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# VUU commits to preserve Richmond Community Hospital building amid community skepticism
- URL: https://www.richmonder.org/vuu-commits-to-preserve-richmond-community-hospital-building-amid-community-skepticism/
- Published: 2026-09-14T01:01:12.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-14T01:01:12.000Z
- Description: "VUU is willing to put that commitment in writing to bind successor owners of the property."
- Author: George Copeland Jr.
- Tags: Local News, #the-bridge

Virginia Union University restated its commitment to preserve the Richmond Community Hospital building last Wednesday as they sought to address community concerns over their vision for housing around their campus.

A special use permit to develop up to 100 multifamily housing units at 1209 Overbrook Road, where the building is located, will be changed to explicitly prevent its demolition, according to VUU officials and their associates during two meetings held at the university.

“The special use permit will be amended to include (language preventing the demolition), and VUU is willing to put that commitment in writing to bind successor owners of the property,” Assistant Vice President of External Relations Felicia Cosby said during the Wednesday afternoon meeting.

A request for the special use permit’s approval by Richmond officials had been continued weeks earlier by the Richmond Planning Commission.

VUU officials also outlined their plans for housing in the Northside area. They shared how they would restore and utilize the Community Hospital building, which opened in the 1930s as a location for the hospital established in 1907, and served the needs of African American residents and medical workers for decades.

Initial ideas for the hospital building itself include serving as a community health hub, as well as a site for workforce development and training for health services. VUU is seeking community input on the proposals, as well as an oral history of those who experienced or were part of the building’s operations before the hospital moved to a new location.

VUU first announced its intent to preserve the building in late 2024, changing its plan to demolish most of the building and integrate the rest as an apartment facade in response to community pushback and conversation.

The lack of a written commitment to preservation in the permit, however, was a major concern for the community members that attended the discussions.

“A promise that is not specifically written in the ordinance, the special use permit, means nothing,” said Viola Baskerville, co-founder of the Save Community Hospital group that has advocated for the building’s adaptive reuse. “We have to see it written in that ordinance.”

The amended permit is currently in development through collaboration with the city attorney's office to determine “what language they would find acceptable to evidence” VUU's commitment, according to Williams Mullen attorney and legal counsel T. Preston Lloyd, Jr.

“We don't have that to put on the table this evening because we don't want to give you something that would later be amended,” Lloyd said during the Wednesday evening meeting, “but we have every intention of working diligently.”

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/99/06/99067822-fdfd-42b1-ab19-555c33eefb89/content/images/2026/09/Cosby-and-Lloyd.jpg)

VUU's Felicia Cosby and attorney T. Preston Lloyd, Jr. (George Copeland Jr. for The Richmonder)

Other community advocates, residents, and preservation and housing experts in attendance voiced their concerns over the development’s impact on parking and the local environment, the proposed buildings’ appearance, and VUU’s engagement with local residents.

While Cosby and other officials sought to assure attendees that their concerns could or would be resolved, many were dissatisfied with the details shared, answers provided, and the development’s implications.

“I don't want to see it,” said Kathryn Reid, a longtime Overbrook resident who taught African-American history at VUU and had serious concerns about the effect the new housing could have on parking and the community. “Have some respect for the neighborhood.”

Questions were also raised by attendees about possible issues with the Fall Line Trail’s development, the approach to rent pricing for apartments, potential renters, and the absence of top VUU leaders like Hakim J. Lucas from these discussions.

Several ultimately left determined to continue examining and questioning VUU’s housing development efforts and to see the university follow through on its commitment to preserve the hospital building.

“We still need to hear the specific language,” Baskerville said. “I'm hoping that on Tuesday they will introduce that language, that the City Planning Commission would have had an opportunity to develop that language in conjunction with the applicant, and that we can see that language.”

The Planning Commission is set to consider VUU’s permit request during their Sept. 15 meeting, though they also have the option to defer discussion for another month if they feel more time is needed.