News

May 25, 2023

288 condos planned at Pemberton

Jonathan Spiers June 8, 2023 6 A site plan shows the 12 buildings that would

Jonathan Spiers June 8, 2023 6

A site plan shows the 12 buildings that would fill the 10-acre site east of Pemberton Road and north Mayland Drive. (County documents)

Familiar with the corridor from a subdivision it completed farther south, a local development firm is looking to return to Pemberton Road in western Henrico for a considerably larger residential development at its crossroads with Mayland Drive.

Legacy Land Development is seeking county zoning and permit approvals for a 288-unit condo development that would fill a nearly 10-acre site at the northeast corner of the intersection.

The largely wooded site is just south of Broad Street and includes three houses that would be replaced with a dozen four-story buildings, each of which would house 24 condos. A fourth house near the northeast corner of the site would remain after subdividing its parcel, one of five that make up the development site.

The condos would be restricted to ages 55 and up, though one-fifth of the units would have no age restriction, in accordance with exemptions in the Fair Housing Act, according to a county planning staff report.

The report states that staff could support the project with some modifications, including a reduction in density or addition of commercial uses, which were included in an earlier plan. Commercial uses that had been proposed were removed in light of feedback received from the community in two meetings held in recent months.

The report states that the requested R-6 residential zoning allows for higher density with a provisional-use permit, but that the intent of the allowance is "to foster the inclusion of commercial or office uses … in situations where site constraints would otherwise prevent a mixture of uses."

As proposed, the report states, the development would benefit from higher density than what is allowed in R-6 without providing the commercial uses.

Each of the four-story buildings would house 24 condos.

Referred to in plans as Flats at Mayland, the development would include a central recreation area, a 2,000-square-foot community center and about 350 parking spaces, according to the plans drawn up by engineering firm Youngblood, Tyler & Associates.

The project would require widening Pemberton with sidewalks added along the site, as well as right turn lanes for the site's two accesses off both roads. Legacy Land also would provide a new left turn lane from southbound Pemberton to eastbound Mayland, pending state and county design approvals.

Planned amenities could include a dog park, gazebo, pavilion, pergola or fire pit. A decorative stone wall that could include community signage would be erected near the intersection, and fencing would line the property.

The report does not mention sizes or price ranges for the condos, or an overall cost estimate for the project. Legacy Land President Cindy Weinstock was unavailable for comment this week.

The parcels involved are owned by Forrest Urban and members of the Heider family, property records show. The county has assessed them at $1.92 million collectively.

The rezoning and permit requests are scheduled to go before the Henrico County Planning Commission at its June 15 meeting.

Spawned from prolific development company Atack Properties, Legacy Land was formed by Weinstock and by father and daughter Bill and Tracey Johnson, who previously worked with Weinstock when she was with Atack. Weinstock served as Atack's president and wound down the firm after the death of founder Bob Atack about a decade ago.

Legacy Land's projects have included Pemberton Ridge, a 24-home subdivision it developed along Pemberton about a mile south of Mayland. The company also developed Westlake Heights, a 120-home subdivision beside Powhite Park in South Richmond. All of those homes were built by Ryan Homes, which Weinstock has described as Legacy Land's preferred builder.

Jonathan joined BizSense in early 2015 after a decade of reporting in Wilmington, N.C., and at the Henrico County Leader. The Virginia Tech grad covers government, real estate, advertising/marketing and other news. Reach him at [email protected] or (804) 308-2447.

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So this product is Ryan's "Mosaic" which is very popular in Fairfax and debuted locally in Chesterfield. It’ll fill a local void for lower priced but quality condo stacked flats. It's a high density product without the three flights of stairs of the two over two townhouses. I’d like to see it succeed because we need the variety of choice.

I find it it interesting that people are starting to build new condos around here.

As a former condo dweller in Falls Church, I am an appreciator of them, esp in high cost areas where location near jobs are concern number one and cost number two.

I love the fact these are condos and not apartments!

Yeah, it is always interesting when the condo market changes….

Great residential infill condo option but the building exterior design looks like a suburban office park building. To each their own.

Sure.

But most condo owners care more about the floorplans and views and ceiling heights than they do about what the building "Looks like" from the outside — and of course the builders care about what will be a successful investment of money and work — and what the computer spits out is always something like this.

It's like what my father said about automobiles circa 1999 — the style guys would keep tweaking things to look more interesting or cool and the airodynamic equations would keep pushing the design back to the teardrop shape that worked best.