The saga of the Richmond gym stuck on port-a‑potties for over 100 days
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RVA Performance Training owner Jake Rowell, in front of his collection of port-a-potties. Photo: Karri Peifer/Axios
For more than 100 days, Jake Rowell's gym has been without working toilets because of damage to a sewer pipe during construction at the nearby Diamond District project.
Why it matters: Rowell's saga is proof that being the next-door neighbor to a shiny new development in a rapidly changing city can really stink.
The big picture: Rowell moved his 18-year-old RVA Performance Training gym to Hermitage Road in 2017.
- Construction on the $2.4 billion Diamond District Development — the largest development deal in the city's history — began last year.
How it happened: The gym's toilets stopped working in April because Dominion Energy crews hit a sewer pipe when relocating some power poles, according to Rowell, developer Diamond District Partners, and a representative for the out-of-state owner of the building the gym is in.
- "There are multiple parties involved including the landowners and contractors," a Dominion Energy spokesperson tells Axios. "We have an ongoing dialogue and are working toward an agreeable solution."
Friction point: Who should pay to fix the johns?
- The gym property owner's rep says Diamond District Partners should, because it owns the land and hired Dominion to dig.
- DDP says it offered to, but the gym property owner asked instead for a new, more expensive sewer line.
- The proposed fix wasn't a long-term solution, per the gym property owner's rep.
Zoom in: Rowell took to Instagram at the end of May to vent about the delay, and the headache that the massive construction project brought to his door.
- He hoped the post would get his plumbing working again. Instead, it got him a set of double-wide, high-end port-a-potties plus an accessible single unit, courtesy of DDP.
Behind the scenes: DDP tells Axios it's spent $5,600 on these "air-conditioned portable restrooms," and it's about to shell out another $2,800 for a third month.
- Yes, but: As anyone who's used them can attest, there's a difference between port-a-potties and indoor toilets with working plumbing, and that difference has everything to do with one being indoors and having working plumbing and the other not.
What they're saying: Rowell tells Axios the lack of plumbing-reliant amenities (the gym's showers are also unusable) has cost him clientele and other headaches.
- In addition to the gym, he runs the nonprofit LiftPD, which provides free training to people with Parkinson's disease.
- It's these clients, especially, who Rowell worries about because the disease affects their mobility.
- Many of these clients use walkers or wheelchairs and, for them, the extra steps needed to go outside to use the restroom can feel impossible.
"This is more than just an inconvenience," Rowell says. He says it feels like he's getting pushed out of his longtime business home to make way for new development.
- But at the same time, he feels stuck. He knows another 15,000 square feet of warehouse space in the heart of the city at a reasonable price won't be easy to find again.
What's next: Once all the parties agree to a resolution, Powell says, it's his understanding that it'll take six to eight weeks to get the plumbing working again.
- But first, the parties have to agree. On anything.