Nolde Bakery groundbreaking ceremony
A groundbreaking ceremony took place Tuesday afternoon as part of the $20 million project to turn the historic Nolde Bakery building into luxury condos. The condos project is scheduled to be finished later this year.
From the Nolde site:
The Nolde Bakery building began its existence in the 1920′s as Nolde Brothers Bakery. The Art Deco style building, designed by New York architect John Edwin Hopkins, was used for the manufacture and distribution of bakery products until the mid-1970′s.Â
The Richmond Voice has the story.
“This is an exciting day for the 7th District. Churchill is a diverse neighborhood rich with history,†commented Councilwoman Delores McQuinn last week at the groundbreaking ceremony for the Nolde Bakery Condominiums.
Seventy-seven new luxury condos valued anywhere between $200,000 to $500,000 per unit are planned for the historic neighborhood. McQuinn said that the old bakery building sitting at the intersection of North 26th Street and East Broad Street was vacant for quite some time and the new $20 million condo project will offer more productivity to the district.
While new condos may mark the end of a blighted and vacant structure, numerous residents had divergent opinions about who they will benefit and their impact on the city’s Black population.
Local resident Robert Hill commented about always hearing how new development projects will benefit and increase the value of the neighborhood, yet in a sense while these projects are beautifying the neighborhood Black people are ultimately being driven out.
“These condos are not for Blacks. These condos are for people with money. The whole purpose of building these condos are to move Blacks out,†alleged Wilbert Lewis, a longtime resident of Churchill.
“This space could have been used for something other than housing. [It could have been used for something] like a recreation center or a gym, something to occupy kids’ time to keep them out of trouble,†said Hill, who also grew up in Churchill.
Also a long article in the RTD.
While I think that reoccupancy of empty buildings is great but I keep wondering with all these condos popping up– WHERE is the retail? It seems crazy that the housing stock is growing but still there is no movie theater in the city and no where to go to run errands except for the trek out to the fake downtown malls. it just doesn’t really add up…
This was my uncle’s bakery. My aunt Ella, his wife, passed away yesterday 5/6/05.
From a City press release from 3/29/2005: “This is a great day for Church Hill,” said Richmond Mayor L. Douglas Wilder, who grew up in the neighborhood, “Instead of an empty, abandoned building, the old bakery will soon be a new place to call home for dozens of Richmond residents.”
I’m a regular reader of your community newspaper, as I’ve always wanted to live in the historic Church Hill neighborhood. I am interested in buying a home in the Nolde Bakery Condominium project, but I am concerned because I recently heard the project is in big financial trouble with millions of dollars in cost overruns and significantly more yet to come since potentially toxic mold and fungus was found throughout the building and falling lead paint problems continue to persist. Have you heard anything about these problems?
Do you think these problems could be a long term health threat to the building residents as well as to others in the Church Hill neighborhood especially if the construction work has disturbed all of these spores and spread them throughout the building and neighborhood? If you haven’t investigated this, I think you should as a service to your subscribers and neighborhood residents.
anon- I’m not close to the project, though I do have my sources in the building/restoration circles and I’ve heard nothing like that. Even if that is true, I wouldn’t be to worried about it — there are enough old houses with their own mold and lead issues already (like mine….).
If you are interested in the property but worried about mold or lead issues, talk to a lawyer and find out what kind of regulations and inspections the site has to comply with and what type of disclosure regulations apply to something like this.
Can you provide me with the history of the Nolde Bakery? I remember that my great uncle by marriage, Wm. C. Moesta was related to them but, can’t remember if Mrs. Nolde was his mother,s maiden name or not. I do remember that they baked the best poud ckes that I ever tasted!! Thanks.
To the person asking about the mold and lead paint: The company I work for also does development in historic areas and we are required to do environmental testing and kill any mold or contain any lead before construction can start. I don’t know exact details about the process but you may be able to contact someone with the city to find out.