Groundbreaking // Richmond Mayor Dwight C. Jones, left, leads the groundbreaking Monday for the $40 million Church Hill North Revitalization Project, which will replace the former Armstrong High School with 250 to 300 new apartments and single-family houses. Location: 1611 N. 31st St. near the Henrico County line.
Joining the mayor at the ceremony are, from left, Richmond Delegate Delores L. McQuinn, City Council President Michelle R. Mosby, city Chief Administrative Officer Selena Cuffee-Glenn, Richmond Redevelopment and Housing Authority Chief Executive Officer T.K. Somanath and Rob Fossi, mid-Atlantic regional director of The Community Builders development firm. The firm will soon raze the building and begin construction.
The school building, which has been vacant for 12 years, dates to 1951 when it replaced the original Armstrong building in Jackson Ward that now houses the Richmond Alternative School.
The Church Hill North project is part of the city’s effort to fight poverty. The work on the 22-acre Church Hill site is billed as the first step to a bigger project to transform the nearby Creighton Court public housing community into a mixed-income neighborhood.
