Infills adding modern-design homes in Westhampton, Highland Park areas

Lloyd Poe, Vanessa Poe and Mike Hanky, from left, in front of Richmond Hill Design + Build’s Cashel Modern homes on Westview Avenue. (Jonathan Spiers photos)

A pair of modern-design infills on opposite sides of town are adding more architectural styles and homeownership options to neighborhoods in Richmond not known for such abodes.

Richmond Hill Design + Build is putting the finishing touches on its Cashel Modern project, a cluster of four modern homes on Westview Avenue a couple blocks east of Libbie Avenue near Patterson Avenue.

The three-story homes are two doors down from the company’s neighboring infill, Enclave at Westview, which will total seven homes of varying architectural styles. Three of those houses have been built and sold, at prices around $1.6 million. A fourth is under construction.

The three-story homes include garages, balconies, elevators and midlevel verandas. (Photo courtesy CVRMLS)

Two of the four Cashel Modern homes have been completed, with one selling last month at its asking price of $1.7 million. The other has hit the market with nearly the same price tag, and construction is wrapping up on the remaining two units.

Lloyd and Vanessa Poe, the father-daughter team behind Richmond Hill, had originally planned to build and sell the modern homes one by one, but said their game plan changed to building all four simultaneously once construction got underway.

“It was a tight site,” Vanessa said. “Our superintendent had to work overtime on just organizing schedules and making sure that trades could get access and lay down material. That’s when we realized you’ve got to start building all together, so you don’t harass the buyers eventually with blocking access and noise.”

“I wish I could tell you we had that much vision,” Lloyd added about the change. “The truth is we evolved into that decision. It was one, two, and then: ‘We can’t have happy homeowners if we don’t get out of their way sooner versus later.’”

Work is wrapping up on the units, one of which has sold for $1.7 million.

Going all in, all at once required a greater financial commitment up-front, but also presented some advantages and efficiencies, Vanessa said.

“We front-loaded this development, which has some financial burden, but our trades enjoyed it because they could just pingpong back and forth,” she said. “If they didn’t have material on one, they would jump to the next one. Or if they needed to come back and fix something, they were all in the same neighborhood.”

The Cashel Modern homes have similar looks from the outside but vary inside with different takes on what Lloyd called a “soft modern” design style. The recently listed home has an open-concept second floor with a family room that features a gas fireplace and lots of windows and a kitchen with a quartz-countertop waterfall island.

The second-floor living room opens to the kitchen. (CVRMLS)

Bedrooms are on the top floor, and the downstairs includes an additional bedroom and ADA-compliant bathroom that can be used as a guest or in-law suite. All of the units also have balconies and verandas with cable railings, screened porches, elevators and garages.

The modern design style is something new for Lloyd, a longtime Richmond homebuilder who said he was nudged toward modern as demand for it grew – and with more than a little encouragement from his architect daughter.

“Vanessa’s been pushing us to do more and more, to the point that we have a neighborhood over on Forest Hill in Willow Oaks that will have 10 moderns,” Lloyd said, referring to their Enclave at Willow Oaks project that is set to start construction in the next couple months.

“Part of it is we’re seeing a trend: people in more mature architectural markets – Chicago, New York, Florida – are coming in here going, ‘Where’s the modern?’” he said. “They’re used to it, it’s normal for them, they want it again. That’s changing the dynamic of the architecture in Richmond and I think gives it some architectural diversity.”

The quartz-countertop waterfall island in the kitchen. (CVRMLS)

Mike Hanky, an agent with Shaheen, Ruth, Martin & Fonville Real Estate who is listing the Westview homes for the Poes and brought the site to Lloyd’s attention, said the buyer of the first Cashel Modern home to sell is a former Richmonder who traveled and didn’t expect to find modern-design options back home.

“During his time in L.A., he was much more exposed to the modern-style homes that are more prevalent out West. He was thrilled to come back to Richmond and find that the old neighborhood that he was used to as a kid now has a product that is totally different from what he had ever seen in Richmond,” Hanky said.

Hanky said the homes have been “extremely well-received,” with each completed home sold at asking price. Some modifications were made to the homes based on buyer preferences and feedback, Lloyd said.

“When we were designing this product, we thought about the elevators, but we never thought about the stackable washer and dryer and the kitchenette capability on the first floor. We never envisioned a mother-in-law suite down there,” he said. “You listen to the market and you make pivots.”

The modern homes are one of two Richmond Hill infills on the street.

With the Cashel Modern homes wrapping up, the Poes will be turning their attention to completing Enclave at Westview, which is planned to include a Tudor, New England Shingle Style and other styles to add to the farmhouse-style, Georgian and transitional-style houses built so far.

The two infills replace what had been larger lots with smaller, older homes, one of which remains between the two sites. Hanky said another builder has that property under contract.

The new homes add to other infills adding density around the Libbie Avenue corridor, including Maplewood, a similar infill development on Maple Avenue, and Eagle Construction of VA’s 14-unit Row at Westhampton townhomes.

Across town in Richmond’s Northside, another residential infill is adding a modern touch to an older neighborhood.

The Chestnut Flats townhomes in Highland Park Southern Tip.

Richmond-based Dorado Capital has finished the first of what’s planned to be 12 modern-design townhomes at its Chestnut Flats project on Fifth Avenue in the Highland Park Southern Tip neighborhood.

Construction wrapped up late last year on the first six units, two of which have sold in the $440,000 range. The three-bedroom, 2½-bath homes start at 1,700 square feet and are designed by WPA Studios, formerly Walter Parks Architects.

Dorado principal Harsh Thakker said the remaining six would be built after a couple more sell. One South Realty Group’s Andrea Levine and Aza Wintersieck are listing the homes, which they describe as “a contemporary take on a classic Scandinavian chalet.”

WPA Studios designed the townhomes. (Photo courtesy One South Realty)

Thakker said he has been pleased with the interest received so far.

“We came out the gate really strong with the two. There’s been a little bit of a slowdown recently, in line with other parts of the market,” he said.

“We’re very happy with what was delivered. There were some challenges with the site work with it being a really old site, but once we got that all figured out, everything was pretty smooth.”

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