Richmond’s next frontier?

Posted: September 23, 2010 | Author: | Filed under: City of Richmond, Redevelopment, Retail | Tags: , , , , | 1 Comment »

Style Weekly has an interesting article this week about a part of Richmond that has been largely ignored, Northside’s Brookland Park Boulevard.  There is a lot of great information in the article, so be sure to go here and read the whole thing, but I felt like this part in particular was a great summary of the past and present of this area:

Brookland Park Boulevard was a bustling commercial corridor in the 1950s and ’60s, with popular bakeries, restaurants, a theater and a nightclub. And today, despite the many vacant buildings, several businesses still do a thriving trade.

On Saturdays, the area’s many beauty and barber shops are packed. Soul food restaurant Sam’s Kitchen is doing well, Epps says, as is his brother’s newly opened restaurant, River City Seafood. The cheerful yellow Michaela’s Bakery, which opened in 2005, sells six-layer cakes and strawberry shortcakes wholesale. Owner Michael Hatcher wishes the city would think of some way to bring more customers in — something historic, he says, or a tourist attraction. Another longtime business owner, florist Sylvia Richardson, says loiterers are the biggest deterrent to business. She says she doesn’t feel comfortable even walking to the convenience store across the street.

The one thing on which the merchants agree is that Brookland Park Boulevard has potential. Car traffic is plentiful, because the boulevard connects the city’s North Side and East End, and the area is served by two bus lines. The street has some architectural gems, such as an old theater and an ornate bank building. Richmond Community High School, a school for the gifted, moved onto the boulevard in 2009. Young people are buying up houses in nearby neighborhoods.

Brookland Park Boulevard reminds me a lot of other Richmond gems like East Grace Street near the Carpenter Center and Manchester’s Hull Street.  A rich history, a questionable present, and a lot of enthusiasm and support to make the area a thriving community.

For another great write-up on the area, take a look at this very thorough post on This Decrepit Victorian from March 2010:  The Brookland Park Historic District.

What’s next for Brookland Park, I wonder?

Official recommendations on the privatization of ABC stores

Posted: September 8, 2010 | Author: | Filed under: Government Institutions, Restaurants, Retail | Tags: , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment »

Virginia Governor, Bob McDonnell, has been getting a lot of news coverage lately over his push to privatize ABC stores statewide:  RTD from 9/3/10, NBC12 from 8/19/10, Hburgnews.com from 8/26/10, Style Weekly from 6/29/10.

This proposal still has a ways to go and many levels of bureaucracy to push through before it becomes reality, but McDonnell ‘s senior staff members have been studying the issue to make recommendations.  Here are their official findings (the full version), which were released today.  You can find the presentations that were made through this link. (although it doesn’t look like it will stay the top story but for so long)

I pulled out a number of points from the press release that I found to be the most intriguing:

  • 1,000 retail licenses will be auctioned off to the highest bidders
  • The licenses will be broken into three categories: 600 licenses for large establishments such as grocery stores; 150 for smaller establishments such as package stores and wine and beer shops; 250 for convenience stores/retail pharmacies
  • No one company will be allowed more than 25% of licenses within each level
  • 1,000 licenses will still give Virginia 1.8 outlets per 10,000 adults, far below the private state average of 3.8 per 10,000 adults
  • Majority of new license holders will be existing stores; Virginians will primarily see new shelves in retail establishments, not new establishments.
  • 332 licenses will be guaranteed for areas currently served by an existing ABC outlet
  • The additional 668 licenses will be granted based on population density
  • The wholesale side will also be privatized, allowing the Commonwealth to completely focus on law enforcement and regulation of distilled spirits
  • There is no tax increase in the privatization proposal
  • The Commonwealth will also make an additional $33 million on the sale of the ABC warehouse in Richmond and 19 state owned outlets
  • The number of ABC enforcement agents will be increased by 25%
  • The Commonwealth, through the ABC board, will maintain health, safety, law enforcement and marketing regulatory authority over private distilled spirit sales and distribution

Also, the point that has been making the most buzz lately is the idea of a 4% tax on the gross liquor receipts for restaurant operators.  That seems to have been taken out of the recommendations (given the 9th bullet point listed above), unless it’s a matter of semantics and they’ve buried it by not calling it a tax.  I didn’t have time to go through, but I’m sure there will be lots of other people combing through the details of this proposal word for word.

Another point that is of particular interest to me is the sale of the ABC main warehouse.  I wonder who will be listing that? *ahem* Mr. Governor, I’d be happy to take a look at it for you!

Should I wait to sign a lease, or is this as good as it gets?

Posted: July 9, 2010 | Author: | Filed under: Commercial Leasing, Office Buildings, Restaurants, Retail, Shopping Centers | Tags: , , | Leave a comment »

Fear is a strong motivator, but so is hope.  They’re especially strong when they come together.  It’s a special moment when we’ve made it through an especially bad economic downturn and your business starts to tick upwards for the first time.

Commercial landlords have been through that hard time right along with every other business owner, and they are ready to see that uptick themselves.  They are ready to deal to get in good steady tenants.  At the same time, businesses are seeing new contracts come in (I know we have!) and they are ready to start taking advantage of the deals on leases — are you?

empty salon space

2217-2219 W Main Street

I’m certainly not the first to point this out, and I’m taking my cue from a recent online article on National Real Estate Investor — “Office Tenants and Landlords Battle for Upper Hand”

Landlord concession packages are not likely to get any bigger… “They’re as good as they’re going to get.” The same may be true with rents, he adds. “Rents may fall in some markets a bit further, but the ship starts to turn before a lot of people know they’re on it.”

Robert Bach, senior vice president and chief economist at Grubb & Ellis, agrees. “More tenants are active now and willing to sign a long-term lease because they are more confident in their own outlook and realize now is a good time because of the concessions available.”

They’re talking about office leases in the article, but it makes just as much sense with retail and restaurant spaces, too.

Of course you never know when the economy has hit bottom until it’s too late to take advantage of the best deals.  The great part is that as long as you’re not making decisions out of fear, you can keep your eye on your own business and use cues from your business activity help you decide when is the best time to move.

So if you’re seeing cues that things are getting better in your business, perhaps it’s time we talk about finding a good deal now…?

Does downtown Richmond have a parking problem?

Posted: June 28, 2010 | Author: | Filed under: New Urbanism, Redevelopment, Transportation | Tags: , , , , | 2 Comments »

Given the info in this post at The Urbanophile, I sure hope we do!
desolation
The author is specifically talking about Buffalo, New York, but this is an issue that most cities of any substantial size have to wrestle with all of the time.  I can’t count all of the times I’ve heard people complain about parking in downtown Richmond — and I know that I have at certain times/events.

Here’s an excerpt that I felt summed up the key point of the post to me:

Downtown can never compete with suburban office parks on the basis of convenient and affordable parking. To compete successfully on that basis would mean the destruction of all of downtown’s remaining (and emerging) value.

By definition, downtown can never out-compete the suburbs on suburban, automobile-based terms. By necessity, parking takes up a tremendous amount of land, creating lots of dead, open space, which the suburbs have plenty of. In fact, that’s the suburbs’ main asset: lots of open space. A city’s main amenity is not open land, but density, walkability, a diverse mix of uses, and the quality of the streets and other public spaces. These are the areas in which the suburbs cannot out-compete downtown.

That doesn’t mean that we should ignore parking entirely.  Complaints about parking are a symptom, not the actual problem.

Parking will always be an issue if everyone is coming from out of town to visit the downtown.  More importantly, we should focus on bringing more businesses and residents downtown — increasing the walkability and decreasing reliance on cars will make parking less of a problem.

But more to the point of the post, downtown isn’t supposed to be a wonderland of surface parking lots.  It’s supposed to be a dense area with lots of people and businesses, and events that bring more people from all over.  If the downtown is a vibrant place, then people will deal with the parking issues (they will still complain, but they will still come).  If you want lots of open parking, go to the suburbs — that’s what they’re good at.

There a good discussion in their comment section, so be sure to check that out while you’re reading through the original post.

Photo credit greeneyedhedgehog

Tips on leasing commercial space

Posted: April 26, 2010 | Author: | Filed under: General, Restaurants, Retail, Shopping Centers | Tags: , , , | Leave a comment »

If you’re looking for commercial space for your business, or think that you might ever be looking — read this article from Entrepreneur Magazine, “How to Negotiate a Lease“. It has lots of great information on what to expect and how the process works for finding a commercial space to lease. [please ignore all of the obnoxious advertising that Entrepreneur Magazine is so horrible about, the article is worth suffering through the ads]

Be educated about the process and do your homework, but don’t let your ego get in the way and think that you can do this on your own. As the article mentions, be sure to use a commercial broker to find and negotiate the space with you, and use an attorney to review the lease documents.

There are things that you won’t know that you’re missing, no matter how savvy of a tenant you are — and those things that you missed will become painfully obvious the moment you reference your lease regarding a contentious issue 2 years from now, or the moment you hear about the space that wasn’t officially “on the market” but was half the price and better positioned than the space you chose.

More info about The Devil’s Triangle!

Posted: April 14, 2010 | Author: | Filed under: B&H News, New Urbanism, Redevelopment, Restaurants, Retail | Tags: , , , , , , , | 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: | Filed under: B&H News, New Urbanism, Redevelopment, Restaurants, Retail | Tags: , , , , , , | 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!]

UPDATE: Cineplex Slated for Boulevard

Posted: November 30, 2006 | Author: | Filed under: Redevelopment, Restaurants, Retail | Tags: , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment »

This is a call-back to a posting several months ago (5/18/06, to be exact): New Cineplex Slated for the Boulevard?  — see the post to get up-to-speed

This has been long in the works, obviously, and is still in the early stages.  As Style Weekly pointed out in this week’s edition ("Merger Won’t Slow Boulevard Complex"), the architectural plans are still being drawn up.

But there is no rush for Bow Tie Partners (the developers), as Richmond Steel isn’t planned to relocate for another 8 months.

Some interesting facts from the article:

  • the new cineplex will be called Movieland
  • the redevelopment project is being called Boulevard Square
  • there will be 13,000+ sq ft of retail and restaurants in the development
  • the area where Bowtie originally planned for a cineplex is called Jefferson Square (between Main, Cary, 3rd & 4th Streets)
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