Exterior demolition began today at the warehouse at 400 Oliver Hill Way. The parcel, as well as the adjacent parcels to the north and south, are owned by Lovings Produce LLC.
A similar warehouse stood on the southern lot until it burned in a few years back (anybody know the year?).
16 comments
Hello Kroger!
Please do not tell me that they are putting more “luxury apartments” in that area. The Bottom has seen enough already. Parking is already a nightmare.
I have a really great idea: put a baseball stadium there! No one’s thought of that yet!
David Bass – is there a Kroger coming? Or just wishful thinking? I would love Kroger within walking distance!
John, the other warehouse (my favorite in the city) burned in 2004.
I guess they need more parking since the slave grave yard is no longer a parking lot.
@Cadeho – you wouldn’t happen to have any photos of that other warehouse, would you? 🙂
damn. so sad. i love that warehouse–and like Cadeho, the one that use to stand by its side with the amazing windows in the roof. these both should have been restore and used for offices/retail/residential. they are/were beautiful historic buildings that told a story about our country’s late 19th/early 20th railroad economy.
Murden, your pic of this demo is perfect. Now, we get an even better view of the ugliest building ever constructed: the state’s Madison tower.
That’s actually the Monroe office tower. (The Madison building is smaller, sits at an odd angle across 14th St.) And it could have been worse–the original plans for the Monroe building complex called for two towers. You can see the footprint for the second tower on the mezzanine, but it was never built due to budget cuts and structural issues with the building’s foundation.
What a shame about the warehouse. I saw them doing some work on it and hoped that they were going to begin restoration. Funny, I always thought VCU owned the space since they have fuel tank and central supply storage down in that area.
I checked the city’s database for permits, and the only thing I found was an expired demo permit. No results came up for building anything at that address (including a Kroger or a ball park). Don’t know if this link will work or not.
http://eservices.ci.richmond.va.us/applications/permits/PermitDetails.aspx?p=D12030806
Thanks for correcting me, Observer. I was so angry i got my state building names confused.
I very much like the Monroe building from a visual perspective. It’s street interaction is awful but not much worse than most of the insensitive work in downtown Richmond, especially considering its site.
No worries. I just used to work in the Madison building and I am a huge nerd when it comes to downtown office buildings. 😉
Although some of the buildings are rather ugly on the outside, there are some redeeming qualities. For instance, a very “mod” clock in the mezzanine elevator lobby, the old mail chute, and even a pneumatic tube system in the upper basement are still visible in the Madison building. It’s sort of neat to see some of the details from the building as it existed pre-rennovation.
How sad! I was actually hoping they’d refurb it. It looked really cool from the outside.
How old/ when was the warehouse built? Been looking everywhere online and coming up short!