Smith-Palmer Property on Franklin Road sells to regional church for $1M

An 1850s-period townhouse on a visible street corner in Monroe Ward is now in the arms of a nearby church soon after a 7-determine deal.

Remnant Church obtained the Smith-Palmer Household at 211 W. Franklin St., in which it designs to household workplaces for Grimké Seminary, its pastor teaching arm.

The church, which has places in Shockoe Base and on Arthur Ashe Boulevard, paid $1.15 million for the a few-tale, 5,700-sq.-foot building. It earlier housed places of work for Sandpiper Hospitality, a resort team now based mostly in Henrico’s Glen Forest Workplace Park.

The transaction shut Feb. 19. Jeff Cooke and Reilly Marchant with Cushman & Wakefield | Thalhimer represented Remnant in the offer.

Mahood Fonville with Shaheen, Ruth, Martin & Fonville Serious Estate experienced the listing for Sandpiper, which had owned the constructing given that 2008 by an entity called West Franklin Partners LLC. City property data clearly show it paid $1.13 million for the developing at the time. The most recent metropolis evaluation valued the .16-acre home at $957,000.

Sean Pyle, Remnant’s executive pastor for operations, explained the constructing was pleasing to the church for its downtown area and previous use as offices. He reported the seminary staff members designs to move in as shortly as feasible.

“The Palmer Dwelling is about two miles from our assets on the boulevard, and it’s just below two miles from the church’s other home on 19th Avenue, so it is kind of suitable in the middle,” Pyle claimed.

“It’s a good place of the city, it’s a historic block, which is good. We love the background of the town and all of the historic architecture. We like to see these items keep on on and upheld and used well. The layout of this room will work truly nicely for how we’re staffed proper now, so it finished up becoming a perfect healthy.”

Approaching its 12th yr, Remnant started out out at 12 N. 19th St. in the Base and expanded to the Enthusiast in 2018, when it purchased the virtually century-aged Boulevard United Methodist Church at 321 N. Arthur Ashe Blvd. for $1.25 million.

The Smith-Palmer Household, developed in 1852, is aspect of the Two Hundred Block West Franklin Avenue Historic District, detailed on the Nationwide Register of Historic Spots.

On a corner across from the Graduate Richmond resort, and a block west from The Jefferson Hotel, the property stands out to downtown-certain commuters at the signalized intersection of Franklin and Madison streets.

Preservation group Historic Richmond describes the household as a noteworthy instance of Richmond’s Greek Revival townhouse architecture, “remarkable for its extremely great inside trim and for its high-quality craftsmanship.” The dwelling is one particular of number of antebellum structures remaining downtown.

Fonville marketed the making for use as either an business developing or residence. It experienced been put on and off the marketplace many periods considering that 2019 with quite a few rate changes, reaching $1.17 million last September prior to going less than deal in mid-December.

The household is the newest constructing on that Franklin Road block to transform hands in recent many years. A couple of doors absent, Metro Attributes purchased the Mayo-Carter Household in 2018 for $1.12 million. The 1890s-era setting up, at 205 W. Franklin St., experienced been residence to Junior League of Richmond for extra than 40 several years.

Afterwards that calendar year, farther east alongside Franklin, the Stewart-Lee Dwelling at 707 E. Franklin St. offered for $808,000 to area nonprofit The Loved ones Basis. The building, manufactured in 1844, was beforehand owned by Residence Builders Affiliation of Virginia.