One day it'll all look like this.
Huge news for re-development of downtown Richmond’s Haxall Canal: A deal to convert five historic industrial buildings into retail and residential space is “about to materialize,” reports the Times-Dispatch.
Slowly but surely for the past 20 years, developers have been renovating the old industrial shells along the Haxall and Kanawha canals, building a vibrant urban district where people can live, work and play. The Canal Walk, a pedestrian path that parallels the 19th-century canals and locks, offers striking visuals, takes interesting twists and turns, meanders under shaded tunnels, and provides pedestrian links to the central business district. It will be an extraordinary asset when it has been developed end-to-end.
While both ends of the canal complex have been developing nicely, the hole in the doughnut has been the sprawling Reynolds Metals complex. Pedestrians strolling along the canal must walk past several hundred yards of hulking, empty buildings. Renovation of these buildings will create activity along the full length of the canal. It may not be the equal of San Antonio’s breath-taking River Walk, but it will be an urban jewel. It has the potential to become a truly special, memorable place, even better than the old C&O Canal in Washington, D.C.’s Georgetown district.
“This is the linchpin project we have been waiting for the last 15 years,” said Jack Berry, executive director of Venture Richmond. The first phase of construction will convert historic five historic buildings into 175 apartments and 8,000 square feet of retail space. A later phase calls for tearing down two buildings constructed in the 1970s to make way for more apartments, retail and office space. A high-rise building is planned at 10th and Byrd Streets.
Combine the canal-walk renovation with the vision for transforming Richmond’s riverfront, with its islands and rapids, into a regional recreational asset, and downtown Richmond will be one of the most awesomely awesome places to live live and work on the East Coast. It has been a long, long time coming. But very few cities will have anything to match it.
— JAB
