Information Charlottesville

The Village of Rivanna Community Advisory Committee also met last night for its first meeting of the year. They got an update from the Robertson Development Group on forthcoming construction at Rivanna Village, a mixed-use development that can have up to 400 residential units and 60,000 square feet of commercial space. Here is the firm’s Tim Culpeper. 

“We have been actively developing what we call Phase 2 of Rivanna Village for probably the last five or fix months,” said the firm’s Tim Culpeper. “You have probably noticed over the past 60 to 90 days our development activity has slowed down considerably. We have all of our various plans approved on the county level. We are waiting on one approval from [the Virginia Department of Transportation] for the approval of several spans across of streams in Phase 2.”

Culpeper said the first 40 lots in phase 2 will be delivered to builders about 90 days after the VDOT approval. Phase 1 continues under development and all of the lots have been sold to builders. There are 107 units in this phase, consisting of a mix of villas, townhomes, and single family units. The exact number of units in Phase 2 is not yet known because they are still figuring out the lot sizes, but Culpeper said it will be in the range of 180 to 200 units. 

“We are not going to come close to 400 units I don’t think,” Culpeper said. “The reasons for that are we have opted to deliver more traditional single-family detached lots in the community and fewer of the townhomes. Obviously the more townhomes we do, the more density we will be able to achieve because those are much more narrow units.” 

Culpeper said an easement has been obtained for a second entrance onto U.S. 250 and the work could be completed in the middle of the year. 

“The other major improvement from the public’s perspective is we are developing a significant park and rec improvement there in Rivanna Village which is round numbers of an 18 to 19 acre park with a dog park and walking trails and there are some playing fields and other parks and rec improvements there,” Culpeper said.

There are no tenants lined up for the commercial space, which Culpeper chalks up to the pandemic as well as the plans submitted for the rezoned property relegating non-residential uses to areas that are perhaps not viable.  His company purchased the property in November 2016 after it a rezoned had been approved.

“The orientation of the commercial space on the master plan that we inherited is  not traditional commercial space,” Culpeper said. “It doesn’t have any visibility on a major thoroughfare. It doesn’t have any real retail exposure. So that has presented some challenges in the type of user that we can attract to that location.” 

Culpeper said there has been interest from childcare and healthcare companies, but no leases have been signed yet. 

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