Verve to open leasing office on West Main Street

As the City of Charlottesville’s Neighborhood Development Services continues to process applications for two student housing buildings to the east of the University of Virginia, a similar project under construction is planning to open up a leasing office in a vacant building on West Main Street.

Permits issued by NDS indicate that the firm Subtext is planning to rent at lease some of the 1,332 bedrooms at the Verve Charlottesville from a renovated space at 919 West Main Street.

The Verve is a brand name used by Subtext across many of its properties including the 12-story student apartment building currently under construction at the intersection of Jefferson Park Avenue and Emmet Street.

“This project is a renovation of a vacant ground floor tenant space within an existing mixed-use building,” reads a building permit issued on September 18, 2025. “This main floor tenant space will serve as a leasing office.”

The building is at the corner of West Main Street and 10th Street NW. An entity called 917 West Main Street LLC purchased two-thirds of the structure in August 2022 for $1.3 million. The building has been vacant since Habitat for Humanity of Greater Charlottesville moved out of the office in 2021.

A previously approved building permit anticipated installation of kitchen equipment for a donut franchise but that project fell through during construction. Here’s a story I wrote for C-Ville Weekly.

For this project, an original idea was to also create a place for someone to live on the second floor.

“The sleeping unit will consist of a primary living / sleeping area, a small kitchenette, a bedroom, and two bathrooms,” reads a narrative submitted with an August 11, 2025 email from a representative from the developer to NDS officials.

However, that was abandoned after city officials pointed out an automatic sprinkler system would be required. Additionally, the building code classification of R-1 requires two ways to get out of the building in case of fire or other emergency in order to get a certificate of occupancy.

“In our resubmission we will change the upstairs use group to business use,” wrote Amrit Singh of Fultz & Singh Architects in an August 19 email to the city. “The R-1 use impacts cost in a negative way, thus the change.”

The website for Verve Charlottesville states that the project will be completed in 2027.

“VERVE Charlottesville brings a bold new energy to student living, redefining what it means to live next to the University of Virginia Grounds,” reads the website. “This is urban student living with attitude and ambition.”

In December, the Board of Architectural Review declined to approve a Certificate of Appropriateness for the Mark, a proposed student housing building on 7th Street SW in the Fifeville neighborhood. I’ll have more details later this week.

LV Collective has proposed a student housing building at 843 West Main Street that went before the BAR for a preliminary discussion over the summer but an application for a Certificate of Appropriateness has not yet been filed.

A final site plan application was also filed in the summer but staff issued a letter of denial of the first submission in August. Among the items that need to be addressed are the provision of a transportation demand management plan, the scheduling of a community meeting for that plan, more bicycle parking, and a suggestion to make transit more friendly in front of the building.

Before you go: Paid subscribers cover the cost of conducting research for this article which was originally published in the December 29, 2025 edition of Charlottesville Community Engagement.  You can either subscribe through Substack, make a monthly contribution through Patreon, or consider becoming a sponsor. The goal of Town Crier Productions is to increase awareness about what is  happening at the local, regional, state, and federal government levels. Please share the work with others if you want people to know things.