Council approves 350-unit Northside apartment project, appoints new EDA member

A rendering of Rady Flats. (City documents)

A Nashville developer got the votes it needed last night to move ahead with a planned 352-unit income-based apartment complex near Six Points in Richmond’s Northside. 

City Council approved a special-use permit for Elmington’s Rady Flats project, which would rise on a 23-acre wooded parcel at 2811 Rady St.

Units at Rady Flats would be available to households earning up to 60 percent of the area median income. 

Elmington’s SUP request was needed since the project site is currently zoned for industrial use. The request was on council’s consent agenda and passed unanimously at Monday’s meeting.

The development’s construction timeline is unclear, as Elmington has declined to comment. The company also is planning a 266-unit complex near the intersection of Semmes and Cowardin on the city’s Southside.

A rendering of the proposed building at the corner of Patterson and Libbie avenues.

Meanwhile, the proposed redevelopment of the Westhampton Pastry Shop building at 5728 Patterson Ave. is still up in the air. 

Council had been set to vote on that project, which would see the bakery’s existing building razed and replaced with a four-story mixed-use building, but mid-day Monday it was continued to April 28. 

The city’s Planning Commission recommended approving the project earlier this month, and council’s already delayed voting on it once before. 

Council also on Monday delayed a vote on a plan to sell about 55 acres of city-owned surplus land to private developers and housing nonprofits. That resolution is now set to go before council at its March 10 meeting.

Lastly, council appointed a new member to the city’s Economic Development Authority. Now serving a four-year term on the EDA is Jared Loiben, a mergers and acquisitions analyst at Dominion Energy. Councilwomen Stephanie Lynch and Sarah Abubaker abstained from the appointment vote, and Councilwoman Kenya Gibson voted against the appointment, citing Dominion’s outsized influence in the city.

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