As a native Richmonder, some of the city's streets and neighborhoods just hold a special place. Many of my favorite spots were discovered years ago as a kid on bicycle. A bike could often take you places you couldn't get to if you didn't have a reason to be there. The short stretch of Rugby Road and Sunset Avenue overlooking the Carillon is pretty impressive. The homes … [Read more...]
Why I LOVE Cary Street Road
I adore Cary Street Road and the neighborhoods that surround it. It always makes me proud to drive out-of-towners along this fabulous corridor connecting River Road to Carytown. Watching their expressions and hearing them pause in whatever conversation they were engaged in as we drive beneath the canopy of century old oaks never fails to make me appreciate the power of that … [Read more...]
Moving Back to the East
Richmond has, at least since the 1960's, developed west at a much greater pace than east. The neighborhoods that comprise what we think of as 'Downtown' suffered greatly as the population moved towards the suburban developments in western Henrico and Chesterfield during the latter half of the 20th Century. The recent (2000 to present day) adaptive re-use projects in the … [Read more...]
The Luxury Warehouse Loft
Richmond, Virginia is a 'City of Warehouses.' Shockoe and Manchester, and somewhat Jackson Ward and Carver, too, all had a large number of economically and functionally obsolete warehouses that needed to be re-purposed but even with city incentives, the financing was prohibitively challenging. The Federal and State Historic Tax Credit programs (HTC's) largely became the … [Read more...]
Downtown RVA
The Downtown market has changed dramatically since 2000. Making Downtown LIVE + WORK versus just WORK will be the most important development in the rebirth of Richmond for the foreseeable future. Without the population base to support it, there can be no retail and without the retail, people won't stay. It is the next wave. There have been two towers built (Riverside on … [Read more...]