$120M overhaul planned for Hermitage Richmond campus in Northside

A southward aerial view of the new buildings and layout planned for Hermitage Richmond at Hermitage Road and Westwood Avenue. (City documents)

Nearly 80 years after it first opened and five decades since its last expansion, the Hermitage Richmond retirement community in the city’s Northside is slated for a multimillion-dollar transformation.

Pinnacle Living, which owns and operates the community at Hermitage Road and Westwood Avenue, is planning a complete overhaul that would replace the existing complex with larger and taller buildings and increase its capacity to 233 apartments. The community currently serves 145 residents with a mix of independent and assisted living facilities.

The redevelopment would also reorient the 7-acre campus layout with three- and five-story buildings positioned closer to Hermitage and Westwood and parking behind them with access off Palmyra and Chatham roads.

An overlay of the existing complex, shown in orange, and the planned buildings that would front Westwood and Hermitage with parking behind them.

Pinnacle has presented the plans to residents and has filed special-use applications with the city for the project, which CEO Chris Henderson is needed to meet the needs and expectations of today’s retirees.

Noting the existing two- and three-story complex dates to the late 1940s, with additions in the ’50s and ’70s, Henderson said, “Quite candidly, we’re at the end of the useful life of that building.”

Chris Henderson

“Because of the age of the building, our apartments are very, very small. There are no balconies for residents to gain outside access to privately. So, when we started talking to them about the new project and the new opportunities, the excitement level was huge,” Henderson said.

He said the project also aims to attract a broader range of ages and income levels to Hermitage Richmond, where residents’ average age is currently 89.

“Our target age is between 75 and 84, and our target income levels are somewhere between $40,000 and $90,000 a year, so we want this to be a bit more of an affordable project. Not a low-income project, but affordability is important to us in that market,” he said.

“There’s a strong market opportunity there for a rental independent living community with memory support and assisted living services available. Our goal with this project is to make it a rental model that eliminates the burden of an entrance fee.”

Hermitage Richmond was built off a 1911 house and added onto since it opened in 1948.

Currently, independent living residents at Hermitage Richmond pay monthly fees and a onetime entrance fee that’s based on residence size, number of occupants and different residency agreements. Monthly fees for studios start at $4,200, which is expected to be the starting rate for the new one-bedroom units. Entrance fees would be eliminated.

On the redevelopment, Pinnacle is working with Senior Housing Partners, the development arm of Presbyterian Homes & Services that has developed or repositioned over 100 senior living communities.

It’s enlisted locally based Hourigan as pre-construction contractor, Timmons Group for civil and traffic engineering, and Spotts Fain for legal and land use services. D.C.-based BKV Group is the architect, and local firm Baker Development Resources is handling the permitting application.

A rendering of the five-story buildings as they would appear from the intersection where Hermitage Road connects with Arthur Ashe Boulevard.

Plans call for two five-story buildings that would front Hermitage and Westwood at their intersection with Brookland Parkway and Arthur Ashe Boulevard. Those buildings would house 161 independent living units, a two-level “town center” that would anchor the campus, and underground structured parking with 161 spaces.

A three-story building with 48 assisted living units and 24 memory care units would fill the corner of Westwood and Chatham. Plans also show two 3½-story, 20-unit buildings along Palmyra as future construction.

The new construction would be phased so that current residents can remain on-site through the duration of the project, which Henderson said would likely last 30 months due to the phasing. Pending permitting from the city, he said construction could start a year from now, with completion targeted for 2028.

Henderson said the group has presented the project to city officials and some of the neighborhood associations in the area, with two more community meetings scheduled later this month. He said feedback from neighbors has been mixed, with requests to preserve the existing greenspace and to not build to five stories. He said such input will be used to fine-tune the plans.

“We’re just doing those listening sessions, trying to figure out what we can do to better the project at this point,” he said.

A view of the planned buildings from Hermitage and Palmyra.

Opened in 1948 by Virginia United Methodist Homes, which does business as Pinnacle Living, Hermitage Richmond was built off a mansion that John Stuart Bryant constructed in 1911 as a wedding gift to Winifred Duffy Hoden. The home’s original parlor remains, but the rest of the main house has changed as the complex was expanded.

Pinnacle has continued to update the complex, recently completing a renovation that turned smaller studios into larger one-bedroom units, but a full renovation to current standards and requirements has been deemed impossible due to the structure’s age.

Many of the apartments were originally built with half-baths, with communal showers provided in the hallways. Rooms currently range in size from 250-square-foot studios to 500 square feet for a one-bedroom unit and 750 for a two-bedroom. Henderson said the new units for independent living will range from 700 to 1,600 square feet.

The new buildings would also have controlled entrances, secured underground parking and outdoor and indoor amenity spaces. The new campus layout would feature a central lawn with pavilion for community gatherings. The landscaping plan calls for existing mature trees to be preserved where possible.

The 7-acre campus is at 1600 Westwood Ave. (Jonathan Spiers photo)

Hermitage Richmond is one of six properties that Henrico-based Pinnacle operates, all located in Virginia.

Locally, it also operates Cedarfield, near Gaskins and Three Chopt roads in Henrico, and last fall, it purchased the nearby Spring Arbor Cottages of Richmond and the Spring Arbor of Richmond facility on Ridgefield Parkway for a combined $9.5 million. It has since renamed those facilities to Hermitage Three Chopt and Hermitage Deep Run, respectively.

The company also has unloaded properties in recent years through a divestiture plan that Henderson said has positioned it to move forward with the Hermitage Richmond revamp, which he projected to cost $120 million.

Of the divestiture, he added, “That has helped us build and strengthen our financial position so that we’re now able to do this type of reacquisition and repositioning work.”

Hermitage Richmond is north of the 67-acre Diamond District development that’s underway with construction of the new CarMax Park baseball stadium. It’s also just north of the Quality Inn Central hotel on Arthur Ashe Boulevard, which is planned to make way for a 375-unit apartment development.

Also in Northside, another senior living community, Legacy at Imperial Village, underwent a multimillion-dollar refreshening in recent years.

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