Urban mixed-use plans coming to Regency

Not only will people be able to shop at Regency, but after its redevelopment, they will be able to live there as well.

In an attempt to keep alive the aging Regency Square mall, located at 1420 N. Parham Road, the site’s owners will renovate not only its shopping and commercial facilities but also build residential apartments, said Mark Slusher, senior vice president of Thalhimer Realty Partners.

Thalhimer owns the mall with The Rebkee Co. The two groups purchased it in February 2015.

Last week, during a community meeting held in the former Macy’s south building at Regency, Slusher updated attendees on the ongoing plans for the site.

“We’ve learned that retail alone will not sustain Regency,” Slusher said. “It just won’t do it.”

Instead, he said, the mall must capitalize on what he termed its quality brand, its convenient location and its safe environment. It also needs a new urban design that will attract business and retailers, he said.

Slusher said that the goal would be to create an urban mixed-use development with a “critical mass of residents” that would support Regency’s businesses and attract others.

He presented conceptual designs for Regency’s new upper-level plaza, which include outward facing retail shops, restaurants and a rooftop deck. The lower level of the mall also will be transformed into a plaza, and there have been discussions about potentially constructing a movie theater, Slusher said.

Small parks also will be dispersed throughout the development, Slusher said.

Two of the main topics that Slusher discussed were building-height maximum and the incorporation of residential apartments into the mall property.

In initial plans, the building-height maximum at Regency was set at 250 feet. However, after feedback and consideration, the maximum will be decreased to 120 feet – or about eight to ten stories, Slusher said.

As for the incorporation of apartments, Slusher said that they would be needed in order for Regency to keep going.

“Regency won’t survive if it’s simply a place that people have to come to and then they leave,” Slusher said. “It needs to be activated. It’s our belief – and this is what’s happening across the country – it needs to be activated with its own population.”

He cited West Broad Village and Libbie Mill as examples of successful urban mixed-use developments in Henrico.

Rezoning request to be considered

Rezoning the property for mixed use will be considered by the Henrico Planning Commission at its July 11 meeting.

The first phase of apartment construction will create approximately 285 apartment units, the tentative total being 1,250. The buildings will be four stories – some may have five, depending on lowered ground levels.

Slusher said that not all 1,250 apartments would be built immediately and that they would not be built if the market did not support them.

With more residents may come more students in school. Slusher said that the county had reviewed Regency’s plans and that, according to his reading of its report, schools in the area were “somewhat tight” but the county school system believed it could handle this additional development.

He said the county estimated approximately 143 additional students for 285 apartments. But his analyses estimated about 25 instead, citing that walkable urban mixed-use developments – because their rent rates are more expensive – tended to attract millennials and young professionals without families, as well as baby boomers.

A prominent concern multiple attendees expressed was about how the addition of apartments would affect traffic in the area.

A traffic study was submitted to the county and the general consensus was that traffic will be about the same as it was during Regency’s heyday, Slusher said – a claim that was met with disagreement from some attendees.

Slusher also said that Regency would be a walkable community with several sidewalks.

Tuckahoe District Supervisor Pat O’Bannon answered some questions regarding traffic and construction in the area, saying that improvements to the nearby Parham Road-Patterson Avenue intersection, such as widening the intersection and building sidewalks, were underway and will take between 18 months and two years to complete.

One attendee asked if the developers had received any pressure to incorporate low-income housing, to which Slusher said they had not.

Some attendees commended the developer’s efforts during the presentation.

“And all these concerns, I really feel like all this is going to work out,” one local resident said. “There’s going to be obviously growing pains with everything. But they’re not talking about putting 1,200 apartments here in the next two years.”

Another attendee suggested that the developers keep the public informed.

“We’re going to support you,” the attendee said. “But I think for us, just keeping us engaged and keeping us involved will help you go a lot further.”

Henrico resident Lloydette Diggs said she thought that this development would be the positive “shot in the arm” that the area needs. However, if the property is to be walkable, something has to be done about the lack of sidewalks, she said.

O’Bannon commended the developers on their planning and follow-through.

Regency has already announced plans to have Surge Trampoline Park in the former Macy’s north building, and NOVA Aquatics, which will have an $18 million indoor swimming facility in the former Macy’s south building in a partnership with Henrico County.