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Oakwood Heights is now “The Lofty”
11/18/2014 8:25 AM by John M
Oakwood Heights, the long-simmering condo project at the ends of Broad/Marshall, is now an apartment development called “The Lofty”. Burt Rolett has a great update on the project in Richmond BizSense:
Plans call for one building each on the 3600 blocks of East Broad and East Marshall streets. The two buildings are similar in size and will total about 43,000 square feet. The Lofty will cover about one acre of land, and plans show a fitness room, club house and a dog wash.
[…]
Freund said The Lofty might still be converted to condos in the future, but for now it will be mostly two-bedroom, two-bath apartments.
No offense, but what a stupid name! I say no offense because I would hope that whoever made this decision just didn’t know better and hasn’t had anyone tell them how it its.
You’re in the treetops. Aloft. They are like loft apartments. I like it.
And lava lofts isnt stupid?
Mt. Chimborazo is a volcano. I like it, haha
Given the clearing out of the trees, I have to wonder how ‘in the treetops’ it will be…
@ Church Hillian – lava lofts is silly, but acceptable. I thought the place must have been a foundry or somewhere where they were melting things when I first heard the name. But it’s alliterative. The other just makes me wince…. No comment on the project itself. I admit that I’m hardly a college English major, but “the lofty” instinctively sounds…grammatically incorrect…? Odd? Anyway, now I feel bad for being the first to post… Clearly I didn’t have anything nice to say (and hell, they can always rename it!).
Oooh, and I like the “Chimborazo/volcano” explanation! (though I think that may be an apocryphal sort of back story…)
If only I could win the lottery. I would buy the property to tear it down.
So, I’m curious. How did they just redesign the project without approval from CAR or any other transparent process? Is this not a change from the original plans?
@ 9, Mars: this is from the article in the first paragraph, click the link to get the entire thing but here’s your answer: “Freund bought the land about 10 years ago and originally planned to build condos on the site in a project called Oakwood Heights.
Richmond City Council unanimously approved the Oakwood Heights project in 2010, according to media reports at the time, overturning a denial by the city’s Commission of Architectural Review.
A Church Hill property owner later appealed the council’s vote in circuit court, where a judge upheld city council’s decision. The Virginia State Supreme Court refused to hear a subsequent appeal.
Freund said The Lofty might still be converted to condos in the future, but for now it will be mostly two-bedroom, two-bath apartments.”
Baby likey Lofty. Baby knock down tree. Baby convert apartment to condo. Baby rich!
Baby want to changey name of Lofty to Beer Thirty Apartments.
Any updates on this? I keep comparing the one Lofty drawing I can find to Oakwood and it looks like they scrapped the original design and architect which actually was 33 units altogether and now have two buildings (instead of 4) but it’s still 33 units?? I’m watching (and hearing ALL THE TIME) this thing grow. It definitely looks disproportionately tall from the valley below. Any updates would be awesome!
I’ve reached out for an update, I’ve honestly lost track of the project