The Cobb Lumber complex on Hermitage Road, just north of the railroad crossing. (Jonathan Spiers photos)
As a major mixed-use development gets rolling nearby, the longtime home of a Richmond lumber company along Hermitage Road is being floated for a $53 million project that could provide a new home for a local construction firm.
Breeden Investment Properties, an affiliate of Virginia Beach-based The Breeden Co., is looking to redevelop the Cobb Lumber site at 2300 Hermitage Road with a mixed-use building that potentially could house a new corporate office for Richmond-based subsidiary Breeden Construction.
Plans filed with the city earlier this year show the triangular-shaped, 2.2-acre property would be filled with a six-story building with 153 apartments and office space above a ground-level parking garage. A rendering of the building shows signage for Breeden Construction and a rooftop space overlooking Hermitage.
A rendering of the proposed mixed-use building, which would include apartments and office space above a parking garage. (Courtesy of City of Richmond)
Breeden is under contract to purchase the property, which last sold in 1990 for $260,000, according to city property records. The city most recently assessed the property at $1.42 million.
Cobb Lumber President Steven Clifton confirmed that the property is under contract. He did not comment further when reached Tuesday.
Built in 1900, the cluster of warehouses and industrial buildings are next door to the Richmond Ambulance Authority property at 2400 Hermitage Road. Breeden’s development would include a sliver of that property that the authority is not using, according to the plans, which note that Breeden has made an offer to buy that 0.17-acre sliver from the city.
A site map shows the portion of the Richmond Ambulance Authority property that would be part of the project. (Courtesy of City of Richmond)
On Monday, the Richmond Planning Commission passed a resolution declaring the city’s intent to rezone the authority property to TOD-1, the Transit-Oriented Nodal District that now includes the Cobb property after an area-wide rezoning adopted last month for the so-called “Greater Scott’s Addition” area. That rezoning left the authority property zoned B-7 Mixed-Use Business.
Breeden had previously filed a rezoning application seeking the TOD zoning for the Cobb site. The application, which is no longer being processed by city planning staff in light of the area-wide rezoning, includes an overview of the development, which it describes as a $53 million investment by Breeden.
The office portion of the building would be large enough to accommodate 126 employees, while the rest of the upper floors would be filled with the apartments. Units would range in size from 750 to 1,400 square feet and include 58 one-bedroom, 68 two-bedroom and 27 three-bedroom floorplans.
The cluster of warehouses and industrial buildings currently on the site would be razed.
Amenities would be located on the second floor, and the ground-floor garage would total 153 parking spaces, with an additional 17 spaces outside the building. The plans also show a dog park on the site.
Humphreys & Partners Architects, a Dallas-based firm, is behind the building’s design, and Richmond-based Timmons Group drew up site plans for the project. Hirschler attorney Robert Benaicha filed the plans for Breeden, which would operate and manage the building.
Breeden representatives did not comment on the project when reached Tuesday, and a call to Benaicha was not returned.
StyleCraft Homes’ The Outpost at Brewers Row condos are among the developments underway around Hardywood Craft Park Brewery.
The project would rise just a block from the so-called “Hardywood village” development that’s underway around the brewery at Ownby Lane and Overbrook Road. Spy Rock Real Estate Group and Crescent Preservation & Development Co. are behind that development, which will add nearly 200 apartments, dozens of townhomes and over 20,000 square feet of commercial space to the area.
If it relocates to Hermitage, the move would be the second in two years for Breeden Construction, which last year took space in the Glen Forest Office Park in western Henrico. The company’s current projects around town include a group of apartment rehabs that recently got underway. It’s also done two projects with Spy Rock: The Scout at Scott’s Addition, and the Ella development in front of the UMFS campus.
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