CORRECTION: Virginia Union University Announces Final Development Plans: Community Input Changes Scope, Increases ‘Social Impact’

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Virginia Union Announces Final Development Plans: Community Input Changes Scope,

Increases ‘Social Impact’

~ Fewer apartment units ~ New community wellness center included ~ Historic hospital fully preserved ~ ‘The community has shaped this plan together’ ~ Construction to begin in early 2025 ~

RICHMOND – Virginia Union University said today that it has revised its plans to expand housing in Richmond’s North Side, to reflect extensive and thoughtful input from the community. The revised plans reduce the project’s size, expand community amenities, and fully preserve the historic Richmond Community Hospital.

“We have listened closely as the community has spoken throughout this year,” said Dr. Hakim J. Lucas, President and CEO of Virginia Union. “People have acknowledged Richmond’s need for more housing options, while also wishing to protect the character of neighborhoods and expand amenities. This plan accomplishes all of these goals. The engagement process has worked, and we can all be proud that the community has shaped this plan together.”

The final design limits the impact on the neighborhood by reducing the number of apartments by roughly 15%, thereby reducing the need for additional parking. It adds amenities to the neighborhood, including a center for fitness and healthy living, which will be open to the neighborhood. The wellness center will honor the legacy of the historic Richmond Community Hospital, which will be preserved.

Lucas noted that by reducing the project’s scope, Virginia Union and its developer partner anticipates receiving reduced economic benefits. The University made the affirmative decision to reduce its economic profit in order to expand the “social impact” for the community, he said.

Lucas praised the development team’s creativity in shaping this outcome. He noted that the University’s highly-credentialed team of Black-owned businesses and development professionals boasts more than 170 years of combined experience leading construction and adaptive re-use projects around the country. The project includes 5 elements:

Brook & Lombardy: One hundred units will anchor a mixed-use project on the former motel site that the University paid cash to acquire in 2019.

This includes:

80 one-bedroom apartments

20 two-bedroom apartments

10,000 square feet of commercial space

50 parking spaces

2410-2416 Brook Road: The University will build 100 units on this site, using a “slab on grade” concept and 7,000 square feet of ground floor retail. This is two fewer units than originally planned, and the unit sizes have been reduced.

1831 Thomas Street & 1801 Rear Bath: These projects will fill in University-owned vacant lots in the neighborhood on the west side of campus, near Interstate 95.

1209 Overbrook Road: The University will build 96 units on this property, a “slab on grade” concept that will reach from Overbrook Road to Graham Road. This is 29 fewer units than originally proposed, which reduces the overall building size and the need for additional parking. A glass structure will connect the apartment building to the historic hospital, pictured below.

Richmond Community Hospital: The revised design fully preserves the both the historic Richmond Community Hospital building and its legacy. The Virginia Union development will preserve the entire historic structure and seek to honor Black medical professionals—permanently preserving the hospital’s legacy after decades of being abandoned.

Programming in the structure is anticipated to include fitness facilities and education on nutrition, healthy living, and wellness. This will advance the hospital’s historic mission of promoting health and wellness. It will be available for community members, neighbors, and Virginia Union faculty, staff, and students.

The historic hospital’s legacy will be commemorated in at least two ways. First, new structures and green spaces will be named for Black medical professionals, from Dr. Sarah Garland Jones (the first Black person and first woman to earn a medical license in Virginia, and who started the Richmond’s first hospital for African Americans, located in Jackson Ward) to Dr. Frank Royal, the physician, business leader, and civic leader who chaired the National Medical Association and Virginia Union University’s Board of Trustees. Second, VUU’s Center for African American History and Culture is collecting commemorations and oral histories of the building and its legacy. These will be presented inside the building, and the University welcomes the community to contribute stories and memories of the Richmond Community Hospital.

Lucas said the University anticipates seeking grants and public funding to mitigate the cost of renovating the building, which has sat vacant for some 50 years. Lucas noted that Virginia Union’s overall project has two goals: 1) To expand housing options in Richmond’s North side, and 2) To create new income for Virginia Union University.

Lucas noted that all universities are competing for a smaller supply of college-age students. The trend is driven by a longstanding decline in birth rates and will accelerate in 2025. The challenge is especially urgent for HBCUs and other smaller colleges, which face rising competition, including from taxpayer-funded public universities.

He said the urgency to propose housing solutions accelerated after Richmond’s Mayor and City Council declared “a housing crisis in the city of Richmond” in April 2023. City Council passed the declaration unanimously, stating that Richmond has an urgent need for more than 23,000 additional housing units. Affordable places to live are increasingly unavailable for public school teachers, university professors, students, nurses, and first responders in Richmond.

The City’s official action called on “corporate, non-profit, and philanthropic organizations to quickly help the City address the housing crisis in the city of Richmond.” Virginia Union stepped up by identifying university-owned parcels that can be developed to increase Richmond’s supply of attainable housing. The project will transition non-taxable parcels into taxable properties that will generate new revenue for the City of Richmond to use to fund schools, public safety, and neighborhood amenities across the community.

“The cost of housing is too high across the country, and the problem is especially serious in Richmond,” said Dr. Hakim J. Lucas, President and CEO of Virginia Union University. “It will take a lot of policy changes to make housing affordable again, but the best solution is also the simplest: Build more places for people to live. That’s what Virginia Union is doing to help address Richmond’s crisis.”

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