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SOS For Downtown Richmond!
Bond Funding Gone for the Murphy Hotel
We lost the landmark Murphy Hotel... after years of neglect... which resulted in the demolition of a proud old building deemed "unsafe." Now we need your help to achieve the promised rehabilitation of the historic Hotel Richmond (aka, the Ninth Street Office Building) and new construction on the now-vacant 8th Street site.
PROPOSED DESIGN FOR NEW BUILDING
Preservation and community representatives-- including the APVA Preservation Virginia, Historic Richmond, A.C.O.R.N., the City of Richmond, Richmond Renaissance, Capitol Square, the Virginia Department of Historic Resources, and the Virginia Department of General Services-- met many times for several months to consider designs and other considerations for both the rehabilitation and the new construction. The funds spent (almost $13 million) for all the planning and preparation for a new building are at stake because lawmakers are in disagreement about the projects to be included in the bond package.
TO DATE:
- No funding was appropriated in the Bond Bill for rehabilitating the Hotel Richmond OR constructing a new building along Broad Street
- A new building may still be on the horizon. General Assembly has decided a new building along Broad Street on the site of the former Murphy Hotel will be developed in accordance with the Public-Private Educational Facilities Infrastructure Act (PPEA).
At the moment, a vacant lot will remain on the landscape of Broad Street between 8th & 9th Streets until the language is developed to construct a new building in a PPEA venture. CLICK HERE for information on how to contact information for your representatives, bond bill conferees and the governor. Let them know it is NOT acceptable to have an ENTIRE empty block face along the main street of Richmond ~ Virginia's Capital.