Richmond’s new tallest building planned

Between the $30 million outdoor Allianz Amphitheater at Riverfront and CoStar’s $460 million expansion, downtown Richmond is transforming — and even more is in the works.

An anonymous-for-now New York developer is working on a potential high-rise project at 703 E. Main St. On the case is architecture firm LaBella Associates, which is also designing the new Richmond Flying Squirrels ballpark.

Having lived in Richmond for 23 years, Nick Cooper, Richmond office director for LaBella Associates, says he’s pitched many different land parcels to a variety of developers in Chicago, New York and Washington, D.C., over the years, but this one “really caught the interest of my client in New York for a lot of reasons,” Cooper says, thanks to all the current development in Richmond.

The multiuse building would be about 875,000 square feet, climbing to 475 feet with 43 stories, likely making it the tallest building in Richmond, Cooper says. It would include a boutique hotel, which “is much needed now that you have CoStar and the amphitheater there that will attract lots of great visitors,” he adds.

There would also be condominiums for sale and apartments and office space for lease. The team has also been able to lock in a 200,000-square-foot office tenant, and the building will include Richmond’s first Class A “trophy” office space in the past 20 years, Cooper says. Plus, the building will include retail space, with the developer hoping to attract at least one boutique grocery store or an urban Target “so that we can really bring some activity in that area as well and be a catalyst along Seventh Street,” Cooper says.

The parcel is still owned by the Commonwealth of Virginia, but as of April the state was set to sell it during the following few months and formalize it in November. LaBella doesn’t plan on releasing the name of the developer until the sale goes through to ensure “there’s no hiccups with acquiring the land,” Cooper says.

The project’s anticipated completion is by 2029 or 2030, a more conservative estimate based on the complexity of the structure.

“That’s just kind of the nature of the beast with a really complicated, tall tower like this,” Cooper says. “We have some really great experts on the team, and we’re prepared to kind of work through those challenges and opportunities.”