Meet the man quietly helping reshape Richmond's Fulton
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Chuck D'Aprix in 2024, when a "green street" with improved sidewalks, more trees and rain gardens came to Fulton. Photo: Courtesy of Chuck D'Aprix
Ask Chuck D'Aprix about his role in reviving Richmond's Fulton neighborhood, and he'll instead brag about its people.
- The husband-and-wife team rebuilding Bono's Caribbean on Williamsburg Road.
- The owners of a fire-damaged Krispies' Fried Chicken inching toward reopening.
- The doctor transforming a long-vacant funeral home into a community center.
Why it matters: Ask anyone else in Fulton, and they'll likely point to him.
Zoom in: His fingerprints are on each of those projects.
- He connected Bono's owner with the landlord and city grants that funded the restaurant's renovation.
- When Krispies caught fire last December, he brought city officials to the site himself, helping turn what he calls the owners' initial "despair" into a reopening plan.
- And for the funeral home, he tracked down its Maryland-based owner and introduced him to a local real estate agent.
Zoom out: Since moving to the long-neglected neighborhood in 2015, D'Aprix has become one of Fulton's most relentless advocates.
- Over a 40-year career, he's helped revitalize downtowns nationwide.
- In Fulton, he's served as its civic association president and founded Innovate Fulton, a nonprofit he runs without pay that connects residents with resources and pushes for investment.
- And the progress is easy to spot: rain gardens replacing cracked pavement, a mural- and tree-lined stretch of Government Road, a grant pipeline for small businesses.
Yes, but: For D'Aprix, preserving Fulton's future starts with remembering its past.
- Much of Fulton was bulldozed in the 1960s and '70s as part of an urban renewal that displaced generations of Black families and erased a historic part of the neighborhood.
- "The city came in, took homes, gave people $15,000 and said, 'Thank you very much,'" he says.
- "When we talk about that strain running through the neighborhood of feeling ignored, some of that emanates from that," he tells Axios.
What's ahead: Some of the people who experienced that displacement now sit on Innovate Fulton's board.
- And next month, they'll be part of the nonprofit's plan to release a documentary on the neighborhood's history and launch a podcast focused on the people who have shaped it.
- Innovate Fulton is also kicking off an 18-month, volunteer-led planning effort to identify what residents want next — from sidewalks and bus service to more trees and public art.
- The process starts on Sept. 12 with a town hall at Restoration Church.
The bottom line: D'Aprix's list of people making Fulton better keeps getting longer. He sees them as proof that the neighborhood can answer one question: "Why not here?"
This feature is part of our Under-the-Radar Richmonders series, which spotlights local residents who do impactful work but fly "under the radar."
You can nominate people for future features here or by emailing [email protected].
Editor's note: This story has been corrected to fix the name of Krispies' Fried Chicken (not Christie's).