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Jackson Ward Affordable Community Breaks Ground

Richmond, VA

Ground was broken on Tuesday, September 25th for the Jackson Ward project in Richmond, VA. The Harkins team joined our client CPDC, our architect Grimm + Parker Architects, and many local officials to celebrate this monumental day.

Jackson Ward is the second phase of a three-phase mixed-income, mixed-use project in Richmond. Situated on the site of the former St. Joseph’s Catholic Church, this project redevelops a site that has been vacant for many years to bring together a portion of a historic neighborhood scarred by the construction of a highway. There will be 154 affordable housing units in three newly constructed buildings and in a former convent that still stands on the property. The three new buildings will be traditional wood frame construction, and the convent will go through an adaptive reuse for commercial space. The new buildings are meant to fit in with the height of the convent building and two-story buildings on the block’s southeast corner.

Jackson Ward Senior Homes will offer 72 units for low-income seniors who are moving from Fay Towers, an aging apartment building down the street. Jackson Ward Multifamily Homes will offer 82 units of mixed-income based housing and market-rate rentals. It will consist of studios and one-, and two-bedroom apartments. The 2.5 acre development will also include 6,000 sq. ft. of commercial space and 71 on-site parking spaces. This commercial space will be created through the adaptive reuse of the former convent, which was originally associated with Richmond’s first African American Catholic Church.

This project is the result of HUD’s Rental Assistance Demonstration Program (RAD). Established in 2011 and launched in January of 2013, RAD is designed to preserve and improve the country’s stock of affordable rental housing by allowing public housing agencies and owners of HUD-assisted properties to convert units to project-based Section 8 programs. CPDC’s work to move residents from Fay Towers is the first in Virginia to use RAD’s “transfer of assistance” provision, which enables public housing authorities to create better housing in new locations.

Groundbreaking Photos

Members of the Harkins team, Grimm + Parker Architects and Timmons Group pose for a photo as they break ground.