Here’s a recap of the top stories for the week of May 23, 2025:
Carytown brewery to close after a 10-year run as the shopping center's only brewhouse
Reported by BizSense’s Jonathan Spiers
Garden Grove Brewing & Urban Winery will close in late June after owner Ryan Mitchell said he’s opting to not renew the brewery’s lease and is now exploring selling the business and its assets.
Mitchell and Mike Brandt co-founded Garden Grove in 2015, and was Virginia’s 100th brewery. Today 350 breweries remain in Virginia, according to data from the Brewers Association.
Garden Grove is planning a final send-off party on June 28. The going-away party will also have a tie to Mitchell’s new career as a firefighter in Chesterfield County.
A portion of proceeds from sales that day will go toward the Chesterfield Professional Firefighters Association, the local union for Chesterfield firefighters.
Byrd Theatre enters the final phase of its seat replacement project
Reported by BizSense's Jackie DiBartolomeo
This week the century-old theater in Carytown entered the third and final phase of its seat replacement project, which is expected to be completed around Sept. 5.
The project is part of the Byrd’s Pull Up A Seat campaign, which raised money to replace the theater’s old balcony and side-section seats, as well as add sections compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act.
This phase of the project will replace the side sections and match the updated seats on the balcony and the middle row of the theatre. During the seats’ replacement, the theater will remain open for showings.
Once the replacements are complete, the Byrd Theatre will have around 930 seats and will be able to accommodate around 980 guests. Previously the theatre had a total of around 1,100 seats, with 950 seats being used.
VCU Health to build a $90 million medical facility in Chesterfield
Reported by BizSense's Jack Jacobs
The health system recently held a ground-breaking event for its upcoming four-story, 100,000-square-foot medical facility near the intersection of Iron Bridge and Beach roads.
The new medical building will be called the Chesterfield Pavilion, and is anticipated to start construction in the fall.
Although VCU Health is largely concentrated in downtown Richmond, the new project stands to bring a fuller range of services closer to patients in Chesterfield and surrounding areas.
Chesterfield Pavilion will feature four operating rooms and 45 exam rooms, offer specialty care in gynecology, oncology and urology, as well as plastic and reconstructive surgery.
The facility will also offer mammography and infusion therapy among other services.
Goochland County planning commission rejects bid for ‘Highfield’ subdivision project
Reported by BizSense's Jackie DiBartolomeo
A Henrico-based real estate developer looking to build a new subdivision was spurned by the county planning commission this week, after the committee voted against the project.
Housing firm Markel | Eagle Partners submitted a plan to rezone 138-acres southwest of Rockville Road and Interstate 64 from agricultural use to a “residential, planned unit development.”
The project dubbed “Highfield,” would consist of 138 single-family detached homes, but Goochland residents and public safety officials have raised concerns about the project in part due its proximity the busy Rockville Road.
Although the county planning commission recommended the project's denial, the rezoning case is still scheduled to go before the Goochland board of supervisors for a deciding vote on July 1.
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