Site work has started on the solar-powered Helios Apartments planned on the former Days Inn of Richmond site near the Chamberlayne/I-95 interchange. (Jonathan Spiers photo)
A pair of seven-figure land deals are teeing up two multifamily developments a few blocks from each other, one of them already underway.
Site work has started on Helios Apartments, a 186-unit income-based and solar-powered complex set to rise at the former Days Inn of Richmond site at 5701 Chamberlayne Road, near the Chamberlayne-Interstate 95 interchange.
Work started shortly after an LLC tied to local developers Crescent Development and Spy Rock Real Estate Group closed Dec. 22 on the 8-acre site, which includes an adjacent parcel at 5700 Crenshaw Road.
Henrico property records show the developers paid $3.85 million for the site – $3.4 million for the former hotel property, and $450,000 for the smaller Crenshaw parcel.
A site plan shows the two apartment buildings and adjacent solar panels that would power the units. (Images courtesy Henrico County)
The county had assessed the two parcels at $996,400 and $202,500, respectively. The sellers in the deals were Virginia Beach-based Chesapeake Veterans Home LLC and Ashley Terrace Realty LLC, tied to the owner of the next-door Ashley Terrace Apartments.
Crescent principal Zac Frederick said construction on the apartments is scheduled to wrap up in mid- to late-2025. KBS is the general contractor, and VHB is handling engineering work.
Frederick said the apartments will be fully powered by the adjacent solar field panels, which he described as rare for the Richmond market.
Zac Frederick
“To be powered exclusively by solar panels, there’s not many,” Frederick said. “It wouldn’t have happened without the recent Inflation Reduction Act that really increased tax credit benefits when combining solar credits and affordable housing credits.”
The project also involves low-income housing tax credits and will consist of one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments ranging in size from about 650 to 1,200 square feet targeted to households earning 60 percent of the area median income.
Frederick was unable to provide the estimated cost for the project when reached Friday. He said Bank of America is providing the construction financing for the project.
Frederick said the apartments received positive feedback from the community during the approval process. Hirschler attorney Jeff Geiger represented the developers in their rezoning and permit requests with the county.
“People were optimistic and looking forward to seeing a positive change in that corridor,” Frederick said.
The larger parcel originally housed the 1960s-era Virginia Inn, a hotel also known as Virginia Interstate Inn or Schrafft’s Virginia Inn. The hotel became a Best Western in 1980 and was later split into two hotels, a Red Roof Inn and a Quality Inn, around the turn of the century. The Red Roof Inn was later converted to a Ramada, and the Days Inn closed in 2014.
The property is adjacent to a Super 8 by Wyndham hotel that remains in operation.
The proposed townhomes would fill the wooded site beside the post office branch at Chamberlayne Avenue and Wilmer Avenue.
A jog south along Chamberlayne toward Azalea Avenue, StyleCraft Homes closed Dec. 27 on two parcels totaling 16 acres at 5211 and 5251 Chamberlayne Ave., where the Lakeside-based homebuilder is planning 160 townhomes called Crossings at Mulberry.
An LLC tied to StyleCraft paid $1.6 million for the two parcels, which are beside and south of the post office at Wilmer Avenue. The parcels were assessed by the county at just over $1 million combined.
StyleCraft purchased the land from the family of the late Julia Robins, who had owned the property since at least the late 1980s.
The for-sale townhomes would include two- and three-story units.
Plans call for two- and three-story townhomes with floorplans ranging upward from 1,500 square feet. The 160 for-sale units would start in the upper $200,000s, StyleCraft President Richard Kuhn has said.
It isn’t clear when construction on the townhomes will start. Kuhn could not be reached for comment last week.
With more than 300 units between them, the two projects will add to a residential and commercial corridor that has taken some hits over the past year. Last summer, the nearby Walmart Neighborhood Market at 5221 Brook Road was shuttered. A block south at Brook and Azalea, a former Walgreens pharmacy has also closed and been put up for sale.
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