Three developers pitch competing affordable‑housing plans for 212 North 18th Street in Richmond

Three development teams presented competing plans Saturday at Main Street Station to convert a city‑owned parking lot at 212 North 18th Street into affordable housing.

Michelle Brown Peters, deputy director of the Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD), opened the meeting and said the presentations were part of a public review of three finalists selected to propose development on the site.

TRG Community Development, represented by Andre Blakeley, proposed an 82‑unit, five‑story podium building that would include a daycare, an art gallery and a mix of units targeted between 30% and 80% of area median income. Blakeley framed the team’s experience through several case studies, including Mosby South, and said TRG seeks a combination of the city’s affordable housing performance grant, infrastructure assistance and housing trust fund support to maximize long‑term affordability. Glenn Hudson of Hudson Real Estate Advisory Group and Grace Washington of J&G Workforce Development emphasized local partnerships and workforce and small‑business participation. The team told the audience it would be ready to begin construction in September next year if a developer is selected in time; Blakeley said the team assumed "developer selection by the end of July" as part of its schedule.

David White, representing Shako Shines (Historic Housing), presented a much larger, privately financed build‑to‑hold proposal that would use steel and concrete construction rather than wood and deliver roughly 210 mixed‑income units with enclosed podium parking (the team cited about 234 parking spaces). White said the project would not seek tax abatements, estimated the site could produce more than $400,000 in annual tax revenue starting in year one, and argued that private financing would let the team move forward without bond allocations or competitive subsidy processes.

Greg Ward presented the third proposal on behalf of Gy Lynch Real Estate Partners. Gy Lynch proposed a 100% affordable building with 135 homes and a precise affordability split — 26 units at 30% AMI, 68 at 60% AMI and 41 at 80% AMI — plus flexible ground‑floor space intended for community uses. The Gy Lynch team stressed single‑phase construction to reduce duration, a community engagement program for design decisions and a formal minority business enterprise (MBE) outreach and tracking strategy for contracting opportunities.

Speakers from all three teams highlighted community benefits such as on‑site arts programming (Sir James El Thornnehill, an artist on the TRG team, described plans for murals and student participation), workforce development, and measures to improve street activation and safety in the Shockoe/“Shako” Bottom area. Each team said it had local partners and experience in Richmond projects; TRG cited a purchase price assumption of $750,000 for the site and projected 94 total jobs tied to their proposal’s development activities.

City staff reiterated that this session was an informational public presentation of finalists and that the evaluation panel will make a recommendation; no selection or formal vote occurred at the meeting. Housing director Merrick Malone closed by thanking the presenters and noting the panel faces a difficult decision and that the city aims to build a pipeline of similar projects on surplus public properties.

What happens next: the city evaluation panel will review proposals and recommend a developer; teams referenced schedule assumptions ranging from a selection by late July to construction starting the following September. The transcript did not record a final award, contract, or binding commitment at the event.