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Better Housing Coalition to develop affordable apartment complex in Jackson Ward

Jeremy M. Lazarus | 11/5/2020, 6 p.m.
Another piece of a grand 30-year-old urban renewal plan for Jackson Ward is moving closer to development.
Ms. Harris

Another piece of a grand 30-year-old urban renewal plan for Jackson Ward is moving closer to development.

That piece is a long-vacant block of property across from Sixth Mount Zion Baptist Church on Duval Street.

The property is being targeted for a 67-unit, three-story afford- able housing apartment complex that would offer lower rents.

The projected $11 million project, which could be ready by early 2022, would encompass 1.5 acres bounded by Jackson, Duval, Cameo and Price streets — a portion of the Jackson Place project that the city and the Richmond Redevelopment and Housing Authority began in 1990.

The nonprofit Better Housing Coalition is preparing to take on the development, Greta J. Harris, BHC president and chief executive officer, confirmed last Friday.

“We were looking for parcels of land for development and were made aware that it could be available,” Ms. Harris said.

Developers Ron Stallings and Robin Miller of Jackson Commons Partnership LLC are the sellers. The price has not been disclosed; the city most recently valued the property for tax purposes at $885,000, according to the Richmond Assessor’s Office.

The partnership bought the bulk of the property, along with a host of other parcels from RRHA, which had cleared the land, and held onto this block since around 2007.

Ms. Harris said the plan is to complete the purchase in the spring so that development can begin.

The project would be part of a stepped-up effort from BHC to double its portfolio of housing units that offer lower rent from around 1,550 units to more than 3,000 units within five years.

“In December 2019, our board adopted that goal as part of an aggressive strategic plan,” Ms. Harris said. “It took us 30 years to get to the current level.”

The move into Jackson Ward comes as BHC takes on the development of at least 122 new homes in the Highland Grove community in Highland Park. BHC also is in various stages of development of three other apartment complexes in the Richmond region involving 320 units.

Ms. Harris said BHC is adding an additional 116-unit apartment complex to its Winchester Green property along Jefferson Davis Highway in Chesterfield County and has plans for developing 50 units in Midlothian.

BHC also is working on the development of another 160 units of affordable housing in Chester involving the transformation of the Colebrook Motel, which was listed in the Green Book a place welcoming African-American travelers during the segregation era.