Hundreds of new apartments were announced for Richmond in January
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The new year is only a month old, but more than 450 new apartment units across five developments have already been announced for Richmond.
- And none of them are in development hotspots Scott's Addition or Manchester.
Why it matters: Scott's Addition and Manchester have seemingly sucked up all of the apartment development in the city for nearly a decade.
It's not necessarily that Scott's Addition and Manchester are done, but they are getting more expensive, which means developers could be looking to other parts of the city for new projects.
Both neighborhoods set new per-acre sale price records for the city last year, per BizSense.
- Richmond-based developer Capital Square paid $4 million per acre for a total of $10.8 million to snap up the former N. Chasen & Son’s warehouse and property around it. It's planning a 350-unit apartment complex there.
- Brooklyn-based Avery Hall Investments set a city and Manchester record in the fall when it paid $17.25 million, or $5.9 million per acre, for vacant riverfront land where it wants to build 550 apartments across two buildings.
The apartment plans announced this year include:
- 218 income-based apartments across two four-story buildings at 7000 Carnation St. in South Richmond, near Chippenham Hospital.
- 91 apartments in a five-story building at 1515 Chamberlayne Ave., near J.R. Crickets restaurant.
- 66 apartments in a four-story building at 1224 E. Brookland Park Blvd., across the street from the previously announced 43-unit building in the works.
- 40 apartments in a three-story building at 4701 Forest Hill Ave. at the site of the former Bank of America building, across from Little Nickel.
- 39 apartments in the former Saint Gertrude High School at 3215 Stuart Ave. The plans had been announced, but the property wasn't purchased until this month.
Meanwhile, a Northern Virginia developer announced at the start of the year it's scrapping plans for its 203-unit Scott's Addition apartment building and listing the vacant site, Richmond BizSense reported.
- The group cited internal refocusing on existing buildings as opposed to new builds for the decision.
Of note: Large-scale development projects can take years to come to fruition, so apartments announced in 2023 likely won't be leasing until next year at the earliest.
Reality check: Development is still going strong in Scott's Addition and Manchester. Right now, there are 619 units under construction in Manchester and 549 in Scott's Addition, Michael Cobb, director of market analytics for CoStar Group, tells Axios.
The bottom line: It's going to be a while before Scott's Addition and Manchester see the end of constant construction and a clear next hotspot emerges.