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 March 15, 2024:
Veritas School to demolish old hospital as it plans for future campus expansion
Reported by Richmond Bizsense’s Mike Platania
A Northside private school is breaking out the wrecking ball for an old hospital building as it looks to build up parts of its campus in the long term.
Veritas School is preparing to demolish the former Richmond Memorial Hospital at 1311 Palmyra Ave.
The building and its various annexes, which total about 106,000 square feet, will be razed to make way for green space, while the school finalizes a master plan for the overall campus that envisions several new buildings in the years to come.
Costco to raze neighboring Broad St. buildings for more space, new fuel station
Reported by Richmond Bizsense’s Mike Platania
Months after dropping millions of dollars to buy the property next to its Henrico location, Costco is preparing to put that land to use.
The wholesale chain has filed plans to expand the footprint of its warehouse store at 9650 W. Broad St. and relocate its gas station to the neighboring plot at 9700-9750 W. Broad St.
The plans call for construction of a 20,000-square-foot addition, to be tacked onto the west side of Costco’s existing 131,000-square-foot warehouse.
Tito’s opens as first of two new concepts in old Mojo’s building
Reported by Richmond Bizsense’s Mike Platania
For the first time in three and a half years, parties are being seated at 733 W. Cary St.
Tito’s Taqueria & Bar, the first of two new concepts taking over the former Mojo’s Philadeli building near Oregon Hill, opened for business last week.
Through the course of its 20-plus-year run, Mojo’s had been a popular haunt for VCU students as well as Oregon Hill and Fan locals before it closed in 2020 and the building was sold. Tito’s owner Tito Padilla said he’s already heard from customers about the building’s history.
GRTC zeroes in on two downtown sites for new transfer stationReported by Richmond Bizsense’s Jack Jacobs
The field of potential sites for GRTC’s new permanent transfer station has narrowed to two.
The transit organization now is eyeing the city-owned Public Safety Building property at 500 N. 10th St. as well as the adjacent city-owned parking lot GRTC is using for its temporary bus station, spokesman Henry Bendon confirmed this week.
The pair of properties were whittled down from a short-list of five sites across the city.
In addition to a permanent home for GRTC’s bus route nexus, the project site also would be home to a mixed-use development. While initial designs for the mixed-use piece differ between the two finalist sites, both feature ground-floor retail and hundreds of apartments.
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