City considering sale of Southside properties for $70 million Belmont Road housing development

Local developers are hoping to acquire two city properties near Richmond’s southern border to incorporate into a planned $70 million development that could include up to 300 apartments, several dozen townhouses, a clubhouse, a pool and other uses such as a possible daycare. 

“Other than the tremendous direct real estate tax revenue upon completion of such a noteworthy project,” the plan “would provide much-needed workforce and missing-middle housing within city limits,” wrote attorney Mark Kronenthal in a Dec. 31 offer letter to the city on behalf of developers Zahid Hussain and Kamran Bajwa. 

Earlier this month, the Planning Commission recommended approval of the sale of 3410 and 3420 Belmont Rd. to Belmont Investments, LLC, a company set up for the project. City Council will still have to sign off on the deal before it can go forward. 

Both parcels, which together cover about nine-tenths of an acre, sit along a residential and forested stretch of Belmont Road between Walmsley Boulevard and Chippenham Parkway. City Council declared them surplus property this March, earmarking them as properties that could be used for the development of multifamily affordable housing. 

Collectively, the two properties are assessed at $197,000, and a memo from city real estate manager Chris Nizamis notes they “are in need of substantial improvements.” The developers have offered the city $187,000, which if accepted would go to the Department of Public Utilities. 

The request has “received the full support” of Mayor Danny Avula’s administration, Nizamis’ memo says. 

Belmont Investments already owns four surrounding properties at 5138 West Belmont Rd. and 3306, 3312 and 3324 Belmont Rd., and Kronenthal noted in his offer letter that the developers were involved in the redevelopment of 7001 Jahnke, a former medical office that was converted to a mixed use property with a gas station. 

Neither Bajwa nor Kronenthal responded to inquiries about the project, but a concept plan filed with the city shows 40 townhomes arranged in smaller blocks near the traffic circle at West Belmont and Belmont roads. Farther northeast along Belmont would be three four-story apartment buildings, each containing 65 units, surrounded by 313 parking spaces. 

Those figures are lower than the approximately 300 apartments and 50 townhomes detailed in the offer letter; however, the concept plan notes it is only a preliminary document that hasn’t been vetted by city planners or community members.

Additionally, while the offer letter says the property “would support the development of active street-facing ground floor uses” — including a daycare if “commercially reasonable efforts” are successful — none of the apartment buildings are depicted in the concept plan as facing Belmont. 

If the sale is approved, any major development on the sites would require a special use permit due to the area’s residential zoning. While a citywide rezoning is currently underway, Richmond’s master plan and draft future zoning maps both call for the area to remain residential, with detached single family homes. 

Contact Reporter Sarah Vogelsong at svogelsong@richmonder.org