RICHMOND, VA:  Downtown Richmond is an historic mecca, home to such landmarks as St. John's Church, the Edgar Allen Poe Museum, the Medical College of Virginia and Virginia Commonwealth University Biotechnology Park. But the most exciting landmark will combine historical significance with innovation and foresight to become one of the largest historic renovation projects in the country and make downtown Richmond a more vibrant area to work and live. 

The River Lofts and Shops at Tobacco Row sits on the north bank of the James River and is bounded by Franklin Street on the north, Pear Street on the east, Dock Street on the south and 21st Street on the west. Covering nearly 15 contiguous city blocks of pre-1900's tobacco warehouses and factories, The River Lofts and Shops at Tobacco Row will turn 20 acres of existing, underused structures and newly constructed buildings into approximately 1,000 loft apartments and 300,000 square feet of commercial space. The development will create an unique urban residential, office and retail center on the east end of downtown Richmond, attracting upscale customers and residents to downtown businesses and retailers. 

"It's a beautiful project for Richmond," says Brett Womack, principal of Divaris Real Estate, the exclusive leasing agent for the commercial portion of the 1.5 million-square-foot development. "We would like for The River Lofts and Shops at Tobacco Row to be a destination for the entire city."

The developer for The River Lofts and Shops at Tobacco Row is Forest City Enterprises, which is headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio. Forest City develops, acquires, owns and manages commercial and residential real estate properties throughout the country. Its portfolio includes nearly 200 retail, residential, office and hotel properties throughout 21 states and the District of Columbia, many of which are historic rehab and adaptive re-use developments. 

"The Tobacco Warehouses in Richmond currently represent the largest historic rehab, as a series of buildings, in the country," says David Levey, executive vice president of Forest City Enterprises. "There have been individual buildings that are bigger, but in total, this is probably the largest collection of historic buildings in America."

The project was originally conceived in the mid-1980s by a group of local business leaders who wanted to save the warehouses as part of Richmond's long and rich historic tradition. This group of citizens, none of whom were developers, did a few very extraordinary things, according to Levey.  The first accomplishment was to get 20 business leaders to agree to do something. Through the help of consultants, they then came up with the funds to purchase the buildings and structured an historic district with the ability to issue tax-exempt bonds through a special historic rehab Act of Congress in 1986.

The group managed to sell two of the buildings to McCormick Baron who developed more than 200 apartment units in the early '90s,. But with the poor state of the real estate market at the time, the project stagnanted.  It wasn't until 1996, when Forest City Enterprises entered the picture. 

"We saw it as a wonderful opportunity, and we knew we had the ability and the vision to redevelop the entire project," says Levey. "Richmond is a big little city (or a little big city - however you want to refer to it) and a vibrant town, and this project needed someone who had an overall view of the development." 

Phase I of the 1.5 million square foot redevelopment started with the American Cigar Company building, also known as the old Philip Morris building. The ground floor of this historic building has been designated as retail space for gourmet restaurants, specialty boutiques and management/leasing offices. Other ground floor amenities will include sitting and meeting rooms, a fitness center that's free to tenants, on-site parking, and a tennis court.

Already open are The Old Original Bookbinder's, an upscale nationally recognized restaurant, and a specialty shop called Feather Your Nest Designs and Details, Inc. The upper floors of the building have been converted into 175 one-, two- and three-bedroom loft apartment homes, all of which have been rented. A center courtyard, with a variety of flowering trees, shrubbery and a waterfall, will be a resting place for shoppers and residents. The existing smokestack is part of the artistic landscaping.  It will serve as a reminder of the neighborhood's industrial history. 

Divaris Real Estate is targeting unique local, regional and national retailers and restaurants for the development, according to Womack.  The main focus right now is getting an additional restaurant and retailer. A coffee shop and a French Bistro concept are the next two tenants that are expected to sign leases. 

"We're getting terrific attention from some of the national upper-end restaurants because of the Bookbinders' success," she notes. " And we are also talking with some local operators." 

Along with Bookbinders, the District is being developed as one of Richmond's most prestigious office addresses with small and large office space on the ground floor and in landmark buildings along the James River. 

"Leasing office space has been a bit more difficult for us because these are large buildings, and in order to do a rehab for an office, you need to have 50 percent of the property leased," says Levey. "But we have had a lot of interest from smaller users, and we are selling one of the 20,000-square-foot buildings to an engineering firm."

The second phase of the project, already underway, will also see the addition of new apartment buildings, the Consolidated and Carolina buildings, designed to complement those that already exist. 

"The quality of the first building is absolutely tremendous," says Womack. "The charm is in the architectural character, with 18-foot ceilings, and exposed brick and beams, and the interiors of the apartments have been designed with high-quality finishes, including granite countertops."

The retail component of the second phase will include a 34,000-square-foot gourmet grocery store owned by SuperValu, and a CVS pharmacy.  Part of Forest City Enterprises' vision was to include retail facilities so that residents and office workers had a place to shop. 

"We really wanted to bring in a grocery store, because we thought it would help to create some excitement on the retail side," Levey says. But getting the grocery store was a complicated transaction. The original plans called for putting the store on a site which housed a dilapidated building that had been condemned by the city. But the historic community was opposed to tearing down the Civil War, post-Antebellum landmark. 

"We spent a lot of time working that though with the historic community and the city, and ended up selling the building to a developer who is going to convert it to housing. It was an expensive, time-consuming campaign, but one in which everyone was a winner - ourselves, the city and the historic community."

Though The River Lofts and Shops at Tobacco Row will be a destination regional attraction, the immediate market will be the residents of existing apartments and homes in the surrounding neighborhood. "The Tobacco Row district is a beautiful urban neighborhood of restored Antebellum homes," says Womack. "There are almost 1,000 apartments in converted buildings between the downtown area and The Tobacco Row District."

Both Womack and Levey agree that the biggest attraction to The River Lofts and Shops at Tobacco Row will be the James River. Throw in Shockoe Slip and Shockoe Bottom, the entertainment hub of Richmond, and it's a unique destination that's sure to draw a crowd, predicts Levey. 

"There's no question that this mixed-use development will help bring people downtown," he says. "The city is spending a lot of money to redo the James River Canal, and we're going to be the anchor to the Eastside of downtown."