RICHMOND | 703 E. Main | 410 FT | 29 FLOORS

[NYguy]

One of three proposals....



https://richmondbizsense.com/2025/03/19/...t-downtown-high-rise-on-state-owned-lot/

Mystery developer wants to build 400-foot downtown high-rise on state-owned lot





Mike Platania
March 19, 2025

An unnamed New York firm is floating a plan for a mixed-use high-rise tower for the vacant lot at 703 E. Main St., according to planning documents obtained by BizSense.

Preliminary conceptual plans show that the new tower could stand over 400 feet tall and include hundreds of residential units, hotel rooms, a grocery store, office space and restaurant/retail space.

The mystery firm is working on a development proposal that it plans to submit to the Commonwealth of Virginia, which owns the roughly 1.25-acre plot.

Planning documents show that three different tower designs are being considered by the developer.

The first option is a 35-story glass-paneled tower reaching 400 feet. The top 18 floors would be for 189 residential units, and below that would be 10 floors totaling 200 hotel rooms. The first seven floors would be for office and retail space, including a ground-floor, 20,000-square-foot grocery space.

The second option would be slightly taller at 410 feet, and would not include hotel rooms. Instead it’d have 252 residential units across 24 floors plus five stories of office and retail space. It also would include a grocery store.

The third option shows two builds on the site: a seven-story, 140-room hotel, and a 22-story mixed-use building with 231 residential units. The two buildings would be on a three-story podium with 140,000 square feet of retail and office space.

Nick Cooper is the office director for LaBella’s Richmond office and is working on the proposal. He said that the developer, who he would not identify, is looking to build off momentum in the downtown and riverfront area, fueled by projects like CoStar Group’s 26-story office tower and the Allianz Amphitheater at Riverfront venue that’ll host its first concerts later this year.

Cooper said the development would be “iconic in terms of form, program and ground plane activation,” and a “one-of-a-kind piece of architecture that Richmond deserves.” At around 400 feet in height, the development would be among the tallest buildings in all of Richmond.