BizSense Beat is a weekly collaboration between VPM News and Richmond BizSense that brings you the top business stories during NPR's Morning Edition on Fridays.
Here’s a recap of the top stories for the week of Dec. 1, 2023:
D.C. Developer Hoffman files plans to transform entire city block in Scott’s Addition
Reported by Richmond Bizsense’s Mike Platania
The redevelopment of another entire city block in Scott’s Addition is moving forward.
Washington, D.C.-based Hoffman & Associates has filed plans for a six-story, 367-unit apartment building at 3200 W. Moore St.
The firm, which was a finalist for the city’s Diamond District project last year, announced its intentions for the Moore Street project over the summer and formally filed plans in late October. It is now working to get all of the appropriate approvals and refine the building’s design, according to an email from Hoffman COO Maria Thompson and David Roberts, its VP of development.
The company earlier this year pegged the project cost at $133 million.
Dominion takes downtown real estate holdings off the market
Reported by Richmond Bizsense’s Mike Platania
The fate of some of Dominion Energy’s prime downtown real estate holdings has taken another turn.
After actively marketing three of its excess parcels for sale, the utility giant said this month the properties are no longer listed as up for grabs.
The properties in question are: an entire city block at 701 E. Cary St.; its 20-story Eighth & Main office tower at 707 E. Main St.; and a three-story parking deck at 620 E. Cary St.
As recently as late summer, all of those properties were on the market, but that’s no longer the case. A Dominion spokesman said they are now, “under evaluation as part of our ongoing strategic review.”
The company would not elaborate on what that means.
550-unit age-restricted development planned in western Chesterfield
Reported by Richmond Bizsense’s Jack Jacobs
A local developer is looking to add about 550 new residential units in western Chesterfield, all of which would be age-restricted.
The Crescent Group, the development arm of Henrico-based Cornerstone Homes, recently filed a rezoning application seeking to build 328 townhomes and about 225 apartments, as well as commercial buildings, on 116 acres just west of Magnolia Green Golf Club.
The project would rise on two parcels at 18200 and 18400 Hull Street Road.
Humana-owned primary care clinics open in Henrico and Richmond
Reported by Richmond Bizsense’s Jack Jacobs
The primary care subsidiary of a health insurance giant recently opened two outposts in the Richmond area, with a third local clinic slated to open early next year.
CenterWell Senior Primary Care, which is owned by Humana, is now operating at 4722 S. Laburnum Ave. in Henrico and at 6900 Midlothian Turnpike in the city of Richmond.
Aimed at senior patients, CenterWell clinics feature wide hallways, wheelchair-accessible weight scales, chairs that can be converted into exam tables and other elements designed to accommodate elderly people. The primary care clinics offer both in-person and telehealth services, in addition to on-site labs and community centers.
Midas Church Hill spot revving up with $1.6M property purchase
Reported by Richmond Bizsense’s Jonathan Spiers
Plans for a sixth Midas of Richmond store are in full swing with the purchase of a long-dormant auto shop site in Church Hill.
The former Duke’s Auto Electric & General Repair property at the corner of East Broad and North 21st streets sold last week to an entity tied to Mark Smith, whose Midas of Richmond franchise is planning its next outpost there.
“I think it’s going to be a homerun market for us,” Smith said Monday.
The nearly half-acre site sold for $1.65 million, the price that Smith and the seller had agreed to when he put it under contract over the summer. The deal with 2018 East Broad LLC, a group of local investors including developer Zac Frederick, closed Nov. 22, according to city property records.
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