Chosen co-developer for Fay Towers at edge of Gilpin Court withdraws proposal
A group selected by Richmond’s public housing authority to act as a co-developer for the overhaul of Fay Towers has backed away from a proposed partnership, saying additional research found the project would be too expensive.
“We did an initial level of due diligence and came up with what we believed was a workable plan,” said Tim Pryor, vice president of acquisitions for The NHP Foundation, the nonprofit affordable developer selected by the authority this spring. “After receiving the partnership offer, we conducted additional research and ultimately realized the effort was cost prohibitive.”
The 11-story towers that sit on the edge of Gilpin Court were once home to about 200 public housing units for seniors before deteriorating conditions led the Richmond Redevelopment and Housing Authority to relocate residents to three new buildings between 2016 and 2021.
Since then, the structure has sat empty while RRHA has sought a developer who can work with the authority to redevelop the site.
The most recent request for proposals issued by RRHA for the redevelopment produced four responses, said authority spokeswoman Angela Fountain.
The winning proposal belonged to NHP, which planned to work with the Hanson Company, a local business that has also developed the affordable mixed-use Eggleston Plaza project in Jackson Ward.
On April 28, NHP Foundation Senior Vice President of Development Mansur Abdul-Malik thanked members of the RRHA Board of Commissioners’ Real Estate Committee for the “opportunity to work on such a transformative and historic project.”
But on May 12, the group withdrew its proposal after its second round of due diligence.
“We are grateful to the RRHA for their willingness to consider us as a partner,” Pryor told The Richmonder. “We just couldn’t make the opportunity work for us.”
With the foundation out of the race, RRHA commissioners will now have the chance to evaluate the second-highest-scoring proposal for the redevelopment.
The latest plan envisioned by RRHA for Fay Towers would convert the existing 200 studio and one-bedroom units into approximately 150 studio, one-bedroom and two-bedroom units. The authority has said it prefers for all units to be affordable, with amenities like an exercise facility, laundry and playroom on the ground floor.
“No commercial/retail component exists currently and none will be added upon rehabilitation,” it wrote in the latest RFP, which was issued Aug. 1.
The authority has also envisioned a revamped Fay Towers as serving as an initial tranche of replacement housing for some Gilpin Court residents while the redevelopment of that public housing community gets underway.
“Relocation will begin by relocating families who elect to relocate to Fay Towers and the first phase of newly constructed units on RRHA-owned property,” states the Jackson Ward Community Plan, a roadmap for redevelopment drawn up in 2023. “These properties, known as the Build First Initiative, will allow families to move to off-site Project-Based Voucher units prior to any demolition taking place.”
A capital needs assessment of Fay Towers from 2025 found that the building was “in poor physical condition” but was “currently structurally sound.”
Contact Reporter Sarah Vogelsong at svogelsong@richmonder.org
