The site was previously a strip center with tenants that included Stories Comics and Act I Hair Design. (Mike Platania photo)
A long-planned development along Forest Hill Avenue is finally starting to go vertical.
Construction recently began on a three-story mixed-use building at 5069 Forest Hill Ave., where the Westover Place shopping center previously stood.
The new building will include 30 apartments above 7,500 square feet of ground-floor commercial space.
The project was proposed in 2021 by two local firms, Blackwood Development Co. and Dumbarton Properties, which are codeveloping the project. They bought the land later that year for $450,000 and razed the 1980s-era Westover Place strip center in 2023, and the 0.7-acre lot had sat vacant until recently.
Dumbarton’s Michael Plotkin said the spike in interest rates in 2022 that halted many projects around town also had an impact on their construction timeline.
“When we bought the property in 2021, interest rates were at 3%-and-change,” Plotkin said. “In about six months, we had gotten our (plan of development) approval from the city, and in that time, interest rates basically doubled.”
Plotkin said rates and construction costs reached a point this year that made the developers comfortable to move forward with construction, which is being handled by general contractor KBS Inc. The project architect is WPA Studios and the lender is Blue Ridge Bank.
A rendering of the planned building. (Courtesy Blackwood Development Co.)
All of the apartments at the development will be one bedrooms renting at market rate. The commercial space will be divided into suites ranging from 1,000 to 4,000 square feet. Blackwood Development co-owner Morgan Blackwood Patel said they’ll begin marketing the commercial space in a few weeks once walls go up.
“We hope to attract local food and beverage and service businesses to enhance our project and the neighborhood,” she said.
The development is scheduled to be completed in about a year. It’ll be similar in height and scale to a few others that have popped up along Forest Hill Avenue in recent years, like the Veil Brewing Co.-anchored Hill Standard project across the street, and The Evelyn to the east across Westover Hills Boulevard.
Blackwood Patel said they’re bullish on the area and the direction it’s headed.
“We believe strongly that Forest Hill has really become a lifestyle choice and destination,” she said. “When our project delivers, this corridor will have really come into its own compared to before Little Nickel (restaurant) opened or The Veil rezoning began less than a decade ago.”
Also on the block is a new Väsen Brewing Co. taproom that opened last year. Elsewhere in the area is an old Family Dollar that’s being redeveloped into a new commercial use.
Read More: Project Snapshot: Mixed-use building rising on former Westover Place
