Category: Development
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Another Vinegar Hill plan for Downtown?
Good for Daily Progress reporter Aaron Richardson for raising this issue with regard to the planned “central Strategic Investment Area in Charlottesville” around Friendship Court and the Ix property, which could replace public housing. Yes, there are “Shadows of Vinegar Hill” in this plan, but previous stories on this plan overlooked this part of it.…
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Vintage DTM: evolution of the DTM was gradual
This photograph from the mid 1970s shows the early construction of the Downtown Mall. The controversial idea to replace the drivable Main Street with a brick-paved pedestrian mall was not well-received by everyone, especially many of the business owners who benefited from the drive-up traffic and being convenient to their customers. This image shows the…
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Blighted: Dewberry gets served
Looks like the City is putting its foot down with Atlanta-based developer John Dewberry, who fired off a testy letter when officials here suggested he better secure the Landmark Hotel structure and hurry the project along. As this notice on the Landmark Hotel shows, the unfinished hotel structure is now a “blighted property.” “I sent…
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The Collaborator: Silverman remembered
No one perhaps meant more to the success of the DTM than developer Gabe Silverman, who died on November 10 of a cardiac arrest at the age of 73. Architect and design planner Katie Swenson, who moved to Charlottesville in large part because of Silverman and spent 11 years here, offers a remembrance, one of…
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History lessons: Mall buildings preserved, but who to thank?
For years, the facades of 101-111 East Main Street looked decrepit, but property owner and developer Keith Woodard has finally rehabilitated them and added 11 new apartments, as recently reported by the Newsplex. But then this comment by Woodard stuck out: “About 10 or 15 years ago another developer purchased the building and proposed to…
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Jilted again? Dewberry, City, clash over hotel project
When I was with the Hook I tried to explain to John Dewberry’s people that the abandoned Landmark Hotel project was a sore spot for us, that we’d been burned by a sharp-tongued, thin-skinned developer and his partner, who left the Landmark at the altar, her gown in tatters, and that while she’s stood there…
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BID for the DTM? What we can learn from Vermonters
Our DTM is a wonderful place, one of a few such successful pedestrian malls in the country, but on a recent trip to Burlington, Vermont’s Church Street Marketplace, a pedestrian mall similar to the DTM, one downtown business owner came away wondering if we might be able to learn a thing or two from our…
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Coal Tower development moving forward
Charlottesville Tomorrow–City Walk, a long-dormant residential development project planned for construction near Charlottesville’s coal tower, is once again moving forward. The city has issued a building permit for Atlanta-based developer Metzger and Co. Construction will occur north of the CSX railroad tracks, between 10th Street Northeast and Carlton Road. READ MORE
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Developer closes deal on DTM eye-sore
According to recently filed court documents, the ‘Landmark Hotel’ property on the Downtown Mall has now officially changed hands. On August 8, Atlanta-based developer John Dewberry, who won the property at auction for $6.25 million, officially closed on the purchase, to the partial relief of former owner Halsey Minor’s creditors. That amount is a far…