A rendering of the proposed apartment building at 10551 Telegraph Road near Virginia Center Commons. (Image courtesy of Poole & Poole Architecture)
After a multi-million dollar land deal that took more than a year to complete, an apartment project is now underway that will add hundreds of residential units near the evolving Virginia Center Commons site.
Bristol Development Group has begun construction on a five-story, 279-unit apartment building at 10551 Telegraph Road after paying $6 million for the 3.3-acre site last month.
The seller was Mohawk Investment Partners LLC, which purchased the undeveloped property in 2022 from National Financial Realty Holdings, the owner of the adjacent Colonial Place office park. Bristol’s 7-acre project includes part of the office park site.
The July 12 closing came 10 months after Bristol received approval from Henrico County for a revised version of the project it first proposed last summer. The revised plan assumes a smaller footprint that provides more open space on the property, which lies within the form-based overlay district Henrico established for the VCC area.
This area includes the former shopping center that Rebkee Co. and Shamin Hotels are redeveloping with restaurants, hotels and hundreds of apartments, condos and townhomes. The centerpiece of the redevelopment is the Henrico Sports & Events Center, which the county opened last fall.
It was the overlay district that prompted Mohawk to offer the site for multifamily development, says Thalhimer agent David Smith, who brokered the deal for Mohawk and has worked with Bristol on its other developments in the Richmond metropolitan area.
David Smith (Photo courtesy of Thalhimer)
Smith said the property had been earmarked for a third office building but was never built before Mohawk bought it from National Financial, which acquired the three parcels that make up the office park in separate transactions last year for a total of nearly $25 million. County land records show the property was sold to Mohawk for the same price it paid for the property: $50,000.
“This was a ready-to-build office site that actually became a multifamily site, and that was a good thing for the owner and, in this case, a good thing for Bristol,” Smith said.
“It was the overlay that allowed us to build multifamily, and particularly multistory multifamily, so the business was essentially already zoned,” he said. “We went to market with that, and that was obviously very attractive to the parties we offered it to.”
Smith said he had marketed the site to five or six development companies he identified as potential contenders, including Bristol.
“In the end, Bristol won the competition, but it wasn’t because they simply made the best offer and brought some of the very best ideas to a development transaction,” Smith said. “It was a very, very difficult deal. But everyone pulled together and we got it done.”
The 28,000-square-foot apartment building will be located on Telegraph Road and will surround a central courtyard with community amenities. A dog park, a small park and an additional courtyard are planned adjacent to the building, as well as 339 parking spaces.
The building would surround a central courtyard and provide additional amenities adjacent to it. Additional parking to the south is not shown. (District documents)
The one- and two-bedroom apartments will be between 41 and 111 square meters in size. Rents have not yet been announced.
Fortune-Johnson is the general contractor for the apartments, which are scheduled for completion in June 2026. Poole & Poole Architecture is designing the project and Timmons Group is providing engineering services.
The project is the seventh for Bristol in the Richmond market. The Tennessee-based developer’s other projects in the area include Tapestry West in Henrico’s Westwood neighborhood, The Canopy at Ginter Park on the city’s north side, Artistry at Winterfield in the Midlothian neighborhood and 2000 West Creek in Goochland. Each of those properties was later sold to Capital Square, a Henrico-based real estate company.
Bristol’s newest local project, The Collective West Creek, opened last year. The $75 million, 335-unit complex is located on Patterson Avenue at the south end of the West Creek Business Park.
In other VCC-area news, the Henrico Economic Development Authority announced last week that it has purchased the Crossings Golf Club for $3 million in a public-private partnership to improve the public golf course and keep the PGA Tour Champions tournaments in Henrico beyond 2025, when the Dominion Energy Charity Classic loses its title sponsor and host venue.
