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 April 5, 2024:
Judge sides with leaseholder in Scott’s Addition parking spots spat
Reported by Richmond Bizsense’s Mike Platania
The planned redevelopment of an entire block of Scott’s Addition could be on ice for the next 16 years after a recent court ruling.
Last week a Richmond Circuit judge ruled that North Carolina-based developer Hem + Spire has the right to renew its lease on a 51-space parking lot at 3210 W. Marshall St., potentially keeping the lease active through 2040.
The surface lot is part of the former Party Perfect complex that D.C.-based Dalian Development bought for nearly $4 million in 2018. In 2021 Hem + Spire bought a mixed-use complex across the street at 1300 MacTavish Ave. for $10.8 million, a deal that included a lease for use of the off-site parking lot.
According to court documents, the current lease runs through 2030 and was previously renewed on Jan. 1, 2021, over six months before Hem + Spire’s purchase. Renewal in 2030 would be for another 10 years.
Dalian alleges in the documents that it sought to terminate the lease at the end of its current 2030 term to redevelop the entirety of the Party Perfect site, including the parking lot.
Hem + Spire rebuffed that effort, claiming that language in the lease prevents Dalian from terminating the lease and alleging that Hem + Spire has the right to renew the lease in perpetuity.
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