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Twenty
years ago William H. Abeloff conceived a vision for the
east side of downtown Richmond, a dilapidated corner of
the city that had been carved off by highways and
railroad tracks and left for lost as residents and
businesses headed for the suburbs. Where others saw
boarded-up stores and empty warehouses, Abeloff saw
historic brick buildings, architectural variety, an
intimate, human scale and, if one could clear away the
industrial detritus of the previous century, a
riverfront of exceptional beauty.
“East
Richmond had the makings of a cohesive,
pedestrian-oriented, 19th-century scale
community,” Abeloff recalls thinking at the time.
Boston had transformed the old-town
neighborhood of Faneuil Hall into a national tourist
destination. New York had done the same to
Soho and Baltimore to its
inner harbor. If those districts could rebound, so could
east Richmond —which had one big
advantage over the others: a location right off I-95.
“All you’d have to do to get there,” Abeloff
exclaims, “is fall off the Interstate!”
After
practicing law for 20 years, Abeloff made it his life’s
work to jump-start redevelopment of Richmond
’s most historic quarter, an area that
encompasses Shockoe Bottom, Church Hill and a
warehouse-industrial zone rambling along the canal and
riverfront. He began in the mid-1970s in the Bottom with
Market Slip Associates. Then, during the 1980s and
1990s, he led the investors group that assembled the
properties now known as Tobacco Row and converted the
first two tobacco warehouses into a 260-unit apartment
complex. In 1998, his group sold the project to a
developer capable of rehabbing the other four warehouses
and power plant.
While
working on Tobacco Row, Abeloff cast his eye on the
industrial property a little farther down the road.
Living in Church Hill, he frequented the gritty
industrial riverfront, sometimes with his dog, sometimes
with his wife, a picnic basket and a bottle of wine. In
his mind’s eye, the old wharfs and squat, ramshackle
buildings faded into images of townhouses and apartments
intermingled with offices, shops and river-view
restaurants in a community where people could walk to
get around and take the bus downtown.
After
the sale of Tobacco Row, Abeloff formed Rocketts Landing
LLC and rounded up another group of investors. He spent
the next couple of years consolidating a dozen
properties, settling brownfield-related environmental
issues, and lining up approval from the City of Richmond
and Henrico County for
special “urban mixed use” zoning provisions. At full
build-out, the $250 million project, dubbed the Village
of Rocketts Landing, will include
1,500 to 2,000 residential units in townhouses, condos
and apartments, as much as 500,000 square feet of office
space, some 200,000 square feet of retail, plus parking
decks and marina slips for as many as 500 boats. The
selling pitch, says Abeloff: “Live at Rocketts, work
at Rocketts, get in your boat and cruise down the river.”
In
January, Rocketts Landing LLC sold the project to a
Northern Virginia developer, the WVS
Companies, which retained Abeloff as a consultant and
co-developer. He expects dirt to turn this spring as
work begins laying down the infrastructure. Nearby, work
proceeds on the Tobacco Row warehouse complex,
gentrifiers are renovating Church Hill’s 19th
century houses, and investors, only temporarily dampened
by last year’s calamitous flood, are pumping money
into the commercial/entertainment district of Shockoe
Bottom. In February, The Richmond Braves baseball
franchise proposed a $330 redevelopment project,
centered on a new, minor league baseball stadium, near
the Farmer’s Market in the Bottom.
With
astonishing suddenness, Bill Abeloff has moved
mainstream. Or perhaps it would be more accurate to say
that the mainstream has caught up with Bill Abeloff.
Developers across the region have embraced tenets of the
New Urbanism movement that, like Rocketts Landing, draws
inspiration from the golden age of urban design that put
its stamp on Richmond decades ago. Only a
handful of projects would meet the purist’s standard
of New Urbanism, but developers are borrowing liberally
from the movement’s distinctive tool kit: higher
density development; a range of housing sizes and types,
sprinkled liberally with shops and offices; recognizable
village centers with prominent public places and civic
structures; a grid-like street system with alleyways;
and streetscapes that favor pedestrians over cars.
From
Church Hill and Jackson Ward to the Fan, old Richmond
is blessed with the very kinds of neighborhoods
that inspired New Urbanism. But as the region expanded
after World War II, the City of Richmond and
neighboring counties adopted zoning codes that mandated
a “suburban” style of development: rigid segregation
of houses from stores and workplaces; greater distances
between buildings; and street schemes that tended to the
needs of cars, not pedestrians. The result was the
pervasive pattern of disconnected strip shopping centers
and cul-de-sac subdivisions that defines the suburban
landscape across the country.
Classic
suburban-style development still prevails in the
Richmond region. Like kerosene traveling up
a wick, growth is creeping along Richmond ’s
radial roads and circumferential highways into the
countryside. As the population grows more affluent,
families are looking for ever bigger, more luxurious
accommodations, and the space simply does not exist in
the center city to meet the demand. In response,
builders are erecting entire subdivisions of
mansion-sized houses. Retail centers and office parks
follow families to the urban periphery. The office park
at West Creek, at the intersection of I-64 and Rt. 288,
is so huge that it will continue shifting the
metropolitan center of gravity further west for years to
come.
But
the story of suburban development, which has defined
Richmond for the past half century, is an
old one. What’s new in the region is the renaissance
of the city center, and the unprecedented focus on what
geographer Joel Kotkin labels the “midopolis,” the
aging suburbs around the urban core.
These
counter-trends, the antithesis of the old suburban
growth model, are driven by deep-seated demographics and
changing lifestyles. Singles, childless couples and
empty nesters are drawn to the center city, with its
greater concentration of cultural and entertainment
amenities. Even Leave-it-to-Beaver families with two
parents and two kids are looking for houses with
smaller, low-maintenance yards and the convenience of
neighborhood shops and restaurants. Across the region,
“mixed use” is the buzzword in planning circles.
Local
governments see advantages in compact, mixed-use
development because it eases the strain of installing
infrastructure and providing government services.
Creating communities where people can reach some of
their destinations by walking instead of driving takes
cars off the region’s increasingly clogged roads and
highways. Steering growth into areas already served by
roads and public services reduces government outlays.
Furthermore, allowing more houses and office space per
acre makes it financially more attractive for developers
to rehabilitate declining neighborhoods built four or
five decades ago.
Henrico
County Planning Director Randy Silber articulates a
viewpoint that is gaining ascendancy throughout the
region. The urbanization of Henrico’s older districts
is a natural and desirable process, he says. “We’re
seeing infill development in places that were skipped
over. We’re seeing revitalization of some of our older
areas. Land values are rising, and the market will
support higher-density development. We’re changing
from a suburban form of development to a more urban form
of development.”
The
Core
In
the late 1990s, the city of Richmond completed
the restoration of the Kanawha-Haxall Canal
and a 1.25-mile walkway through a burial ground of
abandoned industrial structures. City fathers promoted
the canal, which is navigable by picturesque barges, as
a magnet for condominiums, mid-rise offices and
street-level restaurants like those lining the wildly
popular canal in San Antonio , Texas
. Local investors nibbled along the edges of the
canal–the La Difference furniture store, the new
Baskervill headquarters, the Turning Basin building—but
no one committed to a large-scale, multi-building
project until the Daniel Corporation announced Riverside
on the James.
Riverside
is notable for the size and scope of the project.
An $83 million investment buys a 230,000-square-foot
office building, a mid-rise condominium with more than
120 upscale living units, a parking deck and 70,000
square feet of street-level retail. That’s a big
project by the standards of downtown Richmond .
But equally significant is the way the Daniel
Corporation has oriented the two towers and renovated
hydroelectric building around a central plaza and has
integrated the entire complex with the canal and canal
walk.
As
other properties are developed, Richmond ’s
canal could well emerge as a visually stunning
destination comparable to San Antonio ’s.
Where the Texans have a canal, however, Richmond can
boast of a canal and a river. And not just any
old, muddy, slow-moving river. Lined with trees, spotted
with boulders and tiny islands, shot through with white
water, the James offers scenic vistas not found in any
other U.S. city.
The
Daniel Corporation is betting that Riverside on
the James can become a recognized entertainment center
even before the rest of the canal is developed. The
developer has tasked the Cordish Company, which played a
key role in revitalizing Baltimore ’s
inner harbor, with recruiting a number of “destination”
restaurants that can take full advantage of river views
and canal-side seating. Daniel Vice President Michael
Campbell sees the combination of housing, offices and
entertainment at a single site as an unbeatable
combination: “It’s the live-work-play concept that
everyone’s talking about.”
Riverside
is generating incredible enthusiasm, declares John
Woodward, the city’s director of economic development.
There’s a long waiting list for the condominium units,
even at $330 per square foot, an unprecedented price for
downtown residential. By demonstrating that the market
will support luxury, high-rise living, he adds, he
expects Riverside to stimulate the interest
of more residential projects in the heart of the
business district.
What’s
so exciting about downtown right now, says Woodward, is
how broad-based the revitalization is. The riverfront is
only one sector of activity. The Virginia Biotechnology
Research Park continues to expand on the northern edge
of downtown, while Virginia Commonwealth University is
laying the groundwork for its Monroe Park Campus, a
nearly $200 million project, on the eastern fringe. In
preparation for the 2007 Jamestown quadricentennial,
the Commonwealth of Virginia is
spending more than $100 million to renovate the state
Capitol and major state office buildings all around. The
U.S. Justice Department is building a new federal court
building, work is beginning on a state-of-the-art
performing arts center, and a new hotel, parking decks
and streetscapes are transforming the area around the
convention center.
Confidence
in downtown is so strong that the Richmond Braves
organization has lined up a developer to propose a new
baseball stadium to be financed by Community Development
Authority bonds. The stadium would anchor a complex of
four- to six-story apartment buildings, offices and
shops in a streetscaped environment. A core goal is to
meld the development with the smaller, historical
buildings of Shockoe Bottom and to preserve the easy
walkability of the entertainment district. “Ever been
to Europe ?” Braves General Manager Bruce
Baldwin asked a Richmond Times-Dispatch
Reporter. “Walk out of your apartment
and there’s shops on the street.”
The
proposal remains controversial. Many residents of nearby
Church Hill want to preserve the historic integrity of
the area and fret about such practicalities as glare
from stadium lights. But the Braves have engaged Global
Development, a Washington , D.C. ,
firm experienced in urban development, and stadium
backers are moving to address neighbors’ concerns.
If
the stadium deal gets approved, the 2000s may go down as
the greatest decade for Richmond ’s
downtown in the city’s history—the decade that
reversed a half century of fleeing residents and
decamping businesses. What economic developer John
Woodward finds so encouraging is the diversity of
funding sources. Development isn’t tied to the
business cycle but reflects an across-the-board
commitment to downtown on the part of state government,
city government, VCU, professional firms and the
philanthropic community. “The financing is coming from
different sources,” he says. “Some of it is private
money, some of it is owner-occupied financing, some of
it is tax-exempt bond financing. Some is philanthropic.
There’s federal, state and local money. I can’t
think of a time that we’ve seen this mixture of
product type and financing sources.”
The
building boom reflects a back-to-the-city movement built
on the changing demographics of the Richmond region.
With its grid streets and traditional neighborhoods, its
sidewalks and its pocket parks, the city is, in effect,
one giant mixed use development. The city also has
something that can’t be replicated in a green field in
the suburbs: history, architecture, vibrant cultural
institutions, in sum, a strong sense of place.
“The
appeal,” says Woodward, “is the urban lifestyle that
includes closer proximity to things… livability…
walkability… It’s easy to get out to restaurants,
nightclubs, art events and gallery walks. The common
denominator is people who don’t need to rush home to
their 2.3 children and Fido… who have time to tap into
the cultural offerings. They move to the city to avail
themselves of the opportunities here.”
The
Midopolis
Planners
in Henrico and Chesterfield counties face a
strategic dilemma. Singles and empty nesters are being
lured back into the city. Meanwhile, the most affluent
households with children are migrating to the urban
fringe where the bigger, newer houses outfitted with the
latest features--from granite-countered kitchens to home
theaters with SurroundSound--are being built. That
leaves vast swaths of aging suburb, just beyond the
Richmond city limits, where the houses are
literally half the size of the mansions being built
today, and the shopping centers are fraying from
neglect.
The
same challenge is facing aging suburbs across the
country, and county planners are adopting much the same
strategy as elsewhere: Encourage redevelopment. By
permitting developers to build at higher densities,
county planners hope to make it worthwhile for them to
tear down the old stuff and start from scratch.
That’s
literally what’s happening to the Cloverleaf Mall in
Chesterfield County , one of
the region’s oldest shopping malls. Set in a corridor
of strip development, the ’60s-era mall lost its
luster as affluent residents moved farther out
Midlothian Turnpike and patronized the newer, more
attractive shopping centers. Now the property is old,
worn out and deserted.
The
county has purchased the mall and selected a company to
partner in redeveloping the property as a mixed-use
project. Director of Planning Kirk Turner expects the
property will combine some light retail along Midlothian
, some office space and some high-density
residential. The location right off the Chippenham
Parkway , one of Southside’s major
thoroughfares and close to the urban core, will provide
superb transportation access. The project looks like a
hit even before work has begun. “We have some major
players interested in office space,” Turner says. “We’ve
already seen an increase in property values along the
corridor.”
On
the other side of the river, Henrico County
is working proactively to make sure that Innsbrook,
the region’s largest office park, doesn’t go the way
of Cloverleaf Mall. Innsbrook still has the reputation
as a premier business location, but it’s largely built
out, traffic congestion is terrible, and West Creek,
only a few miles down the Interstate, offers abundant
space and premium transportation access.
Markel
Corporation, a successful specialty insurance company,
faced a tough decision not long ago on whether to stay
in Innsbrook or move to West Creek. Paul Kreckman, the
Richmond regional manager for Highwood
Properties, persuaded the company to stay. His proposal:
Join Highwoods in a partnership to redevelop Markel’s
property as a mixed-use project – the first such
project in Innsbrook. Plans call for converting parking
lots and woods into a complex with 344 townhouse and
condominium units, additional offices, two parking decks
and street-level retail, all focused on a boulevard
ending at a piazza. The idea is to create a mix of local
services and amenities – from dry cleaners to
restaurants – in a walkable, “village center”
setting that Markel employees will find more fun and
convenient than working in an isolated corporate campus.
Neighboring
land homeowners are worried about the impact a
higher-density complex would have on their home values.
Hirschler Fleischer Chairman James Theobald, who is
representing Highwoods, thinks their concerns can be
addressed. Developing the property at greater intensity
will allow Highwoods to help pay for significant
improvements to nearby Sadler and Nuckols Roads, which
otherwise would take the county years to fund.
If
the Highwoods property gets Board of Supervisors
approval, it could provide the template for the
redevelopment of other Innsbrook parcels. “Innsbrook
is nearing the end of its horizontal development phase,
and looking at its vertical phase,” says Kreckman. “It
won’t be the place where big companies can come buy a
large tract of land and build a campus. To maintain its
viability, it will have to focus on urban-like
qualitative advantages.”
The
county wants to encourage “village center”
development that allows mixed-use clusters of greater
density—an urban-lite approach that’s more
economically efficient but still preserves a distinction
between the county and the city.
Greater
flexibility in local planning departments has unleashed
a number of other mixed-use, and New Urbanism-style
projects. Gumenick Properties, one of the city’s
largest apartment developers, wants to build a
city-style neighborhood in the Gaskins/Patterson area of
Henrico, says Theobald. Streets would be laid out in a
grid pattern, with alleys running through the blocks.
The project is animated by the retro ideas that cars and
garages should go in the back of the house, and that
sidewalks, streetlamps, pocket parks and other features
make the neighborhood inviting to pedestrians.
The
same features will be seen in the Chester Village Green
in Chester , a railroad town dating back to
1856 that has been engulfed by sprawl. Jim Daniels, a
disciple of New Urbanist Andres Duany, has assembled 85
acres and has started implementing a plan that
ultimately could result in 400,000 square feet of retail
and residential development. “Our goal,” says
Daniels, “is to have a cross between Carytown and
Shockoe Bottom.”
“We’re
a true New Urbanist development,” Daniels says. The
Village Green is more than sidewalks, trees and
streetlights. The plan calls for public spaces such as a
village green, public landmarks, and a variety of
housing sizes and styles. He believes the Village Green
may be the first location in Chesterfield County
to build apartments above stores, as was common a
century ago.
Expect
to see more projects like the Village Green. “We’re
working on an ordinance that would permit these kinds of
[New Urbanism] projects by right,” says Turner, the
Chesterfield planning director. There aren’t
many locations left in the county where a New
Urbanism-style project could be built from scratch, but
he’s seeing more and more proposals that do
incorporate mixed uses, higher densities and
pedestrian-oriented street designs.
“We’d
like to see these sorts of projects,” Turner says. It’s
cheaper for the county to provide utilities and services
when the population is clustered more compactly. And the
community is better served with a diversity of housing
styles and types. “You want a demographic balance.”
The
Periphery
Andy
Shield, a developer in Hanover County
, doesn’t talk the New Urbanism lingo. But his
Bell Creek project has this in common with traditional
urban development: He’s building a balanced community
where homeowners can run many of their errands locally
and, perhaps, even work there without the necessity of
hopping on Interstate 295, only 0.4 miles away.
Bell
Creek calls for 535 residential units, including
condominiums for seniors, a 157-acre business park, 20
acres of retail space plus 124 acres of open space that
conserves a Civil War battlefield and the 1670-vintage
house where Patrick Henry got married. “The intent
here is to have as many services as possible within the
community,” Shield says: bank, movie rentals, gourmet
coffee shop, dry cleaner, hair salon, an exercise
franchise, daycare, veterinary hospital, doctor’s
office and lots of restaurants. “And you never have to
go through a stoplight.”
The
housing lots are relatively small. “This was clustered
so we could preserve the battlefield,” Shield says.
“People give up the big huge yard, but they have 150
acres they can wander in.” The development will be
laced with sidewalks and jogging trails. Houses will be
close enough to the shops that mamas can put their
babies in strollers and walk down to the coffee shop.
And the existence of a senior community opens up the
option of extended families living in close proximity.
Unlike
old-style, sprawl development, Bell Creek will largely
pay its own way. The county created a Community
Development Authority to finance the project through
long-term, fixed-rate bonds. That allowed Shields to pay
for the installation of water, sewer and roads with only
a minimal monetary contribution from the county.
Clustered, mixed-use projects seem to be “the next
wave of development” in Hanover , Weiss
says.
Much
of the new development in the Richmond region’s
urban periphery is taking the form of clustered,
mixed-use development. Some of it is even inspired by
New Urbanism. HHHunt has gotten the go-ahead from
Hanover County for a 400-acre, mixed-use development
that real estate attorney Theobald describes as “new
urbanism lite” – retail, offices, day care,
single-family homes, townhouses, rentals and
age-restricted housing.
HHHunt
is undertaking an even bigger project on a 1,100-acre
spread on the James River in Henrico. That
project, says Theobald, will be a self-contained
community miles from any other development. Again, the
design will be New Urbanism Lite, with alleys,
sidewalks, homes situated close to the streets, a
variety of housing sizes and types and, of course, a
town center. The project will include $50 million in
public infrastructure: water, sewer, roads, an
elementary school site, parkland and 11.5 acres for
county facilities. What’s more, the project
contemplates paying for construction of an interchange
at Interstate 895, as well as a three-mile “ Wilton
Parkway ” connecting the project to state
Rt. 5.
Theobald
thinks the shift to mixed-use projects is more than a
passing enthusiasm of the marketplace. To cut the
cost of extending infrastructure, counties are looking
for ways to tame sprawl. Planners also are realizing
that separating different land uses—residential,
office, retail—by great distances forces people into
their cars for every trip. “People don’t like
jumping in their cars to go get a sandwich. They want to
work and live and shop as close together as possible.”
In
sum, the Richmond metro region is seeing
the most fundamental shift in development patterns since
the rise of the automobile-accessible suburb after World
War II. Ironically, Bill Abeloff--the man who, more than
anyone, got the ball rolling—has moved to a farm in
Goochland County that he’s owned more than 30 years.
Serving on the county’s planning commission, he would
like to preserve the beautiful, unspoiled vistas of his
new home from sprawling subdivisions and strip shopping
centers.
In
a double twist of irony, the work he’s done at Tobacco
Row and Rocketts may do more to save Goochland’s
hillocked horse farms than anything he can do on the
county planning commission. Creating a new vision for
life in the city and suburbs may encourage people to
move back toward the urban core rather than push
relentlessly outward. “I think we lost our way,” he
says. “But I think we’re rediscovering the way.”
--
April 11, 2005
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