Twice is Nice purchases former grocery store on Preston Avenue for $5.5 million and many more January 2025 Charlottesville property transactions

Plus: A house on Hessian Road sells for $3.1 million

I have been considering whether I should move on from this monthly review of property transactions in Charlottesville. I’m much busier now than I was at the beginning of Town Crier Productions. I love doing the work of going through every single sale and writing up a summary, but it takes a rare kind of day for me to be able to do the research. Those days have become more rare.

Turns out that day was yesterday. After deciding not to do a new newsletter for Saturday, I thought I’d see if I could get a few transactions from January written down. Six hours later, I had nearly completed this installment which goes out to paid subscribers first. So Sunday begins with putting this out there and the moving on to the Week Ahead.

There are hundreds of new subscribers from the past two weeks, so an explanation is in order. A regular part of my work is looking through property transactions. I’ve been covering land use and real estate in Charlottesville for a long time, and this is how I keep track of what’s happening.

Charlottesville adopted a new zoning code in late 2023 that went into effect at the end of February. The new rules allow for significantly more density than the previous one. I wrote about the planning process extensively and I aim to write as much as I can about how it’s all coming together.

I’ve also been documenting a trend toward ever increasing sales prices and the inflationary effect that has had on real property assessments in Charlottesville. This time around I am not drawing attention to that aspect as I did in December 2024, but the tax base in 2025 is much higher than it was in 2020.

This goes to paid subscribers first as a benefit for their contribution. Mostly everything is out from the paywall, including the full archive. But, this post will go to Information Charlottesville a week from now if you want to wait.

Paid subscriptions help me keep this work going and growing. There are now over 4,000 people on this list, and about one in five is a paid subscriber. I’m really pleased with that ratio as that has been consistent since the beginning. I’m grateful for each paid subscription and will write you a personalized thank you. Eventually.

Later on today will be the Week Ahead newsletter, so non-paywall content is on the way! For those of you who have paid, a very quick look at property transactions in January 2025.