Developer seeks to transform Near West End office park into massive mixed-use development

The owners of a familiar 52-acre office park in Henrico’s West End want to turn it into a massive urban mixed-use development with more than 1,500 apartment and townhome units, a town center, event space and more than 30,000 square feet of retail space.

Forest Avenue Office, LLC, a holding company of Reynolds Development, has filed plans to transform the Reynolds Crossing Office Park at the intersection of West Broad Street and Forest Avenue during a six-phase buildout that could span 15 to 20 years. The company’s proposal was scheduled to be heard by the Henrico Planning Commission earlier this month but was deferred to the commission’s Aug. 15 at the request of the applicant.

Plans for the new-look Reynolds Crossing would echo, in a broad sense, those approved last November as part of the unrelated Willow Lawn redevelopment plan and continue a pattern of similar midtown-style mixed-use concepts along the West Broad Street corridor between the city line and Glenside Drive, where about 8,000 new residential units and 700,000 square feet of commercial space have been approved by the Henrico Board of Supervisors in recent years.

To remake Reynolds Crossing into a walkable neighborhood with a variety of uses, the applicant would demolish two existing office buildings in the center of the property, as well as the existing Plaza Azteca restaurant building, and construct four residential buildings, three mixed-use buildings, five townhome buildings and a retail building.

The focal point of the new property would be two mixed-use residential-over-retail buildings (one 10 stories in height, the other 12 stories) located adjacent to the West Broad Street-Forest Avenue intersection on the current Plaza Azteca site, angled in a V-shape opening toward West Broad Street., with a one-acre town center-style plaza in between. The buildings would contain a total of 465 multi-family residential units and 26,000 square feet of retail space.

The other four residential buildings (at 10, nine, seven and six stories in height) would be situated on the site’s southern half in a U-shape around the townhome community and courtyard at the center of the property and adjacent to an existing seven-story office building. A new eight-story mixed-use residential-and-office building would be situated at the northwestern corner of the site, adjacent to an existing six-story office building. A new internal road grid would include a roundabout near the existing office building on the property’s northern edge, adjacent to the existing Westin Hotel (which also would remain in place).

All of the new residential and mixed-use buildings would include “step-back” designs (pictured), to allow the implementation of open space at elevated or ground levels.

“Reynolds Crossing will be an innovative new mixed-use community with a multitude of living styles woven into a tapestry of different building types,” the applicant wrote in its 39-page pattern book, which provides extensive details about about the plans. “The neighborhood will be stitched together through a series of protected bike lanes, expansive sidewalks, open plazas, and alleys with an emphasis on the pedestrian experience. Reynolds Crossing will provide its residents and visitors with a more walkable neighborhood that encourages multi-modal transportation.”

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The community, located along an existing GRTC bus line, will be designed with “flexible interstitial spaces” that create opportunities for people to gather and social, the applicant wrote.

“Celebrating these in between spaces, like string-lit alleyways between buildings, creates opportunities for common areas to hold social gatherings or provide intimate seating for a local coffee shop.”

In total, the redeveloped site would contain slightly less office space than it does currently (551,262 square feet, down from 560,000 square feet) but more retail space (31,000 square feet vs. 6,000 square feet) and more parking spaces (3,793 vs. 554), in addition to the new residential units. About 15 acres of the site are considered undevelopable, according to the applicant.

The number of proposed parking spaces is about 26% less than base parking standards, since the urban mixed-use zoning classification permits a reduction of up to 30% from typical standards as a way to encourage and recognize multimodal transportation options.

“While the addition of residential would not be fully consistent with the 2026 [Henrico Comprehensive] Plan’s future land use designations, the new office and retail components would be,” Henrico planners wrote in a report about the proposal. “The proposal would also support numerous goals and objectives in the Plan, including the desire to revitalize aging commercial corridors by encouraging more diverse and efficient land use of underutilized surface parking areas, an approach successfully executed throughout the county (including along West Broad Street).”

The project would meet 17 separate of Henrico’s goals, objectives or policies, according to the planning staff report, including encouraging high-density residential communities in urban locations near primary roads, shopping areas and employment centers. The applicant has submitted a required traffic impact analysis, which Henrico’s traffic engineers are reviewing.

Planners encouraged the applicant to address several areas of interest, including detailing proposed traffic improvements in its proffers (voluntary development standards); realigning a proposed multi-use path to avoid traveling through a parking lot; accounting in its proffers for a potential future GRTC stop within the property; and considering making a portion of the proposed residential units “inclusionary” to help alleviate affordable housing issues locally.

Planners concluded that although the number of townhomes and apartments planned at the site would be expected to yield about 346 new public school students in traditional multi-family developments, the actual yield in urban mixed-use developments in the county has proven to be significantly fewer. Both Crestview Elementary School and Tuckahoe Middle School are only at about 77% of their student capacity levels and should be able to support new students from the development, planners wrote, but Freeman High School already is over capacity at about 104%, and relief is needed to accommodate more students.

“This development and others occurring in the Tuckahoe magisterial district will have a significant impact on this campus over time,” planners wrote. “Trailers, additional instructional space, redistricting, and/or other capacity relief options will be needed in the future at the high school level.”

The board of supervisors recently rejected rezoning plans for the Gateway apartment complex in part because of the anticipated yield of new students for Freeman.

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The tentative first phase of the Reynolds Crossing project would involve construction of the seven-story multi-family residential building along the southern line of Forest Avenue, across from Crestview Elementary School. The second phase would involve demolition of the Plaza Azteca restaurant and construction of the two mixed-use buildings and town center in the same area. The final four phases would include the other buildings.

About 10 people from nearby neighborhoods attended a community meeting hosted by the applicant about the proposal Feb. 22, according to planners. They asked questions about building heights, lighting, traffic and density, among other elements.

After the planning commission hears the case, it will vote to recommend its approval or denial to the board of supervisors, which will hold its own public hearing and ultimately decide whether to approve or deny the case.

– Joseph Maltby contributed to this article