Henrico prepares to study land use at Innsbrook

For more than 25 years, Innsbrook has been a successful office park and economic engine for Henrico County. Now the county plans to study whether a different mix of land uses is needed to keep it vital.

The Board of Supervisors will vote tonight to begin a land-use study on about 800 acres of the Innsbrook area between West Broad Street and Nuckols Road near Interstate 295.

Most of the property is designated for office use in the 2026 Comprehensive Plan adopted last month. The study could lead to a greater mixture of office, retail and residential, said Planning Director R. Joseph Emerson Jr.

To James W. Theobald, a lawyer representing Highwoods Properties, adding more urbanism to Innsbrook makes sense. Highwoods owns much of Innsbrook, but not all of it.

"Rather than look for the next thing you might build out in the hinterlands," Theobald said, "why not take some time and do a study on whether there's a way to make Innsbrook a better place with some increased density? . . .

"Innsbrook already has the employment base. So many of these urban mixed-use, traditional neighborhood developments . . . will bring in retail and hope that offices will fill in. Here, we have the office base.

"It's these kinds of concepts -- live, work and play -- if you're going to attract a talented and vital work force, people seem to be looking for those types of opportunities."

The vacancy rate at Innsbrook was about 20 percent in July, CB Richard Ellis reported, because of space vacated by bankrupt corporate giants LandAmerica and Circuit City, among others. The vacancy rate is projected to rise to more than 35 percent. In 2000, the vacancy rate was 1 percent.

Emerson sees the potential of redeveloping now-vacant parking areas with "greater efficiency" to include parking decks or parking beneath mixed-use buildings.

A 30-acre section of Innsbrook near Nuckols Road already has been rezoned for urban mixed use to include integrated parking with residential and commercial spaces, Emerson said.

Innsbrook accommodates that kind of development because "it's laid out well already. It has connectivity and green space through the center of the development," Emerson said. "Right now, we have residential surrounding it but not mixed in with it, except on one end with some condos. We could have more vertical height, more residential, still being respectful of the edges with single-family."

Contact Katherine Calos at (804) 649-6433 or .