Tracking Richmond's evolution, block by block: Scott's Addition
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Roseneath and Moore in Scott's Addition between 2015 and 2022. Image: Google Street View
Block by block, it seems Richmond is becoming a new city.
Why it matters: We're kicking off a new series that explores the areas where RVA's change is most dramatic — and most telling — beginning with a corner within the poster child for our transformation: Scott's Addition.
The big picture: A decade ago, most Richmonders were just starting to hear about Scott's Addition, a more than 100-year-old neighborhood that longtime locals had unknowingly spent their lifetime zipping past.
- Today, it's one of the hottest and fastest-growing parts of town, with no signs of letting up.
- Much of the neighborhood change started, and continues, at the corners of Roseneath and Moore, so that's where we'll begin.
Flashback: In summer 2015, the most notable thing about that intersection was The Dairy Bar, which opened in 1946 as a cafeteria for workers at the adjacent (and long-closed) Curles Neck Dairy plant.
- The little breakfast and lunch spot was surrounded by vacant or sparsely used warehouses and factories, as it had been since the 1980s.
That would change in 2016, with the redevelopment of the HandCraft building.
- Within two years, a space that formerly housed a massive glass supplier, then later a commercial dry cleaner, welcomed Stella's Grocery, Vasen Brewing Co. and half a dozen offices for local creative companies.
- It also set a new market rate (and record high) for commercial rental space in the neighborhood, Virginia Business reported.
By the numbers: The property across Moore Street, which had been vacant since the warehouse for online grocer Relay Foods closed in 2017, sold to developers for $8.6 million in 2020.
- But you probably know it better as The Otis, the block-long mixed-use development that's now home to Grit Coffee, PlantHouse, Cochiloco, Shop Made in Virginia, and roughly 350 apartments where studios start at around $1,700.
Today, the entire corner is bustling with residents walking their dogs, business professionals grabbing after-work brews, and couples on a date night.
Zoom in: As for The Dairy Bar, it held on for nearly 77 years, cycling through three owners before it closed in 2022, just after developers snapped it up for $7 million.
- They sold it two years later for $8.4 million.
What we're watching: Last summer, City Council approved developers' plans to demolish The Dairy Bar to begin work on an eight-story mixed-use building with hundreds of apartments, plus a luxury hotel, per the Times-Dispatch.