RICHMOND, Va. -- The former Quality Inn hides the booming Scott's Addition neighborhood behind it, but demolition on the West Broad Street property has finally begun.
Crews were spotted tearing apart the parking deck and pool that sit behind the 1960-era hotel, which closed three years ago. The hotel had since fallen into disrepair and was considered an eyesore.
Developers Louis Salomonsky and David White purchased the 3.5-acre property at 3200 West Broad in December 2018 for about $8 million.
The plans called for more than 300 market-rate apartments, 30,000 square feet of ground level of commercial space and a parking deck all in a 12 story tower.
The property is one of about half a dozen scheduled to be completed in the upcoming years.
Construction is underway for a 5-story apartment building on West Marshall Street and for a 6-story building on West Broad Street called The Summit at Scott's Addition.
Work has yet to begin on Scott's Collection, a series of three apartment buildings that will include 11 stories of apartments and retail.
A South Carolina-based developer is also eyeing former the Relay Foods warehouse at 1601 Roseneath Road for potentially more apartments, according to Richmond BizSense.
Mixed-use development at the former-Interbake Foods warehouse property that would include residential units above commercial space, with surface parking on Myers Street is currently under construction.
More than 300 Richmonders will soon move into Scott's View located on Roseneath Road.
Sandi Cauley started her dance studio Turn on West Moore Street more than four years ago.
"We’ve seen a lot of growth. A tremendous amount of growth from just people walking by," Cauley explained. "When you start to look at the money that’s come in, from when we first opened until now -- it’s like triple."
Cauley, a board member with the Scott's Addition Boulevard Association, considered her neighborhood a ghost town when she moved in. She welcomed her new neighbors.
"Our biggest concern is safety and the safety of the people who are coming to visit us or the safety of the people who live here," she said. "Hopefully the people doing the construction are taking the safety into consideration."
Sandi Cauley
Councilwoman Kim Gray has worked to increase funding into the neighborhood infrastructure for improvements like sidewalks and lighting.
"We have missing sidewalks, we have stormwater issues with flooding -- so there are some things that have sprung up that we know we need to fix," Gray stated.
Transit-oriented nodal district zoning that City Council created for the Scott’s Addition area has enticed developers to go up.
"We specifically looked at the corridor along the [GRTC] Pulse," Gray recalled. "Within a 10-minute walk from the transit stations we allowed for higher density, less parking requirements and the ability to build taller."
Gray said she's also focusing on enticing long term tenants to the neighborhood with the construction of condominiums and homes. She hoped families will move to Scott's Addition and stay.
"It’s exciting times for our city," she said.
