The former Mount Vernon Baptist Church property along Broad Street near Parham Road is planned for redevelopment for an apartment complex. (Henrico County property record photo)
After lining up hundreds of apartments farther east along Broad Street, Middleburg Communities has its sights set on hundreds more to the west at a Henrico-owned former church property near the Parham Road intersection.
The Northern Virginia-based developer is planning a 250-unit complex at 7850 Carousel Lane, the former Mount Vernon Baptist Church property that until 2023 served as Henrico County Public Schools’ adult education center, which is now housed at Regency mall.
Plans filed with the county show a pair of four-story buildings that would rise on the 5-acre site: an L-shaped building closer to Broad, and a donut-shaped building with a courtyard farther into the lot. The apartments would replace the church building and a parking lot on the otherwise grassy site.
The property is just east of Parks Collision Center and across Broad from Buz and Ned’s. It’s owned by the Henrico School Board, which acquired it from Mount Vernon Baptist Church in 1995. The county has assessed the property at just over $6 million.
Elevations for the L-shaped building as it would appear from the east. (County documents)
Called West End Crossing, the apartments would consist of 133 one-bedroom units, 116 two-bedrooms and four three-bedrooms. The L-shaped building would total 110,000 square feet and include a first-floor amenity and retail space fronting Broad. The other building would total 159,000 square feet and include a first-floor amenity and the courtyard.
Parking and open space would fill the rest of the site, which would have access from Broad and from Carousel.
The plans were drawn up by Townes Site Engineering, and Poole & Poole Architecture is designing the apartments. Building elevations submitted with the plans are labeled “Goose Creek Overlook,” the name of a residential development project in Ashburn that didn’t go forward.
It isn’t clear from the plans what the apartments would rent for or how much West End Crossing is projected to cost. A call to Middleburg’s Ross Magette, who is listed on the plans, was not returned Friday.
It also isn’t clear whether Middleburg is under contract to purchase the site. A school division spokesperson said the property was declared surplus several years ago and is now being handled by the county’s real property division. An email to the division late Friday afternoon was not answered in time for this report.
A site plan shows the two buildings’ configurations for the site.
The project is under review by Henrico planning staff and could be approved by the planning director later this month. The county reviews development and site plans internally without involvement or public hearings from the planning commission or board of supervisors. The property is zoned B-1 Neighborhood Business District, which allows office, retail and “live/work dwellings” as by-right uses.
The Parham-and-Broad area has been a focus for Henrico, which held a charrette for the area in 2019 to help plan for and facilitate denser development. The charrette also focused on the former Genworth-anchored Brookfield Office Park, which developers Greenberg Gibbons and Shamin Hotels are now redeveloping with their Midtown64 project.
West End Crossing would add to Middleburg’s local workload, which has grown since the developer entered the Richmond market three years ago.
Along Broad closer to the city, the company is developing Scottwood, a nearly 300-unit apartment complex at the former Motley’s Asset Disposition Group property at 4400 W. Broad St. It purchased that 5.75-acre site earlier this year for $11.5 million.
Across the river, Middleburg is planning more than 200 attached and detached rental homes off Walmsley Boulevard in Chesterfield. Its previous projects there include the 283-unit Hamlet Watkins Centre near Westchester Commons and the 365-unit Hamlet Falling Creek on Genito Road.
Middleburg also developed The Brook, a 300-unit redevelopment of the former Knights Inn motel on Brook Road in Henrico.
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