Downtown Charlottesville Redevelopment Planned

Growth within Charlottesville City limits is going to get even more dense in the future, and not just along West Main Street.

It’s long been said that the area south of the Downtown Mall is some of the best real estate in the City of Charlottesville.

It’s a big plan. Bold, edgy and, in my opinion will likely result in something sometime that will look a little bit like the proposed plan. In true Charlottesville fashion,

“It’s a conceptual study, and one of the things we recommend as an immediate next step is additional study,” Pierce-McManamon responded.

This is the sort of thing that anybody thinking about buying or renting anywhere near the City of Charlottesville should at least know about, if not know. Everything will be touched by this plan – by its implementation and by the conversation about the possibility of the implementation. Thoughts of “what if” will impact property values and buyers’ decisions.

This proposal touches on everything – the economy, transportation, infrastructure, affordable housing (Friendship Court would be gone), jobs, the real estate market – everything. Keep in mind that this is a visionary plan. So far as I can discern, there is no developer in the wings pushing for this plan.

You may want to spend some time reading the linked documents – 300 plus pages – at Charlottesville Tomorrow. The historical section that breaks down the development history of downtown Charlottesville is particularly interesting.

By 1990, connectivity in the area had decreased dramatically. Although new buildings began to spring up along Garrett Street in the 1980s, the super-blocks remained. New development occurred in a piece-meal fashion, without a large-scale employer taking the place of the previous industries which had closed.

There is likely to be more discussion at cvillenews.

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3 Comments

  1. Chris December 12, 2013 at 11:43

    Interesting that you highlighted the quote about “additional study” because that’s what jumped out at me when reading the article. If there’s one thing Charlottesville does well it’s “additional study”. I suspect if any of this does come to fruition it will be many, many years. Not that anything like this could or should happen overnight but the City will study it to death before it does.

    Reply
    1. Jim Duncan December 12, 2013 at 14:52

      Thanks, Chris.

      That was one of the first thing that hit me – if/when this gets done, it’s not going to be for a long time.

      Reply
  2. Simon Campbell December 19, 2013 at 12:39

    As the redevelopment begins to look more like a reality rather than a dream, investors can take advantage of this opportunity by narrowing down transitional properties that will be worth much more after the redevelopment.

    Reply

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