An apartment development that’s set to add hundreds of units near the transforming Virginia Center Commons site is underway following a multimillion-dollar land deal that’s been over a year in the making.

Bristol Development Group has started construction on a five-story, 279-unit apartment building at 10551 Telegraph Road after paying $6 million for the 3.3-acre parcel in a deal that closed last month.

The seller was Mohawk Investment Partners LLC, which purchased the undeveloped pad site in 2022 from National Financial Realty Holdings, the owner of the adjacent Colonial Place office park. Bristol’s 7-acre project includes part of the office park property.

The July 12 closing came 10 months after Bristol secured approval from Henrico County for a revised version of the project that it first proposed last summer. The revised plan works off a smaller footprint that provides more open space on the property, which is within the form-based overlay district that Henrico has established for the VCC area.

That area includes the former mall site, which Rebkee Co. and Shamin Hotels are redeveloping with restaurants, hotels and hundreds of apartments, condos and townhomes. The redevelopment is anchored by the Henrico Sports & Events Center, which the county opened last fall.

It was the overlay district that prompted Mohawk to market the pad site for multifamily development, said Thalhimer agent David Smith, who brokered the deal for Mohawk and has worked with Bristol on its other developments in metro Richmond.

David Smith (Photo courtesy Thalhimer)

Smith said the site had been meant for a third office building but was never developed before Mohawk purchased it from National Financial, which had bought the three parcels that make up the office park the previous year in separate deals totaling nearly $25 million. County property records show it sold the pad site to Mohawk for what it paid for that parcel: $50,000.

“This was a pad-ready office site that really became a multifamily site, and that was a good thing for the owner and in this case also a good thing for Bristol,” Smith said.

“It was the overlay that enabled us to build multifamily, and in particular, multistory multifamily, so in essence the deal was already zoned,” he said. “We went to market with that, and that was obviously very attractive to the parties we marketed it to.”

Smith said he marketed the site to five or six development firms that were identified as viable contenders, including Bristol.

“At the end of the day, Bristol did win the contest, but that wasn’t for any other reason than they just made the best proposal and came up with some of the very best ideas to launch a development transaction,” Smith said. “It was a very, very tough deal. But everybody pulled together and we got it done.”

The 303,000-square-foot apartment building will front Telegraph Road and wrap around a central courtyard with community amenities. A dog park, pocket park and additional courtyard are planned beside the building, along with 339 parking spaces.

The building would wrap around a central courtyard and include additional amenities beside it. Additional parking to the south is not shown. (County documents)

The one- and two-bedroom apartments will range in size from about 450 to 1,230 square feet. Rents have not been announced.

Fortune-Johnson is the general contractor for the apartments, which are scheduled for completion in June 2026. Poole & Poole Architecture is designing the project, and Timmons Group is handling engineering work.

The project is the seventh for Bristol in the Richmond market. The Tennessee-based developer’s other area projects include Tapestry West in Henrico’s Westwood area, The Canopy at Ginter Park in the city’s Northside, Artistry at Winterfield in the Midlothian area, and 2000 West Creek in Goochland. Each of those properties was later sold to Capital Square, a Henrico-based real estate firm.

Bristol’s latest local development, The Collective West Creek, opened last year. The $75 million, 335-unit complex is off Patterson Avenue at the southern end of West Creek Business Park.

In other VCC area news, Henrico’s Economic Development Authority announced last week it has purchased The Crossings Golf Club for $3 million as part of a public-private partnership to enhance the public course in a bid to keep PGA Tour Champions tournaments in Henrico after 2025, when the Dominion Energy Charity Classic is set to lose its title sponsor and host venue.