RICHMOND, Va. — On the same block as a stalled, high-profile condo project, a less visible and smaller residential development is getting underway in Richmond’s West End.
Site work has started on a project called Maplewood, a cluster of four single-family homes on two cleared lots at 501 and 503 Maple Ave., around the corner from The Tiber condo development at Libbie and Guthrie avenues.
The homes are being developed by Edward Hettrick, John Vinis and Claude Whitehead III, who purchased the two lots totaling about a half-acre earlier this year through an entity called Tri-American Properties LLC.
501 Maple Ave. was purchased in May for $350,000, and 503 Maple Ave. was purchased in March for $262,000, according to city property records.
A rendering of the planned development near Libbie and Grove. (Courtesy Edward Hettrick)
Vinis said the properties came to their attention via his wife, who was friends with one of the previous owners. When the friend was selling that property, the team made an offer on the property beside it. Two rental homes on the lots have since been demolished.
Vinis said they have flipped several houses throughout the city and had been eyeing the Libbie and Grove area for years. Hettrick resides in the area, he said, and Whitehead’s law office is adjacent to the property along Libbie Avenue.
“We’d always been really attracted to this area and always batted around the idea that if we could get a hold of some property, we could really do some neat things,” said Vinis, a general contractor by trade. “There’s such a shortage of property. It’s so hot over there right now.
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