Three big projects under way along 21st Street and Broad Street will bring almost 500 apartments and more than 13,000 square feet of retail space to the area where Church Hill and Shockoe meet.

Read more >

Richmond Biz Sense is reporting that the Cedar Broad project will be breaking ground this week:

George Emerson of the Emerson Companies said his firm is breaking ground this week on a 204-unit complex at 18th and Broad streets to be called the Cedar Broad Apartments. [...] The building will stand four stories tall and consist mostly of one-bedroom units. It will also have 110 covered parking spaces and 8,448 square feet of retail space. The property includes an existing McDonald’s restaurant, which will remain, and the apartment building will be constructed on the rest of the block, which is currently a parking lot.

Perhaps you’ve noticed the archeological work going on in the parking lot behind McDonald’s as part of the development work for the Cedar-Broad project. It turns out that they are finding some neat stuff:

Lyle Browning of Browning and Associates Ltd. said finding the brick cellar and hearth of a late-18th-century home on the 3-acre site at North 18th and East Broad streets was unanticipated. [...] Browning and his crew was expecting to find the remnants of homes built in the 1840s.

“To our surprise, we found no less than two 1769 or thereabouts buildings that were covered over by the 1840s homes,” he said beneath a tent covering exposed layers of brick and soil.

Walter Parks gave an overview of changes to the Cedar-Broad development at this week’s Friends of Jefferson Park meeting.

Read more >

The next meeting of the Friends of Jefferson Park will be tonight, Monday, January 26th @ 7PM. On the agenda is a presentation on the Cedar-Broad development, which may or may not be slated for another historic parking lot. Contact Bill Conkle for more information Bill.Conkle@dcr.virginia.gov.

Read more >