An aerial rendering of the proposed $2.3 billion GreenCity development. (BizSense file)
One of the larger remaining pieces of the GreenCity puzzle is now in place for the massive arena-anchored project in development in Henrico.
Henrico-based Markel | Eagle Partners has signed on to develop a residential portion of the 200-acre “ecodistrict” project, going in with the county to purchase the Scott Farm property that makes up the northern half of the development site, which runs between Parham Road and Interstate 295 east of I-95.
Markel | Eagle’s homebuilding arm, Eagle Construction of VA, will build all of the 880 for-sale homes that are planned for the 111-acre Scott Farm property, which Bill Goodwin’s Riverstone Properties bought in 2015 and gifted earlier this year to Goodwin’s Commonwealth Foundation for Cancer Research.
Markel | Eagle is contributing $17 million toward a $35.1 million purchase of the Scott Farm land, with the county paying another $17 million through its Economic Development Authority and the EDA pitching in another $1.1 million.
The county expects to recoup its part of the payment over 20 years from incremental tax revenues generated by GreenCity. The EDA approved the purchase in a special meeting Thursday, and the transaction is scheduled to close later this month.
Riverstone bought the four parcels that make up the Scott Farm land in 2015 for more than $6.4 million. The county assessed the parcels this year at $16.6 million combined.
A conceptual layout of housing groups planned for the Scott Farm property.
In addition to the home sites, Markel | Eagle will develop 80 acres that make up the Scott Farm portion of a linear park that’s planned to run through the length of the GreenCity site. Principal Ricky Core said the total buildout of the Scott Farm property amounts to a $400 million investment by Markel | Eagle.
Ricky Core
“We are honored to partner with Henrico County, and we are excited to embrace the vision of GreenCity and the ecodistrict,” Core said in an interview Thursday. “The visioning of GreenCity is in line with where we believe development is going to in the future, so the opportunity to be a part of executing the residential portion of GreenCity was an opportunity we couldn’t pass up.”
Known for its GreenGate development in Short Pump and for completing the nearby West Broad Village development, Markel | Eagle is also known to Henrico for its recently approved Avenlea project, which Core said introduced the company to environmental approaches not unlike what’s planned with GreenCity’s ecodistrict.
“We started doing our research on these large master-planned residential communities and what the next evolution of that looked like. It kept coming down to this theme of biophilia,” Core said, referring to an industry term for interaction and integration with natural surroundings. “When you think about what the Scott Farm at GreenCity development resonates with, it resonates with that idea.”
Core said the company has had its eye on Scott Farm as a potential development opportunity for decades, and on GreenCity as it progressed through the approval process.
“It’s at a great intersection in Henrico County and a terrific place for the future growth of Henrico County,” he said.
A site plan of the GreenCity project. (File image courtesy Green City Partners)
The 880 homes planned for the Scott Farm land is just a portion of the 2,400 residential units that are approved for GreenCity overall. The rest of those units would be built on the 93-acre former Best Products site that makes up the southern half of the overall site.
Developer Michael Hallmark, who is leading the $2.3 billion GreenCity project with business partner Susan Eastridge, said Eagle will also build 163 homes on the Best Products site. He said the rest of the units would be built by a multifamily residential developer to be named at a later date.
In addition to the homes, GreenCity is planned to consist of a 17,000-seat arena, two 300-room hotels, office and retail development, green space, and a rehab of the former Best Products headquarters building.
The arena, to be managed by ASM Global, is targeted for completion by the end of 2026. As part of its deal with Markel | Eagle, about 12 acres of Scott Farm will be set aside for potential parking lots to support the arena when it opens, if needed. Once structured parking is built as the development progresses, that acreage would revert back to Markel | Eagle for residential development, no later than 2031.
Earlier this year, Riverstone filed a conceptual layout for the residential development planned for Scott Farm. A preliminary plat approved in June shows the 880 units broken down as 510 townhomes, 302 “two-over-two” condos and 68 villas. The condos were not approved as part of the plat, and those that are planned at the northern end of GreenCity – 192 units – could be switched out with so-called condo flats.
The 200-acre GreenCity site includes the Scott Farm property owned by Riverstone Properties. (BizSense file)
Core said the homes would be a variety of product types including detached and attached units and condos, and range in sizes and price points. He said Markel | Eagle would follow the master plan for GreenCity but could make some tweaks to its part of the development.
“We’re going to take a look at everything that has already been approved and make adjustments as necessary,” he said.
Core said the deal between Markel | Eagle and Henrico materialized over the past month or so. EDA director Anthony Romanello said it was always the plan for a residential developer to be brought into the project, and that Markel | Eagle was selected for its track record in the county.
Anthony Romanello
“When you take a project where you’ve got the GreenCity principals, ASM Global and now Markel | Eagle, that is a phenomenal trio of folks that have proven track records of doing quality projects,” Romanello said.
“In particular with Markel | Eagle – their track record of what they’ve done at GreenGate, what they’re doing at Avenlea, what they’ve done with their other projects of good quality housing that’s focused on environmental sustainability and great places to live – when you think about having a partner that could help with placemaking, we’re just really excited that Markel | Eagle is going to be on the team.”
Romanello noted that GreenCity is also planned to include the 16-acre property immediately east of Scott Farm that currently houses the nearby Saint Gertrude High School Outdoor Athletic Center. Once those facilities are relocated to Saint Gertrude’s new school in Goochland County, he said the athletic center site is expected to be used for commercial development to support GreenCity.
Infrastructure improvements to support GreenCity are in the works, including a planned east-west extension of Magellan Parkway, which would bisect the site and run across I-95 via a new bridge. The existing Scott Road bridge is planned to be converted to a pedestrian bridge in coordination with the Virginia Department of Transportation.
Core said homes at GreenCity could start being built in late 2025 or in 2026, depending on the infrastructure improvements.
The former Best Products headquarters building, which is to be repurposed as part of the GreenCity development. (Henrico County images)
As for GreenCity overall, the first phase of construction, which was to include the Best Products building rehab, had previously been targeted for sometime this year. Romanello said Thursday that a timeframe for the Best Products rehab is not set and that market forces and interest rates are factoring into the timing.
Hallmark added that the project is being coordinated and timed with the Living Building Challenge, a recognition program under the Seattle-based International Living Future Institute.
“GreenCity was announced in late 2020. The world has changed dramatically in the last couple of years,” Romanello said.
Adding that the 2.2 million square feet of office space and 280,000 square feet of retail space planned for GreenCity has not changed, Romanello said, “Certainly if there is an office user that has a strong commitment to sustainability and wants to be in an ecodistrict, that schedule can be accelerated.”
“GreenCity is a very strong development, with three great partners plus the county and the EDA to support them, and certainly impacted by the world around us,” he said.
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