A conceptual rendering of the apartment building planned at 1903-1905 Semmes Ave. (City documents)
After beating out two other nonprofits for the site, Commonwealth Catholic Charities is looking to follow through with its bid to develop an apartment building for seniors on surplus city property near the intersection of Semmes and Cowardin avenues.
CCC has filed plans for a three-story, 20-unit building at 1903-1905 Semmes Ave., a roughly half-acre site just west of Cowardin Avenue that’s one of five city-owned sites that were declared surplus and made available for development of low-income housing through a solicitation process led by the Maggie Walker Community Land Trust.
CCC’s proposal for the Semmes Avenue site was selected over competing bids from Habitat for Humanity, which proposed two new homes for the land trust on the site, and Project:Homes, which proposed a dozen land-trust homes.
Alternate views of the building as it would appear along Semmes Avenue.
The plans from CCC call for a 22,600-square-foot building with 20 apartments above a commercial space and 13 parking spaces. The one-bedroom, 600-square-foot apartments would be restricted to senior residents and fill the two floors above the 1,300-square-foot retail space, a 750-square-foot community room, a lounge, the covered parking spaces and other ground-floor amenities.
Baskervill is designing the building, and Timmons Group is the engineer and surveyor.
The plans were filed with the city in mid-December and were listed as under review last week. A timeframe for the project was not clear from the documents, which list Charles Hall as CCC’s contact for the project.
Hall, the nonprofit’s vice president of housing, could not be reached for comment last week. A spokesperson for CCC fielded questions but did not provide responses in time for this story.
CCC’s services include lower-income and supportive housing development, immigration and adoption consulting, mental health counseling, financial coaching and homeless sheltering.
Two other developers awarded sites
The roughly half-acre site at 1903-1905 Semmes Ave. received the most bids. (Google Maps)
CCC was selected along with two other developers for three of the five sites that received applications in a solicitation process that MWCLT conducted last year. The request for proposals went out last February, and applications were reviewed by the Citizens Advisory Panel for the Richmond Land Bank, which the land trust manages. Final selections were made by the land bank’s Board of Directors.
Erica Sims, the land trust’s CEO, said they were excited about CCC’s proposal and thrilled that 20 units could be fitted onto the site.
“I never thought that, given the small size of these sites, that we’d be able to do something that innovative,” Sims said. “It’s a great plan and very feasible.”
A site plan of the ground floor shows the retail space would fill the western end of the building.
The other two sites slated for development are 207 E. Ladies Mile Road, a quarter-acre parcel in Providence Park in Northside, and 5913 Fergusson Road, a triangular quarter-acre lot near St. Christopher’s School.
The Ladies Mile site was awarded to developer Michael Schewel, who vied for the site under an LLC and proposed four homes for the land trust. Schewel’s proposal was selected over Habitat for Humanity, which proposed one home.
The Fergusson Road site was awarded to local builder John George, who proposed one low-income rental home for the site. That plan was chosen over a proposal from St. Christopher’s School Foundation for a community garden, an alternate use also allowed for the properties.
The quarter-acre lot at 5913 Fergusson Road is across the street from the campus of St. Christopher’s School, which proposed to use it for a community garden.
The two sites that did not receive bids are 3100 Alvis Ave. in Brookland Park, a 1.5-acre parcel that’s partially buildable due to a stream; and 3602 Delaware Ave, a 0.13-acre parcel that had been considered unbuildable because of an ownership dispute that was being resolved at the time by MWCLT’s legal counsel. Those sites revert to the land trust, which Sims said will develop single-family homes on them.
Ownerships of the three awarded sites are to be transferred from the city to the land trust, which would then sell them to their respective developers. Sims said those transfers are expected next week.
Sale prices are to be based on a variety of factors and are likely to be discounted below assessed value for CCC as a nonprofit buyer. Sales to for-profit developers would be based on assessed value.
The two parcels that make up CCC’s Semmes Avenue site are assessed by the city at $355,000 combined.
The parcel at 3602 Delaware Ave. was one of two involved in ownership disputes. (City of Richmond property record photo)
The five sites are what remain of a 15-parcel group that the city agreed to sell to MWCLT for $1 per parcel, with the condition that the lots be developed as income-based housing or community gardens. The land trust later determined that eight of the parcels were not immediately buildable because of issues such as utility easements, topographical challenges or ownership disputes.
Any for-sale homes built on the parcels are required to participate in the land trust’s home ownership model, in which the homes are kept affordable through a ground-lease approach. The rent-to-own program allows homes to be sold to qualified buyers while MWCLT retains ownership of the land beneath the houses.
CCC’s project adds to other residential development in the works along that stretch of Semmes Avenue.
Across the street, Harper Associates is planning 200 apartments at its Belle Heights development, adding to townhomes that have risen on that site in recent years. A few blocks farther south, Project:Homes is preparing to start work on an 83-unit apartment building for seniors at 2100 Bainbridge St.
Meanwhile, across town, CCC is planning another mixed-use development involving lower-income housing at the site of its youth and adult outreach center at 809 Oliver Hill Way.
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