Henrico reveals arena-anchored development proposal for Best Products and Brook Road sites

Nightlife, restaurants, green space, walkability, and a 17,000-seat arena – this is Henrico County’s new vision for the former Best Products site and the Brook Road corridor.

On Monday evening, Henrico officials presented their draft plan to a room packed with about 80 community members, saying that they hope the areas along Route 1 can become a new vibrant economic hub for the county.

The proposal, which will be heard by the Henrico Planning Commission on June 11, would rezone many commercial areas of the sites to allow for mixed-use developments, a model which often places businesses on the first floor and residences on the upper floors. More green open spaces and walkable corridors would be integrated into the area and nearby neighborhoods would connect to the new Fall Line trail system.

The proposal also suggests the new arena be built on 20-acres of the south end of the Best Products site, with hotels and parking nearby but also walkable routes for the community to access. The arena originally was part of the $2-billion Green City development plan for the area, which fell through last year after developers failed to make necessary payments to the county.

Currently, the Best Products site hosts the vacant headquarters of the former retail company, which went out of business three decades ago. The Brook Road corridor is marked with single-family houses and various businesses like Dollar Tree, Food Lion, Walmart, motels, and automobile shops – an area that planners see as “unlocked development potential.”

“[It] is unfortunately an area that is decaying in a lot of ways,” said Jason King, a planner on the project who works for Able City East. “The area has seen better days, and new development is probably on the way.”

But despite the county’s enthusiasm about the project, the proposal does not guarantee that everything will be developed as written, it only changes the zoning codes to allow for potential future development, said Henrico Planning Director Joe Emerson, leaving a big “what if” over the 30-year project.

“Will this really happen?...the best answer I can give you is ‘maybe,’” said King. “But this area has a high level of development potential. People are interested in building it. You see that in the “for sale” signs and the new developments coming in.”

Henrico also has not yet settled on a developer for the arena, said Emerson, but is in conversation with various interested parties. He also said “the door is open” when it comes to integrating other ideas from the failed Green City project.

Some residents praise walkability, others raise concerns about traffic

The proposal prompted mixed reactions from community members, with some in full support of the walkable, mixed-use developments and others more skeptical about impacts on traffic and the amount of noise from the arena.

The Brook Road area is home to many elderly residents, said one community member, and adding more walking and biking trails could eat into road space that is much more needed by the area’s residents.

“You have already messed up with these walkable trails. You have created more traffic,” they said. “I like the idea of trails, but they don’t need to take the road space that we use to drive on every day. I have not seen but two bicycles since [the trails] were built, and I’ve only seen but five people walking on all of the Lakeside trails. That was a waste of money.”

But for sisters Annelisia Wilson and Shelia Davenport, who are approaching their 70s and live nearby the Best Products site, walking and biking trails would be a huge amenity for the community, young and old alike.

“Right now, to ride our bikes, we pretty much have to drive 40 minutes down to the Capital Trail,” said Wilson. “But with this, we could probably just get on our bikes and ride on the trails, and it would be safer for the kids.”

The idea of more restaurants, entertainment, and shops within walking distance is also an exciting prospect for community members who are forced to drive every time they want to dine out.

“If we didn’t own our house, we definitely would move over to that area,” said Davenport about the new Best Products site. “Not that I’m young and need to be up until 11 or 12 p.m., but it would be really nice to have something where we could go sit around and have a drink and not have to worry about driving. Right now, if you want to go to a nice restaurant, you get in your car and drive 15-20 minutes to Short Pump or into [Richmond] city.”

Both the Best Products and Brook Road areas, being centrally located in the county, have the potential to be vibrant, walkable areas, said Forest Terwilliger, who lives nearby in the Chamberlayne Farms neighborhood. But in such a car-centric, suburban county, the proposal would create an area that most county residents would still need to drive to, he said, which could make it more dangerous for walkers and bikers.

“I think it’d be a really cool opportunity to develop a sort of pseudo-European main town center area, but I’ve been thinking a lot about how people are actually going to get around the area,” Terwilliger said. “I don’t know if any of you have biked around Richmond, but you could die at any moment. With bike lanes right on the side of the road, cars can be going 45-50 [miles per hour].”

“But you have to start somewhere,” he said. “I think if there was a spot, other than Richmond [City], to do it, this is it.”

Several residents who live next to the south part of the Brook Road corridor also worried that the new arena and mixed-use developments would bring more people than the area could properly sustain, making Brook Road “another Short Pump” full of traffic and noise for residents.

“We can’t hardly sleep at night even now. At 10 p.m. at night, we’re hearing the noise from the Richmond racetrack. So you can only imagine what an arena would bring,” said one resident. “And Brook Road is already a major thoroughfare. We have accidents on I-95 and when that gets closed down, they route everybody on Brook Road. So we already have all that traffic going on.” 

Liana Hardy is the Citizen’s government and education reporter. Support her work and articles like this one by making a contribution to the Citizen.