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A conceptual rendering of housing groups planned for the Scott Farm property. (BizSense file images)
As legal disputes surrounding the former GreenCity project appear to be resolving, initial development for the project's residential portion is getting teed up.
Henrico County last week approved an infrastructure plan for the first section of homes that will fill the northern half of the 200-acre site, which runs between Parham Road and Interstate 295 east of I-95.
Henrico-based Markel | Eagle Partners is developing that part of the arena-anchored development, with its homebuilding arm, Eagle Construction of VA, signed on to build all of the 880 for-sale homes that are planned for the 111-acre former Scott Farm property.
In addition to the home sites, Markel | Eagle will develop 80 acres that make up the Scott Farm portion of a linear park that's planned to run through the length of the GreenCity site. The company has said the total buildout amounts to a $400 million investment by Markel | Eagle, whose other developments include GreenGate in Short Pump and the forthcoming Avenlea project.
Showing planned street grids and utilities and lighting placements, the infrastructure plan for the initial residential section appears to generally follow a conceptual layout previously filed with the county by Riverstone Properties, the Bill Goodwin-led firm that previously owned Scott Farm.
The 200-acre GreenCity site includes the Scott Farm property owned by Riverstone Properties.
Riverstone later gifted the land to Goodwin's Commonwealth Foundation for Cancer Research, which was the seller in a $35 million deal with Markel | Eagle and Henrico. Each contributed $17 million to the purchase, with Hernico's Economic Development Authority pitching in the remaining $1 million.
The county expects to recoup its part of the payment over 20 years from incremental tax revenues generated by the overall development, which Henrico is now calling "Best Products Reimagined."
In addition to the arena that would anchor the development, the project's master plan calls for 1.9 million square feet of office space, 135,000 square feet of retail, three hotels with 600 rooms apiece, and just over 2,100 residential units, in addition to parks, green space and a rehab of the former Best Products headquarters building on an adjacent 93-acre property.
Henrico is now pitching the Best Products property to prospective developers after declaring the project's former developers, Green City Partners, in default of their agreements. A recent settlement between the former developers' land ownership entity and ASM Global, which had signed on to manage the arena, is clearing the way for the county's planned repurchase of the Best Products property.
The 880 homes planned for the Scott Farm land is just a portion of the 2,100 residential units that are approved for the project overall. The rest of those units would be built on the Best Products property.
The homes would be a variety of product types including detached and attached units and condos, and range in sizes and price points. Riverstone's preliminary plat showed the 880 units broken down into townhomes, "two-over-two" condos or flats, and villas.
It isn't clear when site work for the residential portion will get underway. Principals with Markel | Eagle could not be reached by press time. Townes Site Engineering drew up the infrastructure plan.
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