rejection that proved to be the “last straw” in Woodard’s five-year quest to break ground on a city parking lot that houses the City Market.
With West2nd’s demise, the city loses the affordable housing units Woodard planned to build on Harris Street, as well as nearly $1 million in real estate taxes, says Kahn. “The city really did a disservice to our community with that. There are no winners.”
He believes it will take years to get another project built on that lot with all the stakeholders involved and city “mismanagement of entitlements” pertaining to height, rezonings, and special use permits.
“It certainly doesn’t send a positive message about the economic vitality of downtown and will certainly hamper development on that lot with all those stakeholders,” says Kahn.
Engel’s perspective is not so dire. “We’ll see,” he says. “Stay tuned.”
With the City Market, residential, retail, and office components, “those types of projects are very complex” and make lenders nervous, he says.
Woodard did everything the city asked for in 2013, but it took five years instead of five months to approve, says Galvin. “In those five years, construction and financing costs rose, and Woodard needed another floor to pay for the increase. This project had to provide structured parking, housing, office space, and a plaza for the market all on a two-acre site, and build affordable housing off site.”
The good news for development in the city, says Galvin: “Most investors will not have that daunting a program or buy land from a public entity whose stewards are subject to staggered, four-year election cycles.”—Lisa Provence
With additional reporting by Samantha Baars, Bill Chapman, and Mary Jane Gore
Old mill, new purpose
Woolen Mills
Brian Roy, Woolen Mills, LLC
About 5 acres
120,000 square feet
Mixed office and commercial use
Approximately $18-20 million
Brian Roy has been nursing his vision of a completely restored mill—the Woolen Mill—for four years. He put in time solving problems with sellers, such as a flood plain difficulty, before his company, Woolen Mills, LLC, purchased the property. His dream is nearing fruition with the recently signed contracts with local tech giant WillowTree, which jumped ship from Charlottesville to Albemarle, to complete the office and commercial space.
Woolen Mills’ Brian Roy’s dream of a completely restored mill is nearing fruition, thanks to recently signed contracts with WillowTree, which will leave its downtown offices and anchor the redeveloped building at the end of East Market Street in Albemarle County. Photo by Amy Jackson
“We held an event for WillowTree employees, and began to work on a plan,” Roy says. “It’s been a work in progress to shape the space that would fit their needs the best. It’s great to have the opportunity to preserve this property.” Better yet, the county and the state are sweetening the pot with over $2 million in incentives to partner with Roy and WillowTree—and its 200 current jobs and 200 projected positions.
The builders, Branch and Associates, want to get started as soon as possible. Branch estimates it will be a 15- to 18-month project that could be completed roughly by the end of 2019 to March 2020, hinging on the start date.
“We’re very excited about this job of restoring a historic building,” says Michael Collins, project manager at the Branch Richmond office.
In early September, the design was about 70 percent complete, Collins says, and he hopes to be clearing space around the site by November.
The space will also house a restaurant, brew pub, and coffee shop, all affiliated with local coffee shop Grit, says Roy.
When asked about any concerns at the site, Roy immediately says,“The windows.” Ten thousand will need to be replaced with modern double-panes for efficiency, but in the original frames, for authenticity.
Rehabbing the rehab center
Musculoskeletal Center
UVA Health System
195,000 square feet
Outpatient care
The site of the former Kluge Children’s Rehab Center on Ivy Road is so discreet that some passersby haven’t noticed that the building John Kluge pledged $500,000 to get his name on, according to UVA Health System spokesman Eric Swensen, has been demolished and a new comprehensive facility that consolidates UVA’s outpatient orthopedic care is set to rise from the ashes.
The new Musculoskeletal Center—sounds like naming rights are available here—broke ground September 10. It will hold six outpatient operating rooms and allow surgical patients to recover for up to 23 hours before they’re shipped home. It will also house imaging services—MRIs, X-rays, CT scans, ultrasound, and fluoroscopy—as well as comprehensive physical and occupational therapy services. Surrounding fields and walking trails will boost that wellness-environment feeling.
The $105-million center is expected to open to patients in February 2022.
Banking on office space
Vault Virginia
James Barton
25,000 square feet
38 offices, event spaces and board room
Perhaps no one is more excited about the unveiling of Vault Virginia than C-VILLE Weekly staffers, who have endured construction overhead for the past year. What seemed to be unending jackhammering in the former Bank of America building has produced an array of office spaces on the Downtown Mall that are part of the latest trend of collaborative workplaces.
James Barton. Photo by John Robinson
The 1916-built structure already houses Sun Tribe Solar, and by the time this issue hits stands, construction mercifully will be complete. “We’re fully ready to occupy,” says James Barton, who hatched the Vault as well as Studio IX.
The new spaces include the marble and stone from former financial tenants, a theme that’s incorporated into a deluxe women’s bathroom with marble countertops and its own soundtrack.
One of the perks of membership, says Barton, is access to conference rooms and event spaces. And those renting the former board room can offer a private meal overlooking the bank’s grand hall that’s now Prime 109, home of the $99 steak.
Barton isn’t worried about the sudden influx of shared office space, especially Jaffray Woodriff’s 140,000-square-foot tech incubator, now dubbed CODE—Center of Developing Entrepreneurs—that will be built on the site of the Main Street Arena.
Creating the Vault hasn’t been without its struggles, and builder CMS filed a $316,000 complaint over an unpaid bill, but Barton and CMS attorney Rachel Horvath say that’s been settled.
“We had great investors come in early and great investors along the way to take this iconic building and give it a purpose for this community,” says Barton.
The influx of office space will make downtown Charlottesville really attractive to businesses that attract top talent and “show Charlottesville has the style and infrastructure,” says Barton.
“This should be the envy of cities trying to create this type of dynamic,” he says, that of a “vibrant, integrated community.”
More incubation
Center of Developing Entrepreneurs
CSH Development
0.99 acres on the Downtown Mall
170,000 square feet
Office, retail
Local angel investor Jaffray Woodriff wanted to build a spot for entrepreneurs and innovators to come together to bounce ideas off one another and scale their startups. And while many in the community wished he’d wanted to build it elsewhere, he bought the buildings that housed the beloved Main Street Arena, the Ante Room, and Escafé to redevelop it and make his vision a reality.
The Center of Developing Entrepreneurs, a 170,000-square-foot tech hub that will replace the Main Street Arena, is at the center of several major transformations on the Downtown Mall.
CODE will allocate 23.5 percent of its square footage for tech/venture space, and 26 percent goes toward a common area for events and presentations. An unnamed anchor-tenant will use 35 percent of the space, with the remaining saved for smaller offices and other retail.
The folks at Brands Hatch LLC, which is owned and controlled by Woodriff, are keeping it green: Look for high efficiency heating and cooling systems and rooftop terraces. Construction is scheduled to be complete by the summer of 2020.
Apex of development
Apex headquarters
Riverbend Development
1.28 acres
130,000 square feet
Office and retail
Wind farm developers Apex Clean Energy have a different kind of development in the works: an office building planned in conjunction with Coran Capshaw’s Riverbend Development and Phil Wendel’s ACAC fitness club.
Apex Clean Energy is developing an office building on the north side of the downtown ACAC, and the new structure will also house rental office space for other companies, and ground-floor retail. Courtesy Riverbend Development
Filling in the semi-improved large parking lot on the north side of ACAC’s downtown location, the building will also house rental office space for other companies, and some ground-floor retail.
Architect for the project is the 1990s-era “Green Dean” of the UVA School of Architecture, Bill McDonough, who now specializes in sustainable corporate HQs around the globe.
Yes, they promise, club members will have access to the parking deck once complete. But during construction? Valet parking is one option being considered.
Behind the Glass Building
3Twenty3
Insite Properties
About .67 acres
120,000 square feet
Office space
Developer Jay Blanton of North Carolina-based Insite Properties probably gets this question a lot: “Where exactly is that office building you’re planning downtown?”
And casual observers should be forgiven because this by-right 120,000- square-foot structure did not need to go through any public entitlement meetings. There were really no vocal neighbors to speak of, and the exact site is hard to describe.
The nine-story building will replace the back half of the Glass Building where Bluegrass Grill has long been a tenant, but the grill and other food-related-tenants along Second Street will still be in place.
The 120,000-square-foot, nine-story 3Twenty3 building will replace the back half of the Glass Building. Courtesy Insite Properties
One prominent tenant (with 17,000 of 110,000 square feet leased) will be white-shoe law firm McGuireWoods, which will vacate what has become known as the McGuireWoods Building in the Court Square area north of the mall.
Expect to see cranes on the skyline soon, says Blanton, who plans to break ground in October and finish by early 2020.
Tarleton didn’t camp here
Tarleton Oak
James B. Murray, Tarleton Oak LLC
2.75 acres
86,000 square feet office space
56 apartments
A longstanding gas station and food mart on East High Street get the boot in this deal from venture capitalist/UVA Vice Rector Jim Murray.
Construction is scheduled to begin on the two-phase downtown project this year. A five-story office building and approximately 300-space parking garage will be built first, with a two-story residential building including nearly 60 apartments coming later atop the parking structure.
This project, called Tarleton Oak, will take the place of the current service station with the same moniker, which is named after the space’s first tenant—a humongous oak tree long gone to the mulch pile. Local myth put Colonel Banastre Tarleton camping there after his failed raid to capture Thomas Jefferson, but a historical marker now points to a spot down East Jefferson Street.
Live, work, eat
Dairy Central
Stony Point Design/Build
4.35 acres
300,000 square feet
Office, residential, and food hall space
The planned multi-phase renovation and expansion of the old Monticello Dairy building at the nexus of Preston and Grady avenues and 10th Street NW is underway, and the battery shop, catering operation, and brewery tenants already have decamped for other sites around town.
Phase 1 of the project promises a complete overhaul of the 37,000-square-foot original dairy space into Dairy Market, a 20-stall food hall (think Chelsea Market in NYC or Atlanta’s Krog Street Market) with around 7,000 square feet of open seating. Developer Chris Henry of Stony Point Design/Build traveled as far as Copenhagen to research best practices for what he hopes will be “the region’s social and culinary centerpiece.”
Behind the dairy, 63,000 square feet of office space on multiple floors will be added. Expect all this to open in January 2020.
A multi-phase renovation and expansion of the old Monticello Dairy building includes a complete overhaul of the 37,000-square-foot original space into Dairy Market, a 20-stall food hall, with about 7,000 square feet of open seating. Courtesy Stony Point Design/Build
Phase 2 is the residential component, featuring 175 apartment units that are a mix of both market-rate (read: expensive) and affordable units aimed at households earning less than 80 percent of the area median income. City planning regulations require five such units as part of the approval here, but the developers plan 20 (or more if certain grants are approved).
Asked how he plans to decide who gets to live in the affordable units, Henry says he doesn’t know yet, as there is little or no precedent for such units ever being built in the city. Most developers opt instead to make cash payments into the city’s affordable housing fund. This residential phase, along with 500 onsite parking spaces, should be complete by 2021.
Not West2nd
925 East Market Street
Guy Blundon, CMB Development
About .25 acres
20,000 square feet
of office space
52 luxury apartments
Originally a preschool, the property at 925 East Market Street inspired Guy Blundon and business partner Keith Woodard to launch new plans for the property.
They envision five stories, and the first level will contain office space, Blundon says.
“It’s downtown, near the Pavilion and the Downtown Mall,” he says. “There are beautiful views from all of the upper floors, in every direction.”
The developers of 925 East Market Street envision five stories, with the first level containing office space, and 52 luxury apartments with “beautiful views from all of the upper floors, says CMB Development’s Guy Blundon. Courtesy DBF Associates Architects
Another amenity will be a covered parking space. “You could live and work in the same building,” he says.
The city has passed a resolution allowing 10th Street to be narrowed to allow for sidewalk and landscape buffers, and specified that the building be open to the public in the commercial use areas, with handicapped entrances on 10th and Market streets.
Construction should begin soon. “I have been focusing on other projects, mainly in Richmond,” says Blundon, and up until recently, business partner Woodard had been busy with the ill-fated West2nd.
Infilling
Paynes Mill
Southern Development
7 acres
25 single family homes
Starting at $400,000
Site work just started off once quiet Hartman’s Mill Road in a historic African American neighborhood.
At about a mile south of the Downtown Mall, Southern Development vice president Charlie Armstrong calls the houses at Paynes Mill “a rare find” because most of them back up to private wooded areas.
Charlie Armstrong. Photo by John Robinson
The U-shaped community offers houses with three to five bedrooms, two-and-a-half to four-and-a-half bathrooms, and 2,147 to 3,764 square feet. Lots range from an eighth of an acre to a half-acre, and the first home is scheduled to be completed this spring.
Straddling the urban ring
Lochlyn Hill
Milestone Partners
35 acres in the city and county
210-unit mix of single family, townhomes, and cottages
8 Habitat for Humanity homes plus affordable accessory dwellings
Low $400,000s to north of $700,000
Located off East Rio Road, Lochlyn Hill will have architecturally diverse homes and a wide variety of lot types and sizes, with the aim of accommodating everyone from couples to families to empty-nesters. Courtesy Milestone Partners
Nest Realty’s Jim Duncan touts the hometown aspects of Lochlyn Hill off East Rio Road, which encompasses both the city and county and borders Pen Park, Meadowcreek Golf Course, and connects with the Rivanna Trails system. Milestone Partners’ Frank Stoner and L.J. Lopez redeveloped the historic Jefferson School, and are working on turning the Barnes Lumber site in downtown Crozet into a town center. Nest is doing the marketing, and all the builders are local, says Duncan.
He notes its location in the popular Greenbrier district, and its diversity of architectural styles. “It’s not just white houses along the street,” he says.
Crozet for rent
The Summit at Old Trail
Denico, part of Denstock
11.51 acres
90 apartments
29 affordable 1-bedroom units
From $1,100 to $1,600 per month
Development firm Denico conducted a market study in western Albemarle and saw a gap in the marketplace for apartments in that part of the county.
“Given the growth, zoning, and access to [Interstate] 64, we felt that building apartments in Old Trail was a good opportunity, says Robert F. Stockhausen Jr., a co-principal at parent company Denstock. “It is a nice alternative for families and others to have.”
While the firm had originally looked in other locations, Old Trail won out with its location and amenities: golf, walking trails, stores, restaurants, the Village Center, views of the mountains, parking behind units, and nearby I-64 access.
The one-, two-, and three-bedroom apartments in Summit at Old Trail will feature stainless steel appliances, granite countertops, a private theater, clubroom, a business center, and rooftop sky lounge, says Stockhausen, as well as an amenity that sounds super swanky: valet trash service.
Bald eagles included
Fairhill
Southern Classic
120 acres
2- to 6-acre lots plus 60-acre preservation tract
$400,000 to $450,000 lots
Fairhill off U.S. 250 in Crozet is not a cookie-cutter development. With mountain views from “about every” one of the 13 lots for sale, and half of those near Lickinghole Creek Basin, the custom homes—once built—will be in the $1.2 million to $1.5 million range, according to Southern Classic owner David Mitchell.
“You get the best of both worlds,” he says. “It feels like rural living and it’s five minutes from Crozet.” Roads have been built and paving will take place in September.
Fairhill’s first publicity came more than a year ago, when an anonymous source tipped off the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Department—and C-VILLE Weekly—that a pair of bald eagles had made a nest for their two eaglets along the Lickinghole Creek Basin, a popular site for birders and waterfowl.
A storm in February destroyed the nest, says Mitchell, and within a month, the eagles built it back. His permit requires him to keep an eye on the eagles for an hour every two weeks, and it has some restrictions about when work can take place, but those “are not the worst thing in the world,” he says.
Glenmore’s new neighbor
Rivanna Village
Ryan Homes
95 acres
290 units
Starting in upper $300s
Nestled next to Glenmore, Rivanna Village will be a community of nearly 300 villas, townhouses, and single-family homes—and they’re all maintenance-free, so you’ll never have to mow your own lawn.
So far, 27 villas have been approved, and the remaining 263 units are still in the proposal process.
The one-level homes are specifically designed with the bedrooms, a laundry room, kitchen, and family room on the ground floor, and the proposed neighborhood will have its own trails, dog park, sports courts, and picnic shelters.
Ryan Homes reps didn’t respond to multiple requests for information, but according to their website, the ranch-style homes are “intimate, but spacious” and “built to last.” So that’s good.
Urban Pantops
Riverside Village
Stony Point Design/Build
Retail and residential
8 acres
93 units
Four years in the making, Riverside Village on Route 20 north—Stony Point Road—was the coming-out party for development firm Stony Point Design/Build, run by Chris Henry (son-in-law of local baby-formula magnate Paul Manning).
This “village” along the river just south of Darden Towe Park features a little bit of everything: residential condos, detached homes, and side-by-side attached homes.
Riverside Village will feature a little bit of everything: residential condos, detached homes, and side-by-side attached homes. Courtesy Stoney Point Design/Build
Under construction now are The Shops at Riverside Village, where Henry promises wood-fired pizza, craft beer, and a cycling studio. Rental apartments, four of which will be affordable, will occupy the second story above the commercial spaces.
Henry, who originally had 18 acres, but deeded 10 to the county to expand the size of Darden Towe, points to the site’s mix of uses, river access, and residential density as examples of Stony Point’s commitment to “urban planning, placemaking, and walkability,” something his firm is already focusing on at other sites around the county and in the city at Dairy Central.
All tired up
Scottsville Tire Factory
McDowellEspinosa Architect, with the University of Virginia
61.47 acres
185,721 gross square feet
Pricing as of July 2017:
Plant and 41.31-acre lot (along James River): $1,169,600
19.97-acre parcel: $795,000
The tire factory at 800 Bird St. in Scottsville has been empty since early 2010, when Hyosung shuttered its plant there, and the Town of Scottsville is trying to drum up interest in repurposing the nearly 186,000-square-foot space.
Town Administrator Matt Lawless has partnered with architect Seth McDowell and UVA’s Andrew Johnston to imagine what might happen to the site now owned by land magnate Charles Hurt.
While the factory site is for sale as two lots, it does not have a buyer. The town surveyed residents to think ahead 20 years and invited ideas for uses for the old factory building. Among these were residences, health and fitness programs, a go-cart track, and swimming pools. Some of those ideas will make their way into early renderings.
McDowell, who is working with up to three UVA students on the project, says comment and feedback on what town leaders call “a key asset for the town” will begin with a September 27 town meeting.
The marketing survey showed that 75 apartments may be needed in the coming 20 years, and plant plans may include all 75 units, 40 or even 20 units in the space. It’s a question of whether it is possible to rezone for residential purposes in the industrial area.
“There’s not one set vision,” says McDowell.
Whatever happened to…
Blasted plans
Developers of Belmont Point on Quarry Road were excavating away for 26 single family homes starting in the upper $300,000s when they got stuck between a rock and a hard place. Literally.
In June, neighbors got wind that Hurt Construction had hired a company to blast through bedrock, some of which was within 300 feet of neighboring homes.
“There’s no chance the city is going to allow the blast,” says Andrew Baldwin with Core Real Estate and Development, who was developing the site. The subterranean rock affects six lots that will require chipping or homes on slabs without basements.
That decision, says Baldwin, will be made by owner Charles Hurt’s Stonehenge Park LLC and Southern Development. But Southern Development’s Charlie Armstrong says he isn’t buying lots until they’re ready for building. And Hurt did not return a phone call from C-VILLE.
Lawsuit hurdle
One of the few apartment projects in the downtown area that has affordable units is at 1011 E. Jefferson St., but the project has whipped the Little High Neighborhood Association into a lawsuit-filing frenzy because City Council denied the 17 plaintiffs their three-minute right to petition their government when the special use permit was considered during a July 5, 2017, hearing, according to the pro se suit. And one of the plaintiffs suing council is former councilor Bob Fenwick.
The suit, filed one year later, has run into its first hurdle, according to the response from the city. “We missed the deadline,” says Fenwick. “You have to appeal within 21 days.”
He adds, “That might be a big mountain. We figured this would probably be a learning experience.”
Little High neighborhood resident Bob Fenwick is suing the City Council upon which he once sat. Staff photo
Meanwhile, Great Eastern Management’s David Mitchell (who also owns Southern Classic) says the special use permit and the preliminary site plan for the 126-unit building have been approved and the company has submitted a final site plan. But there’s still more work to be done before the current medical offices on the 1.5-acre site come down.
“We have to find a place for the doctors to move and move the doctors before demolition can begin,” says Mitchell.
Dewberry stays dark
Charlottesville’s reigning eyesore, the Landmark, is approaching its ninth birthday. In the ensuing near-decade since construction stalled on the former Halsey Minor/Lee Danielson project, Waynesboro-born John Dewberry bought the property in 2012 and has continued to keep it in its skeletal form.
The Landmark. Photo by Matteus Frankovich/Skyclad AP
In December, City Council quashed plans to give Dewberry a $1 million tax break over 10 years, but Dewberry Capital allegedly is moving forward. In March, the Board of Architectural Review approved additional height and massing. Since then, who knows? Dewberry and his VP Lockie Brown did not return multiple calls.
Rising from the ashes
The owners of the Excel Inn & Suites that burned May 4, 2017, are working on a reincarnation that bears no resemblance to the 1951-built Gallery Court Motor Hotel that hosted Martin Luther King Jr., but which shares a similar name.
Earlier this month, the Planning Commission approved a special use permit to build the Gallery Court Hotel.
The Planning Commission voted 5-2 on September 11 to approve Vipul and Manisha Patel’s special use permit to build a seven-story Gallery Court Hotel replacement on Emmet Street, where the original flamed out. The new hotel will have 72 rooms, including a rooftop snack bar and ground-level cafe.
29 Northtown
Brookhill—located between Polo Grounds Road and Forest Lakes—could be the successful pedestrian friendly urban model of which the county has long dreamed. Its town center sounds like a mini-Downtown Mall with an amphitheater—hello Fridays After 5—a movie theater and restaurants, according to Riverbend Development’s Alan Taylor last year.
Added to the mix this year: A deluxe ice park that’s guaranteed to be a hit with displaced skaters from the soon-to-be demolished Main Street Arena.
Last fall, the county’s Architectural Review Board approved an initial site plan, and Brookhill’s first phase includes four apartment buildings. We’d like to tell you more about when those will be available to lease, but Taylor did not return multiple requests for information.
Correction September 25: The original version misidentified the location of Apex headquarters, which will be in the parking lot on the north side of ACAC.
Clarification September 26 on the Little High Neighborhood Association lawsuit.
As the local skating community mourns the loss of the Main Street Arena, which closed last spring, a new option for ice athletes is on the horizon. Photo by Jack Looney
When an angel investor bought the Main Street Arena for nearly $6 million in March 2017 with the intent to turn it into a technology incubator, folks who frequented the 23-year-old ice park—the only one within an hour’s drive from Charlottesville—began to panic. But now it looks like hockey players, figure skaters and curlers could have a new home by next fall.
Board members of Friends of Charlottesville Ice Park, the nonprofit that formed to keep the Main Street Arena operating through spring 2018 after Jaffray Woodriff took ownership (and before he finalized his construction plans), are now working with local groups to design, build and operate a new rink in the Brookhill community, which is currently under development by Alan Taylor and Coran Capshaw-owned Riverbend Development in northern Albemarle County.
The rink’s initial site plan was approved in June, and developers submitted a final plan July 16, according to Megan Nedostup, a principal planner in Albemarle.
The nearly 40,000-square-foot ice park will house an official regulation-sized sheet of ice, while the Main Street Arena’s wasn’t quite as big, says Tom Carver, a board member with the nonprofit. It’ll have at least four locker rooms, multiple private party rooms, a pro shop for skating gear and a concession stand. Special flooring will be on hand to cover the ice for community events that aren’t skate friendly, just like at Main Street Arena.
Carver says working with Woodriff has been “phenomenal,” and adds that Woodriff donated an undisclosed amount of money to build the new rink, as well as all of the equipment from Main Street Arena. The project could cost as much as $4 million, and community members are already reaching out to pitch in.
“It’s really been amazing, the kind of support that we’ve gotten,” says Carver. “We’ve got people who don’t have anything to do with hockey or ice skating or anything else wanting to donate their time or money.”
A group of UVA alumni called the Committee For Home Ice are also working to build an ice park at the university, according to a press release.
Biff Beers, the president of the Blue Ridge Ice Hockey Association, which has long called the Main Street Arena its home, says his teams will practice and play at Liberty University’s LaHaye Ice Center in Lynchburg until the new rink in Brookhill opens, hopefully in time for the 2019 season, he says.
“We are sad that Main Street Arena closed,” he says. “We loved playing there. …But we are so excited about the prospect of getting a new rink in a mixed-use neighborhood that will serve our needs quite well.”
Last year, the BRIHA saw five teams of about 20 players, and Beers says while most of the athletes live in Charlottesville, several come from surrounding areas such as Fluvanna, Louisa and Harrisonburg.
Adds Beers, “We would fizzle up and die eventually without a rink in Charlottesville.”
The Belmont Apartments will increase the total amount of impervious surface on the
6.6-acre lot by about 30,000 square feet, according to developer Alan Taylor.
Popular Mas Tapas in the middle of Belmont is getting a new neighbor. Actually, more than 100 of them.
The Belmont Apartments, proposed by Coran Capshaw- and Alan Taylor-owned Riverbend Development, will consist of at least 138 by-right apartment units, a clubhouse and 27,000 square feet of office and commercial space spread into six main structures.
Residential buildings and the mixed-use space will each be four stories tall, according to the plans, which say the development will sit on about 6.6 acres—although the site plan preliminary application puts that acreage at 5.3, and Taylor says any discrepancy will be cleared up through normal survey work.
“We have talked to the neighbors several times and are planning to set up a regular meeting once a month,” says Taylor. “While they’ve been supportive of the project, they are most concerned about potential traffic issues.”
Taylor estimates 918 vehicle trips in and out of the complex per day, with a peak of 70 vehicles per hour in the morning and 86 per hour in the evening.
Belmont resident Joan Schatzman, who calls the project an “environmental disaster,” says the impending traffic is only part of the problem.
The property used to be wooded and teeming with salamanders, toads and frogs, says Schatzman. The amount of impervious surface will increase from 155,850 to 184,175 square feet, to cover 58 percent of the total area, according to Taylor.
“I want to see smart, environmentally sensitive development,” says Schatzman, who commends the underwater catchment below nearby restaurant Junction, and suggests a huge storm drain for the Belmont Apartments that collects runoff water that would then seep back into the ground, rather than sending it to the Chesapeake Bay.
Schatzman also says a project representative has twice said the apartments won’t be financially viable unless they get a special-use permit to increase the number of residences.
“Here’s what pisses me off,” she says. “They’re going through this charade of by-right apartments of 138 units. Their real objective is to double that.”
Taylor concurs, but says he’s still working on the details.
“In general, we would like to increase density via a rezoning or special-use permit, which would allow for the creation of onsite affordable housing as well as a number of amenities that would benefit all of Belmont,” he says.
Taylor submitted the preliminary site plan application in February and has until July to resubmit a new version that addresses comments from folks at Neighborhood Development Services, according to Missy Creasy, the city organization’s assistant director.
As for the project’s moniker, the Belmont Apartments actually already exist at 1000 Monticello Rd.—so Schatzman suggests a new name for the 46-foot-tall buildings already at a 440-foot elevation: the “Block My View Apartments.”
Emmet Street Station, a one-story, 11,000-square-foot retail center, will house two restaurants and two retail stores, all around 2,500 square feet. Courtesy Neighborhood Development Services
Emmet Street revival
The vacant lot on the corner of Barracks Road and Emmet Street that once housed an Exxon station is finally seeing signs of life. Coran Capshaw’s Riverbend Development purchased the corner at 1200 Emmet St. for $2.1 million in April, a slightly better price than the $2.25 million Chevy Chase Bank paid for the corner in January 2008, just as the real estate market was beginning to crumble.
The site had a “bunch of challenges,” says Riverbend’s Alan Taylor, including a number of easements and a complicated site plan.
Originally dubbed Barracks Row, a one-story, 11,000-square-foot retail center will go by Emmet Street Station. The owners of Barracks Road Shopping Center, Federal Realty, across the street “were getting all trademarky on me, so we changed the name,” says Taylor.
The under-an-acre lot will house two restaurants and two retail stores, all around 2,500 square feet. One of the restaurants could be announced any day now, says Taylor, but he refuses to give any hints. “Everyone’s really going to like the tenant lineup,” he says.
And with three electric car-charging stations powered by solar panels, the corner could be a magnet for Tesla owners by next summer.
Other drivers should notice better flow through the Barracks-Emmet intersection. The developers gave the city a strip of land that will afford an extra lane, allowing two dedicated left-turn Barracks lanes on each side of intersection, which means left-turners can go at the same time.
Emmet Street Station is part of a redevelopment revival taking place on the entrance corridor. Across the street at the increasingly derelict Meadowbrook Shopping Center, the former Carriage House, Tavern and ALC Copies are slated for demolition to make way for a CVS.
Farther north, at 1248 Emmet St., Zaxby’s restaurant with a drive-through window is going up at the site that was once Lord Hardwicke’s. And a car wash at 1300 Emmet St. on the other side of Cook Out is well underway.
Widow-bilker sentenced
Former Farmington Country Club president Victor Dandridge was sentenced to seven years in prison November 9 for defrauding his best friend’s widow over 10 years—and lying to her about it—as well as his fraternity, Sigma Alpha Epsilon, and Blue Ridge Bank. Dandridge’s lawyer asked that he be allowed to self report, but the federal judge said he didn’t trust Dandridge and immediately remanded him to custody, according to the Richmond Times-Dispatch.
Knitters with a kudzu attitude
The Kudzu Project. Photo by Tom Cogill
As part of what they call the Kudzu Project, anonymous guerrilla knitters covered the lesser-known Confederate soldier statue in front of Albemarle County general district and circuit courts with a knitted swath of kudzu on the morning of “Crying Nazi” Chris Cantwell’s November 9 appearance, noting in a press release that the plant “grows on things that are abandoned and no longer relevant.”
FOIA suit
C-VILLE Weekly contributors Jackson Landers and Natalie Jacobsen, who made the documentary, Charlottesville: Our Streets, sued Charlottesville Police, Virginia State Police and the state Office of Public Safety after those orgs refused to turn over August 12 safety plans. More than a dozen attorneys representing the government showed up in court November 7, and the judge ruled the reporters must refile and sue the city, not the police department.
Requested rename
The General Robert E. Lee monument in Emancipation Park. Staff photo
Activist group the Unity Coalition is circulating a petition to have Emancipation Park renamed—again. “How can we reunite this community when the name of a park is related to slavery,” says petition author Mary Carey. She calls the former Lee Park’s new name “insulting, disrespectful, hurtful, heartless, thoughtless, inhumane” and “mean-spirited,” adding that it “shows a lack of care for the people of color.”
Big spill
The Rivanna Water & Sewer Authority released an extra 109 million gallons from the South Fork Rivanna in August before issuing a drought watch October 3, followed by mandatory water restrictions about a week later, according to Allison Wrabel in the Daily Progress. The reservoir is full but the restrictions are still in place.
Quote of the Week: The truth is the United States was built upon the genocide of Native Americans and slavery. This university was built upon slavery. —Director Spike Lee at the Virginia Film Festival on how Americans must accept the country’s ugly history to move forward
Approximately 50 percent of the local spotted salamanders are killed by traffic on Rio Mills and Polo Grounds roads during migration. Photo by Devin Floyd
When the time is right, they crawl.
Once a year, over the span of a couple warm, wet nights, a local population of more than 1,000 spotted salamanders makes the 100-yard trek from their forested homes to their vernal pool breeding grounds, crossing Rio Mills and Polo Grounds roads. Though they can grow to be about 8 inches long, the salamanders often go unnoticed by drivers in the middle of night and have a fatal encounter.
“It’s quite a mess on migration night,” says Devin Floyd, founder of the Center for Urban Habitats and Blue Ridge Discovery Center in Charlottesville. “The mortality rate is close to 50 percent, or half of them each time.”
Donning headlamps and with their vehicles parked along the road, Floyd and a small group of volunteers take to the Route 29 site each year to perform a “salamander rescue night,” during which they carry the critters across the road and talk with any amused or confused drivers who are interrupted by the group’s samaritanship.
“You shine your flashlight in the puddles on the forest side,” Floyd says. “And if you see one, you grab it, run across the road and put it down on the other side.” This year, the first night of migration came between 2 and 4am on February 8. With few cars out at that time of night, Floyd was happy to report only one observed casualty by the time his salamander senses were tingling and he went to check on the site the following morning.
But the largest success for spotted salamander fans? A proposed underpass system that would allow the polka-dotted amphibians to migrate under the roads safely. A 40-foot apron at the entrance to the tunnels would guide the salamanders along the path to safety.
Floyd describes the tunnels, of which there would be three on each side, as 12-inch-wide, 15- to 20-foot-long chutes that would, he hopes, have a slotted grate on top to allow for moisture. The underpasses would be big enough to also allow small mammals, such as possums and raccoons, to pass safely.
This project is being proposed by Alan Taylor, the president of Riverbend Development, which will build the Brookhill subdivision on the corner of Route 29 and Polo Grounds Road right by the salamander habitat. Taylor did not respond to a request for comment.
Calling the underpass proposal a “moral imperative,” Ann Mallek, a member of the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors who is a frequent salamander rescuer, says, “Alan Taylor deserves a lot of credit for seeing that this is a need.”
She encourages people to visit the breeding sites and peek into the vernal pools during the daytime in the spring when the egg clusters and larvae will be visible.
As for the need to connect with critters, says Floyd, “Having animals as part of our life is an important thing to a lot of people. What that really means is figuring out a way to live with them when we design and when we build things.”
The Villas at Belvedere. Photo by Matteus Frankovich/SKYCLAD Aerials
The Great Recession is officially over. The evidence? Building permits in 2016 were the highest since 2007 housing-bubble levels. Construction is going on all over the area, from 5th Street Station to West Main to U.S. 29 north. And a recent Weldon Cooper Center population study pegs the Charlottesville area as booming.
