Albemarle County biotech company to add 200 jobs at expanded facility

Albemarle County’s campaign to grow the biotechnology industry showed a major sign of progress earlier this month when one company announced plans to invest $200 million into an expansion project.   “We want to expand our manufacturing to make sterile medicines, put in clean rooms, and create really, really great jobs,” said Afton Scientific’s Tom […]

In brief: Capsized cop, jail board booed, and another Tar-jay?

Another Tar-jay? Local mogul Coran Capshaw’s Riverbend Development has plans for the former Kmart shopping center on Hydraulic, now known as Hillsdale Place. The company went before the Planning Commission May 14 for entrance corridor approval (after C-VILLE went to press). The plans keep the existing footprint of the center that’s been closed since 2017. […]

New venture: Riverbend dips into public housing

Music and real estate mogul Coran Capshaw’s Riverbend Development, known for 5th Street Station, the Flats, and City Walk, among many other projects, is now aligning itself in a different direction: a partnership with Charlottesville Redevelopment and Housing Authority to build new public housing for residents of the crumbling Crescent Halls. Riverbend and the nonprofit […]

‘White hot:’ Building still booming—but not for everyone

What a difference a decade makes. Ten years ago, the housing bubble had burst, the hottest area in real estate was foreclosures, and the Downtown Mall was littered with vacancies. Today, the county development scene is “white hot,” according to Albemarle Director of Community Development Mark Graham, and in the city, Director of Economic Development […]

Brookhill base: Ice park planned at new subdivision

When an angel investor bought the Main Street Arena for nearly $6 million in March 2017 with the intent to turn it into a technology incubator, folks who frequented the 23-year-old ice park—the only one within an hour’s drive from Charlottesville—began to panic. But now it looks like hockey players, figure skaters and curlers could […]

Incoming! Belmont Apartments on the horizon

Popular Mas Tapas in the middle of Belmont is getting a new neighbor. Actually, more than 100 of them. The Belmont Apartments, proposed by Coran Capshaw- and Alan Taylor-owned Riverbend Development, will consist of at least 138 by-right apartment units, a clubhouse and 27,000 square feet of office and commercial space spread into six main […]

Boom town: Long-dormant county developments get second wind

The Great Recession is officially over. The evidence? Building permits in 2016 were the highest since 2007 housing-bubble levels. Construction is going on all over the area, from 5th Street Station to West Main to U.S. 29 north. And a recent Weldon Cooper Center population study pegs the Charlottesville area as booming.