The Sahara restaurant is open for business but engulfed by construction on both sides, either an oasis or a holdout depending on perspective.
On a block of West Grace Street between Shafer and Laurel streets that is evolving into Virginia Commonwealth University's "college street," the latest occupant of a longtime campus restaurant has a parking deck and a residence hall rising as its neighbors.
The two projects have a combined cost of $38.5 million, under the $41 million projected budget.
Nearby at Broad and Gilmer streets, work will begin this summer on an expansion of the Broad and Belvidere Student Apartments. To make way for the 70-bed addition, the university plans to demolish a building that dates to about 1890 and most recently housed the Common Groundz coffee shop.
The Broad and Belvidere residence hall was designed to allow for the addition on the Gilmer property, just as the new residence hall being built at Grace and Shafer streets also can be expanded should the Sahara property become available, said Brian J. Ohlinger, associate vice president for facilities management.
VCU is intentionally slowing its enrollment growth but not the construction necessary to accommodate 32,000 students.
The work is part of the university's plans to add nearly 1,000 beds in three new residence halls and build two classroom buildings during the next six years on the Monroe Park academic campus. Also planned is a $47.4 million renovation and expansion of Cabell Library.
In July, construction will begin on a years-delayed classroom building to be constructed on Floyd Avenue catty-corner from the Student Commons. The four-floor, $44 million building will house classrooms and an auditorium on the first two floors. The upper floors will provide offices for the School of Social Work and other programs.
Much of the property is now used for surface parking, but several old buildings are scheduled to be razed.
Three circa 1910 row homes at 102-106 N. Linden St., which are joined as a single property and used as offices, will be demolished, as will the former Baptist Student Union building on Floyd Avenue and a school building on North Harrison Street.
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The university has gotten push back in the past from surrounding neighborhoods when it has torn down century-old buildings, but not so much for these plans.
"I always have a tear in my eye when any historic building comes down," said Kathleen Kilpatrick, director of the Virginia Department of Historic Resources. But she said she understands "institutions have to grow and change."
She said her department required mitigation in the form of documentation for the historic record of the buildings to be demolished for the classroom facility.
The property is considered an extension of the Fan District, she said. While the department heard concerns from city planners when the project was approved three years ago, her files showed no complaints from residents.
The board of visitors approved the demolition of the state-owned buildings last year.
Because the building at Broad and Gilmer is not state property — it is owned by the VCU Real Estate Foundation rather than the university — it is not subject to review by her department, Kilpatrick said.
The department was made aware of the VCU plans as a courtesy but had no formal role because foundations by law are considered private entities, she said.
Demolition permits have been filed with the city to remove the building, which is part of the Broad Street Commercial Historic District, and a smaller one on Gilmer.
Douglas Kleffner, past chair of the Carver Area Civic Improvement League real estate committee, said he's disappointed VCU plans to tear down a historic building "for not a lot of gain."
The Carver neighborhood, which shares a border with the project, has raised concerns about student encroachment in the area in the past.
Kleffner, an architect, said he considers the residence hall at Broad and Belvidere one of VCU's ugliest buildings, and he's sorry to see the two old buildings "destroyed for more banal brick bedrooms."
The Broad and Belvidere Student Apartments is across Broad Street from what is to become a major gateway project for VCU — the new Institute for Contemporary Art. The building is to be designed by architect Steven Holl, internationally known for his work on cultural facilities.
Expected to open in the spring of 2014, the estimated 32,000-square-foot facility will be built with private funds as a signature building for the School of the Arts, with exhibition space, classrooms and an auditorium.
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While VCU has kept the Victorian-era architecture along West Franklin Street intact, the old look of Grace Street has given way to surface parking and what Ohlinger describes as a transitional style.
The new construction will fill in the vacant spaces and increase the vibrancy of remaining businesses and add some new ones, Ohlinger said.
For Sahara manager Samir Richa, the construction has been an ongoing headache. His customers can't find parking, and trash pickup has been disrupted because of the work, he said. One day last week, he came to work to find the restaurant had no water, the result of a break in a water main.
"It's VCU. We can't do anything," he said. "We're just a small business."
Next door to his restaurant, the 212-space parking deck being built at Laurel and Grace streets, across from a Chipotle, will include street-level food service.
The deck will open in August, and the first-floor food service in October, Ohlinger said. The restaurants are:
•IHOP Express, an order-and-go concept of the International House of Pancakes LLC chain;
•Croutons Salad & Wraps, a proprietary brand created by VCU and its dining services contractor Aramark; and
•Raising Cane's Chicken Fingers, a national chain with nearly 100 restaurants in 15 states.
Two other decks on Grace Street east of Belvidere Street will be completed this summer.
The 459-bed residence hall on Grace Street will open by fall 2012, as will the Gilmer addition. By the end of 2012, the classroom building should be ready.
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VCU's six-year capital plan calls for a second classroom building adjacent to the new one on Floyd Avenue. Already approved is a residence hall on the north side of the 800 block of Grace Street, across from the one now under construction, that is projected to open in 2013.
VCU has 4,882 residence-hall beds now, Ohlinger said. The two projects opening next summer will bring the total to 5,411. Grace Street North residence hall will add an additional 400 beds and likely will be the last housing project, he said.
The expansion of Cabell Library, which opened in 1970, is included in the governor's six-year plan and is a top priority among VCU's capital-outlay requests for the two-year budget cycle that begins July 1. The project would renovate 80,000 square feet and create an Information Commons, with study rooms and distance learning facilities, in an 82,000-square-foot addition.
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