June 25, 2025: Plans filed for 11-story student housing building on West Main Street
Plus: A data center developer will purchase Louisa County’s Shannon Hill Regional Business Park
Virginia became the tenth state to ratify the United States Constitution on this date in 1788. Ever since then, the tenor of government has gone through many changes. On June 25, 1910, Congress passed the Mann Act which I only vaguely remember hearing about at school.
Thirty-eight years later, the national legislature adopted the Displaced Persons Act to allow thousands and thousands of World War II refugees to move to this country. Closer to now in 1998, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the Line Item Veto Act from two years ago was unconstitutional.
This edition of Charlottesville Community Engagement now pivots to items from this century and this week. I’m Sean Tubbs, and I’m glad to get going.
In today’s installment:
A data center developer and operator has purchased the Shannon Hill Regional Business Park from Louisa County for $42 million
Plans have been filed for an 11 story building on West Main Street
Charlottesville City Council approves formation of two limited liability corporations to assist with two Charlottesville Redevelopment and Housing Authority projects
First shout-out: Charlottesville E-bike Lending Library
The rolling topography of the Charlottesville area might keep some people away from choosing cycling as an option to get around. Perhaps an e-bike is in order?
That’s where Charlottesville’s eBike Lending Library comes in! E-bikes are a great way to get around the community but there are many brands and styles to choose from. Because many e-bikes are sold online, it can be a challenge to try an e-bike before buying one.
The Charlottesville E-bike Lending Library is a free, not-for-profit service working to expand access to e-bikes in the area. They have a small collection of e-bikes that they lend out to community members for up to a week, for free. You can experience your daily commute, go grocery shopping, or even bike your kids to school, and decide whether e-bikes are right for you. Check out this service at https://www.ebikelibrarycville.org!
Louisa County sells Shannon Hill Regional Business Park to data center company
One of Louisa County’s economic development initiatives has been to invest in infrastructure at county-owned locations in order to attract industry.
On Tuesday, the county announced that the 697-acre Shannon Hill Regional Business Park has been sold to a developer and operator of data centers.
Edgecore Digital Infrastructure will pay $42 million for the site according to an information release. The Arizona-based company is currently building two data center campuses in Ashburn in Northern Virginia.
Louisa County paid $2.6 million for the site in 2018 and rezoned the land a year later for several technology-based purposes including data centers. The county and its Industrial Development Authority invested $29.5 million to bring utilities to the property. That came from $17 million in debt as well as a $13.6 million site-readiness grant from the Virginia Partnership for Economic Development.
“This announcement marks a realization of the park’s full benefits,” said Dustin Madison, Chairman of the Louisa County Industrial Development Authority in a press release. “EdgeCore’s development enables the property’s usage in a manner that minimizes traffic on Shannon Hill Road, conserves water, and generates significant and ongoing revenues which will benefit our citizens.”
The release states that Edgecore will use a closed-loop air-cooled system and claims that it will use less than 0.1 liter per kilowatt hour of energy consumed.
Louisa will put the proceeds to pay off the debt early according to the release.
The release refers to data centers as “tax revenue powerhouses” that can be used to invest in county services.
The permitting process is underway for two data center campuses being built by Amazon Web Services, part of an $11 billion investment announced in late August 2023. The county entered into an $88 million contract with a subsidiary of Faulconer Construction to build the infrastructure for both.
Earlier month, Engage Louisa reported that Amazon has filed for a conditional use permit for a third data center campus. Supervisor Duane Adams will hold a town hall on the matter on June 26 at 6:30 pm in the Alan Jackson Theater, at Louisa County High School at 757 Davis Highway in Mineral.
Second shout-out: Charlottesville Community Bikes
In today’s second subscriber supported shout-out, Charlottesville Community Bikes strives to provide wheels to anyone who needs a ride. That includes:
There’s a Kid’s Bike program for people under the age of 12 (learn more)
Several social services organizations refer people to Charlottesville Community Bikes for access to reliable transportation (learn more)
Keep an eye on their calendar for the next mobile repair clinic (learn more)
There’s also a workforce development program that “blends mentorship and comprehensive training in bicycle mechanics” (learn more)
Visit the Charlottesville Community Bikes website today to learn more!
Plans filed for 11 story student housing building on West Main Street
The University of Virginia has plans to add up to 2,000 beds for undergraduate students with one project nearing construction that will accomplish about 40 percent of that goal.
At the same time, construction is underway on the 12-story Verve apartment building at the intersection of Jefferson Park Avenue and Emmet Street as well as the Blume building at 2117 Ivy Road.
Earlier this month, the Board of Architectural Review had a preliminary review of plans to build up to 157 units in a seven story building on 7th Street SW in Fifeville.
Now staff in Charlottesville’s Neighborhood Development Services office have begun processing an application for an eleven story building in the 800 block of West Main Street. LV Collective of Austin, Texas, is proposing another large residential structure to be marketed to students.
“The apartment building is proposed to include approximately 307 units (708 beds), structured parking of 120 spaces, amenities for the residents, an internal bike storage room, and a public café space along West Main Street,” reads the narrative for a pre-application conference for a future BAR meeting.
The property is zoned Corridor Mixed Use 8 under the city’s new development code. The 1.61 acres of land are currently being used for surface parking.
To the west is the Standard, a student apartment complex that opened in 2017 having been developed by Landmark Properties. Across the street is the Flats at West Village, an apartment building that opened in 2014. Nearby is the Lark, a third student housing building constructed around the same time.
All three of those buildings were built under the old rules which required City Council to grant special use permits for additional height and density.
Under the new rules, Council will play no role unless a special exception is required. There is unlimited density and buildings can be high as eleven stories (or 156 feet) under CX-8.
The Board of Architectural Review will have to approve a Certificate of Appropriateness because the project is in the West Main Street Architectural Design Control District.
The narrative mentions that the property is also adjacent to Westhaven, a public housing site operated by the Charlottesville Redevelopment and Housing Authority. LV Collective met with with the 10th and Page Neighborhood Association and the Westhaven community to inform their proposal.
“The proposed plan for the Project includes establishing a larger than required setback along the property boundary with Westhaven, incorporating a well-designed pedestrian connection from Westhaven through the Project to West Main, and retaining the existing tree buffer between the Project and Westhaven’s future apartment buildings,” reads the narrative.
In materials included in the packet, LV Collective has developed or planned over $6 billion worth of apartment buildings with over 6,000 units and 16,000 student and multifamily beds. Their timeline shows that they hope to have all approvals and permits in place in time for a May 2026 groundbreaking and a finished building in May 2028.
In March, the University of Virginia Board of Visitors were told that enrollment for undergraduate students is expected to remain flat through 2031. (read the story)
Council indicates support to form two entities for CRHA projects
The ownership structure for legacy projects owned by the Charlottesville Redevelopment and Housing Authority continues to change as the entity prepares to modernize and build upon older spaces.
On June 16, Charlottesville City Council held the first of two readings on a resolution to approve the creation of limited liability corporations for both the second phase of redevelopment at CRHA’s Sixth Street property and the first phase of work at the Westhaven property. This is a key step to become eligible for Low Income Housing Tax Credits.
“These entities are to support project financing and the development,” said Antoine Brown, the city’s housing program manager. “ As part of these efforts, CRHA must establish single purpose entities to serve as ownership and or management entities in order to comply with [Internal Revenue Service], [United States Department of Housing and Urban Development] and Virginia Housing requirements.”
Brown said each phase needs to have its own LLC because the investors who purchase the tax credits may be different from each other.
“Each entity has its own entity and CRHA is the owner of that entity,” Brown said.
City Council has agreed to commit $15 million in funds toward the redevelopment of Westhaven in the form of three $5 million payments over three years.
Reading material:
Issue affecting phone service in several localities, CBS19 News, June 24, 2025
Government phone lines in Charlottesville, Albemarle, Greene and Fluvanna down, Charlottesville Daily Progress, June 24, 2025
Verizon phone outage affecting Albemarle County government, police, VPM News, June 24, 2025
Then there were two, Catie Ratliff, C-Ville Weekly, June 25, 2025
Local transit service Jaunt wants community feedback, Anastasiia Carrier, Charlottesville Tomorrow, June 25, 2025
Albemarle County officer arrested after alleged DUI crash, WVIR 29News, June 25, 2025
Federal cuts hit coastal flooding, dam projects, Shannon Heckt, CBS19 News, June 25, 2025
#885 now begins the process of fading away into the next number
There are only three stories today. There was an attempt at a fourth but I’m missing a major element for it. There were also going to be more stories about West Main Street, but I’m likely going to save those for the first of two stories in C-Ville Weekly this week. There was also going to be a story about an Albemarle development, but the materials aren’t complete for that either.
There’s also the heat to contend with. Heat fills me with dread, as does the constant din of construction noise. I was quite happy to see the mound of dirt that’s been on the former athletic field at Buford Middle School come down, but now it is being built back up again on another portion of the field.
Oh well. I’m not in control of any of this. All I’m in control of is producing this newsletter, the other newsletter, and the Information Charlottesville website. Even then “control” is an odd word because there are so many loose ends each day. I’m not sure how I keep it straight.
It is very likely there will be no edition of this newsletter tomorrow. I have to do some big errands and tomorrow may be a good day to do them. It’s also possible I’ll continue procrastinating on those and decide to finish up all of the stories.
There’s a new OSEES song and I’m hearing it for the first time. I suspect this will not be enjoyed by many people and I’m not sure how I feel about but I’m going to probably obsess over the song until the album comes out. I prefer where the band was pre-2020 and this feels more interesting than their last two albums.
Thank you Sean, I just want to say how much I appreciate your work in keeping us informed, and your sense of humor. It's such a valuable resource for local news.