More info about The Devil’s Triangle!
Posted: April 14, 2010 | Author: Nathan Hughes | Filed under: B&H News, New Urbanism, Redevelopment, Restaurants, Retail | Tags: Bandazian & Holden, business owners, commercial real estate, downtown Richmond, property management, Redevelopment, Richmond, Virginia | Leave a comment »This is an article that you don’t want to miss about The Devil’s Triangle by Alix Bryan
I said my bit in a post yesterday, after seeing Alix’s videos — but there is SO much more that can be said, and she has a quite a few of the stories I have heard over the years about the rough days here in the Triangle. Be sure to read all about it!
Insight into The Devil’s Triangle
Posted: April 13, 2010 | Author: Nathan Hughes | Filed under: B&H News, New Urbanism, Redevelopment, Restaurants, Retail | Tags: Bandazian & Holden, commercial real estate, downtown Richmond, property management, Redevelopment, Richmond, Virginia | 5 Comments »There is a little-discussed part of Richmond’s Upper Fan/Museum District that was once a pretty rough area — “The Devil’s Triangle”, or as it is sometimes called, “The Bermuda Triangle”. Now it is an economic corridor with independent shops and restaurants that serve the residents of the Museum District, the Fan District, and anyone else that wants to wander through.
I lived in the area for several years back in the mid to late nineties, and I missed most of the rougher times but heard plenty about Felix’s, Cafe 21, and the Ritz — now Caliente, Cafe Diem, and Arianna’s.
We moved our offices over to 604 North Sheppard Street several years ago to be in the heart of the revitalization going on, and to show our commitment to the area. Our founder and CEO, Bedros Bandazian owns all of the commercial along this part of Sheppard Street except for the 7-Eleven, as well as some nearby commercial buildings — so there was already a strong commitment within the company to revitalizing the area. Our move made a further commitment, and of course we all patronize the surrounding businesses faithfully.
The transformation has taken another step with the most recent additions of:
- Sylvia’s Stitch & Suds (renovated coin laundrymat, now a seamstress and laundry),
- Arianna’s Grill (Italian restaurant from the extended family who also own Mary Angela’s and several others around town — built out from almost from scratch shell)
- The parking lot in the rear of the buildings at Park & Sheppard (repaved, landscaped, lighted, and available for any customers of the shops along Sheppard)
The Devil Doesn’t Live Here Anymore from Alix Bryan on Vimeo.
The Devil’s Triangle is located in the Museum District, which is nestled within the Upper Fan, of Richmond, VA.
This area received its name from three rough local bars, which formed a triangle. The bars have changed ownership, and the area has undergone a major transformation.
However, the nickname has stuck, and has a quirky appeal to locals–locals who never went when it was actually the Devil’s Triangle.
It wasn’t unlikely for police to find wanted suspects in the bars, or for gun and fistfights to happen almost nightly.
Origin of a nickname from Alix Bryan on Vimeo.
Rich Holden, former owner of Felix, talks about how a two block area came to be known as The Devil’s Triangle. Located in Richmond, VA, this area was home to drug trafficking, prostitution, bar brawls and gunfights. The triangle consisted of three bars, The Felix, The Ritz, and Cafe 21.
Although Holden called it “The Bermuda Triangle,” that moniker is also commonly synonymous with “The Devil’s Triangle.”
[editor's note: Richard Holden is now the Principal Broker and President here at Bandazian & Holden, Inc.]
I’m eagerly awaiting Alix’s article to go along with the videos, and if she’ll allow me I’ll share it with you in a later post — or at least I’ll link over to it! I greatly appreciate her allowing me to use the videos here, and encourage you to go to her Vimeo site to take a look at her other work!
If you haven’t visited the Devil’s Triangle in a while, you should! Visit the Black Hand for some coffee that was roasted right there on site. Come sit on Caliente’s patio and enjoy the spring breeze while you have dinner. Come listen to some amazing music down at Cafe Diem. Or explore one of the other shops or restaurants.
[edit (4/13/10, 2:27pm): After a couple of off-blog responses, I'm curious to ask -- If you are familiar with the Devil's Triangle, please share some memories of your time there with us in the comment section below!]
New use for the Ukrop’s building at VCU
Posted: April 24, 2009 | Author: Nathan Hughes | Filed under: Redevelopment, Retail, Virginia Commonwealth University | Leave a comment »The Ukrop’s location on West Grace Street closed almost a year ago, and since then has sat vacant in the midst of the bustling VCU community.
Plans are finally underway for making use of the space since the acquisition by VCU just a few months ago. Not a grand retail redevelopment, but it’s certainly a logical progression for VCU to acquire and use the space for additional classrooms and storage.
See the full story at Richmond BizSense here (which, by the way, does an EXCELLENT job with the business news for Richmond and the surrounding areas — if you aren’t subscribed then you are missing out!).
Waitstaff in DC accused of stealing credit card numbers
Posted: April 1, 2009 | Author: Nathan Hughes | Filed under: Legal, National News, Restaurants, Retail | Leave a comment »This is a sad story about people taking advantage of trust given to them by the general public. No, it's not about the government or big-business (this time), but about the trust that we put in the waitstaff at our favorite restaurants.
Six servers at high-end restaurants in Washington, DC, were accused of stealing credit card numbers from customers and selling them to criminals who used the numbers to create counterfeit cards and charge $750K worth of items at local stores. (See the full article from the Washington Examiner here.)
Secret Service investigators cracked the Washington-area scheme
after customers began complaining to their banks of unauthorized
charges on their cards, Secret Service Special Agent Philip Soto wrote
in a sworn statement filed in Alexandria’s federal court. Soto
discovered patterns in the charges that led him to the restaurants,
where managers helped him trace the stolen information back to specific
servers.
“Every employee has a unique
number they put into the register before ringing up a charge,” Clyde’s
of Gallery Place manager Paul Walker told The Examiner. “With that
system in place, we can point back to an employee very quickly. …
It’s very traceable.”
A few lessons to be learned and points to be made in light of this story:
- Watch your credit & bank accounts for odd activity. You can't catch what you don't see.
- Regardless of the poor example these servers have give, most servers are wonderful and extremely trustworthy. Don't let a few bad apples make you disrespectful.
- As an industry, retailers and restaurateurs need to use systems to make the detective work easier (at least) and stealing private data harder (even better).
It's a shame that these stories happen at all, and with a bad economy people become even more desperate. The best that we can do is show that this type of behavior will be recognized and punished, without over-reacting and only seeing the negative.
New life for closed Ukrop’s VCU location
Posted: January 14, 2009 | Author: Nathan Hughes | Filed under: Redevelopment, Retail, Virginia Commonwealth University | Leave a comment »Per breaking news on the RTD website today, the former Ukrop's location on Grace Street adjacent to the Virginia Commonwealth University campus will now be part of that same campus. VCU's real estate foundation purchased the property for future development.
for $9 million from BET Investments Inc., a Pennsylvania-based
development company."
Watch for more information in upcoming press. I'm sure there will be articles soon.
For more on the closing of the Ukrop's at VCU, see here, here, and here.
(Thanks to burt from UP Richmond for the heads up on the article!)
Today’s Grand Opening at White Oak Village (pictures, too!)
Posted: October 13, 2008 | Author: Nathan Hughes | Filed under: Henrico County, New Development, Restaurants, Retail, Shopping Centers | Leave a comment »Today was the big day for the Shops at White Oak Village! The
eagerly anticipated shopping center was formally introduced to the
community this morning, and while the line of speakers patting each
other on the back for a job well done was the agenda for the event (and
well deserved!), the important news is that this is not your typical
shopping center.
Every developer says that their shopping center
is unique, but this time it was proven. Not only was the environment
taken highly into consideration in the construction and build-out, but
the way the traffic is controlled and the landscaping is done lends to
a very pedestrian-friendly environment.
Then again, this is the
same developer that did Short Pump Town Center and that was a new style
for the area, too. I have to say that it is refreshing to see that
there are developers doing such high quality work and not just churning
out the same strip mall over and over again.
UPDATE #4: White Oak Village
Posted: October 9, 2008 | Author: Nathan Hughes | Filed under: Henrico County, Hotels, New Development, Restaurants, Retail, Shopping Centers | Leave a comment »Lately I have seen a flood of inquiries for information on the newest addition of shops in the East End of Richmond — The Shops at White Oak Village. From all of the internet traffic, it is easy to believe that this shopping center will be a huge hit.
With the GRAND OPENING occurring this Monday, October 13, it is an appropriate time to revisit the project and see how everything stands for the public unveiling. All of the shops that were revealed in the previous post (3/27/08) have been confirmed, plus quite a few more. Take a look at this page of the official website for the directory of shops.
Several comments from the previous post called for a fitness center, a Chipotle, and a movie theater. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem as though any of those are on board yet — except that there is a Qdoba scheduled to open right away!
There is a grand opening event on Monday that I will be attending, so I will be sure to report back with my impression of the overall project and see if I can bend the ear of an insider to find out about any other hot pieces of info to share!
Be sure to check back next week for the update, or just subscribe using your feed reader or by typing your email address in the "subscribe" box under my picture along the left hand side of this window (be sure to confirm your address when the service sends you their email). If there is anything else you would like for me to find out, leave a comment and I'll see what I can do!
(In the meantime, take a look back through the other updates for this project on this blog: 5/15/07 and 6/15/06)
UPDATE: The Shops at White Oak Village
Posted: March 27, 2008 | Author: Nathan Hughes | Filed under: Henrico County, New Development, Restaurants, Retail, Shopping Centers | Leave a comment »Since there have been so many inquiries to my blog regarding The Shops at White Oak Village (see previous entries on the subject from 5/15/07 and 6/15/06), I thought it was time for an update. Considering the time between each posting on the shopping center development, maybe I should consider labeling this as an annual update…
Now there is an official website for the project, and there are confirmed tenants listed:
- Circuit City (I suppose it will be one of the new "The City" stores)
- Hyatt Place
- JCPenney
- Lowe's
- PetSmart
- Red Lobster
- Sam's Club
- Target
- Ukrop's
Here's a factoid that I knew but had forgotten — the developer for The Shops at White Oak Village is the same developer that put together Short Pump Town Center and River Lofts at Tobacco Row, Forest City Enterprises. Of course, given the confirmed tenant mix so far, White Oak will be a very different shopping center than Short Pump is. That doesn't mean it won't be a good mix, just that it will be different — hopefully different in the way that reflects the needs and wants of the surrounding demographics.
It looks as though the project is still on target for a grand opening in Fall 2008, but we'll keep an eye out for any updates to that — and maybe another update before a full year passes…
[EDIT (10/13/08): Click here for the latest update on the Shops at White Oak Village.]
[EDIT (10/31/08): Click here for pictures and a post about the grand opening today!]
How is Circuit City like the City of Richmond?
Posted: March 6, 2008 | Author: Nathan Hughes | Filed under: Government Institutions, Retail | Leave a comment »Q: How is Circuit City like the City of Richmond government?
A: They both share a very unfortunate self-destructive behavior — rewarding poor management with large raises and retention bonuses.
Now…that’s not entirely fair. The behavior isn’t self-destructive so much as it is harmful for the people that have entrusted these folks with their livelihoods and well-being.
I was flabbergasted back at the end of 2007 when I read the news that the executives at Circuit City were being rewarded with retention bonuses after a series of very, very bad decisions that had been handed down over the previous few months. If it were my company, I would have been much more likely to pay those same executives extra to walk away and stop causing so much harm to the reputation and morale of the company. I wouldn’t have asked them to stay, and I certainly wouldn’t set up incentives to keep them in place.
I’ve always thought that the public sector could learn a lesson or two from the private sector, but if I knew this was the lesson they were going to learn then I never would have wished for it. After all of the debacles that the city has been through at the hands of the current executive leadership, why would anyone think that these same officials deserve a raise – much less raises of 13-20%?! (Read the entire article from yesterday’s RTD by clicking here. There are a lot of details that add to the shamefulness of the situation.)
I guess the City of Richmond has Circuit City to thank for blazing the way in rewarding ineptitude.
Latest Plans for the Boulevard
Posted: February 23, 2008 | Author: Nathan Hughes | Filed under: Government Institutions, New Development, Redevelopment, Residential, Restaurants, Retail, Shopping Centers | Leave a comment »A short but very interesting article in this morning’s RTD discusses the redevelopment plans for the area around the Diamond on Boulevard. The focus of the article was more on the deadline yesterday for developers to submit their bids on the project, but I found the details of the City’s plans for the area to be more interesting than the names of the developers
(Although, it is interesting that Douglas Development Corp. has bid on the project. That’s the firm owned by Douglas Jemal. They are firmly entrenched in DC and Maryland, and have been buying up properties downtown over the past couple of years.)
Per the advertised qualifications for the bids, the City has outlined their vision of the redevelopment:
- a new 8,000-seat baseball stadium closer to I-95 — When I first read that, I couldn’t imagine it being very much closer than the Diamond is now, but it could be moved back towards the I-95 South entrance ramp.
- redevelopment of the Virginia Alcoholic Beverage Control headquarters, perhaps to include the relocation of the Richmond Coliseum to this site
- demolish the Diamond, using the 27-acre site for a mixed-use development
- demolish the city maintenance complex, resulting in another 27-acre site for redevelopment
- build a parking deck beside the Arthur Ashe Center
It will be interesting to see it all move forward, and to see the renderings that the chosen developer presents. If anyone has further insight on the project, I would love to hear more!