The former Baker Equipment Co. building, as viewed from Rockbridge Street, has been converted from apartments to 31 condos. (Jonathan Spiers photo)
More homeownership options in Scott’s Addition are coming available after a recent apartments-to-condos conversion of one of the neighborhood’s earliest historic tax credit rehabs.
Herb Coleman and Hugh Shytle, principals of Richmond-based Clachan Properties, recently wrapped up a yearlong conversion of the former Ambience Lofts at 1716 Summit Ave., which they’ve rebranded as Hook & Ladder Lofts.
The new name is a nod to the 125-year-old building’s origins as the home of Baker Equipment Co., a company that for a century assembled firetrucks and other utility vehicles and equipment before closing in 2013.
An Ed Trask mural recalls the building’s history with assembling fire trucks and utility vehicles. (Images courtesy One South Realty)
A new mural on the building by local artist Ed Trask also recalls the building’s history, informed by old photos supplied by Glen Baker III, the company founder’s great-grandson who last year launched a new iteration of the family business, Baker Hydraulics.
Coleman and Shytle converted the 31 units under their development entity, H H Development Corp., after purchasing Ambience Lofts through Clachan Properties for $4.8 million in 2019.
With their focus of late on projects in the Carolinas, Shytle said he and Coleman, who started Clachan 23 years ago, thought the time was right to convert the units to condos. Shytle said that was likely the original developer’s plan all along, given the sizes of the units.
Hugh Shytle
“The units are too big. We would never do an apartment building like this,” Shytle said. “In some ways we’re taking advantage of the fact that the original architect either made the units too big or thought they might make them condos one day.”
The 40,000-square-foot former warehouse was first redeveloped into apartments in 2007 by local developer Larry Cluff, whose Baker Atrium Lofts project was one of Scott’s Addition’s earlier historic tax credit rehabs. Cluff sold the building six years later to a Herndon-based real estate firm, which rebranded the apartments as Ambience Lofts.
Shytle said Clachan purchased the property through a 1031 exchange stemming from its sale the same year of a residential portfolio that included 18 rowhouses in the 1800 block of Parkwood Avenue.
“Condos is really not our main thing. Our core business is apartments. But Herb and I are in our 60s and we’ve got to think about how do we monetize what we’ve done, with Scott’s Addition being the hottest submarket in Richmond and there are very few homeownership opportunities.”
Floor plans range upward from 1,000 square feet and feature wooden beams, industrial-style windows and other original building details.
Work started last summer on the conversion and renovations, which Shytle said totaled between $2 million and $2.5 million. Once tenants were moved out, work included a new roof, infrastructure upgrades and unit refreshes with new cabinets, faucets and washers and dryers.
With floor plans ranging from 1,000 square feet and upward, the condos are priced starting in the $300,000s, which Shytle described as more affordable than other homeownership options in the market.
“By hook or by crook, we’re going to be able to offer these at what feels like affordable pricing, relative to what’s happened in for-sale real estate over the last few years,” he said.
Some of the units have upstairs spaces.
Most of the units have two bedrooms and two bathrooms, with some single-bedroom and three-bedroom options. The largest units will be priced below $500,000.
In addition to the condos, the building includes an exercise facility and other amenities for residents and an 800-square-foot commercial space in the atrium structure facing Rockbridge Street. WPA Studios was the architect for the renovations, which also involved legal work by Hirschler.
One South Realty Group is marketing the condos and kicked off sales with an agent open house last week. One South co-founder Rick Jarvis said the units provide ownership options in Scott’s Addition that have started to increase with projects like Mason Yards, a new-construction condo development by Spy Rock Real Estate and StyleCraft Homes a few blocks west.
Where those condos are newly built, Jarvis noted that Hook & Ladder Lofts feature a bricks-and-beams aesthetic he described as “industrial-chic.”
“This is a completely different product. It’s pretty rare to be able to find something that you can own residentially in Scott’s, so this is a neat option to give some people some actual ownership over there,” Jarvis said, noting as well the property’s proximity to the under-construction CarMax Park.
“With all the stuff that’s coming to the ballpark, this being located in that northeast corner of Scott’s makes it very accessible to the whole Diamond District,” he said.
The condos are the latest project in Scott’s Addition for Shytle and Coleman, whose Clachan Properties also rehabbed 1607 Highpoint Ave. after buying that building in 2020. The 4,900-square-foot industrial building is now The Green Room, a 16-unit salon studio hub.
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