Image courtesy of VUU
An updated map of VUU’s 10-year master plan shows the Steinbridge development site at the campus’s northeast edge.
A month after unveiling a $500 million plan for development of its campus in Richmond's Northside, Virginia Union University (VUU) announced in February the first step it is taking toward implementing that plan over the next 10 years.
VUU, one of the nation's historically Black colleges and universities (HBCU), said that Steinbridge Group, a Philadelphia-based investment firm, will invest upwards of $40 million in a joint venture with VUU to develop up to 200 apartments and potentially some for-sale homes on university-owned land at Brook and Overbrook roads along the campus's northeast corner.
The development also could include some commercial space and would total at least 130 residential units with market-rate and lower-income rents or price points, Richmond BizSense reported.
The housing would be available to the general public, including students and alumni, and would create a new revenue stream for the university, with profits from rents shared between VUU and Steinbridge through the joint venture.
In a news release, VUU President Hakim Lucas said Steinbridge's investment "will enable Virginia Union to create new sources of income, which will further strengthen our ability to create opportunities for students and the community.
"As the oldest African American-owned, continuously run nonprofit, and as an anchor institution for Northside Richmond, we have a historic responsibility to drive the economic community development of this side of town," he added.
New Investment to Develop Properties On 3 Acres of Land
The project is the first step of a multi-phased campus development plan that VUU unveiled in January. Subsequent phases are to include new student housing, an athletics and wellness center, a performing arts center and a sports arena.
The Steinbridge development would involve at least six parcels totaling over 3 acres that VUU owns along Brook and Overbrook. The properties include the executive mansion building at the corner of Brook and Graham Road, the old Richmond Community Hospital building at 1209 Overbrook Rd., and three houses fronting Brook Road that are used as university offices.
The executive mansion building would remain with the development, while the 1930s-era hospital building, which the university said is no longer usable, would apparently be razed to make way for the new buildings. Officials said the new development would "appropriately honor and commemorate" the hospital as the first black hospital in Richmond.
A campus map showing the project site indicates that the development could extend along Overbrook across parts of two separately owned properties that bookend the hospital site: the Richmond Police Training Academy property at 1202 W. Graham Rd., and the Baptist General Convention of Virginia property at 1214 W. Graham.
It is not yet known how those properties would be included in the project, nor was it clear what the new development would look like or what the size or height of the new buildings would be, according to Richmond BizSense.
KEI Architects in Richmond has been commissioned to design the buildings.
The four parcels at 2410-2416 Brook Road are zoned for multifamily residential use, while the Overbrook Road hospital site and the executive mansion property at 1200 W. Graham Road are zoned institutional.
The development with Steinbridge is planned to start construction by the end of this year and be completed by the end of 2025.
Building a ‘Cultural Anchor and Economic Driver'
Described as the largest investment in VUU's history, the $40 million stems from a $100 million commitment that Steinbridge made last fall to help HBCUs and minority service institutions "unlock the value" of underutilized land and assets they own.
Steinbridge selected VUU as its first recipient through a collaboration with Student Freedom Initiative (SFI), a D.C.-based nonprofit founded by Vista Equity Partners founder and CEO Robert Smith.
SFI assessed VUU's land ownership and readiness to go forward with such a development and, according to university officials, determined that VUU was at the top of the list of the 100-plus HBCUs across the country.
In an interview with Richmond BizSense in December, Lucas described the development and other parts of the 10-year plan that extend beyond the campus proper as integral to making VUU a cultural anchor and economic driver for that area and the greater Richmond community.
"We must create living spaces for people who want to learn, but we also must create jobs," he explained. "And if we create jobs, then we create revenue for the city. This is the goal: living spaces, so that people can learn in a quality environment, that they can get jobs, and we can provide and drive new sources of revenue to the city."
Meanwhile, Richmond BizSense learned that VUU is progressing with a separate plan for another mixed-use development to replace the former Budget Inn of Richmond motel at Brook and Lombardy Street. Lucas has said demolition of the motel should commence this quarter, followed by a 12-month construction schedule that is slated to finish in 2025.
Today's top stories
