Richmond magazine - February 2022 - Sourcebook

contents

upfront

CONTEN TS NEIGHBORHOODS

172 APARTMENTS Richmond’s red-hot rental market is poised for further growth.

176 AGING IN PLACE Little changes can help you live more comfortably and efficiently at home, for longer.

178 DECORATING Your paint choices can make or break a sale.

180 HOME IMPROVEMENT Choose projects wisely for the greatest return on your investment.

182 LANDSCAPING First impressions count, even in a strong seller’s market.

120 178

DINING

220 BUSINESS OF FOOD Three booming businesses are part of a food and drink scene on the rise.

226 COOKING Tips for cooking and baking with cannabis 228 TRADITIONS A former chef passes along her culinary wisdom.

232 HISTORY Exploring the many restaurants to call a space home

CLOCKWISE FROM TOP: COURTESY VCU HEALTH SYSTEM; JAY PAUL; COURTESY VIRGINIA STATE UNIVERSITY; CAMERON LEWIS, COURTESY BLANCHARD’S COFFEE

BACK PAGE

240 PARTING SHOT Gov. Glenn Youngkin's inauguration

144 LISTINGS

220

Attractions..................................54 Galleries.....................................68 Film Festivals.............................70 Performance Venues..................74 Sports & Recreation..................84 Shopping.....................................94 Health Care..............................132 Higher Education......................148 Public Schools ..........................156 Private Schools.........................164 Real Estate................................187 Watering Holes.........................236

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SOURCEBOOK

/ 2022

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roommates. Without the commute, he gained an hour and a half each day and started to question why he was paying so much for rent. His girlfriend, Natalie Savino, had already moved back home to Virginia Beach. She had been working in New York City, living in a “shoebox” on the Upper West Side of Manhattan with three other women. When the pandemic shuttered pretty much all of New York in March of 2020, she quickly discovered that working from her tiny walk-up apartment wasn’t going to cut it.

“There was talk about us going back into the office,” Conti recalls of late 2020.

“She was living in Virginia Beach. I was living in D.C.” Then when offices started opening back up, he remembers asking himself, “Why am I going to do this hourand-a-half commute every day?”

Today, they both live in Richmond’s Scott’s Addition neighborhood. Conti found a job as a finance and asset manager at Spy Rock Real Estate, while Savino continues to work remotely for IPG Health in New York.

“There was no work remote option before,” Savino says, adding that her employer didn’t blink when she asked to work from home — permanently. “Now my company is hiring across America. It doesn’t matter where you live.”

Richmond’s rise as a sought-after destination for young professionals and creative workers was in motion long before the pandemic began two years ago. But Conti and Savino, who moved to Richmond in February of 2021, represent a relatively new twist — a shifting labor market that isn’t driven by where jobs are physically located.

Staffing shortages and shuttered offices, along with a record number of people leaving the workforce entirely, are reordering the work-life dynamic. Meanwhile, long-held truisms in real estate and economic development — the idea that people decide where to live based on where they can find work — are becoming outdated.

It used to be that people chased jobs.

Nowadays, the reverse is true, explains Anthony J. Romanello, executive director of the Henrico Economic Development Authority.

“We did a study a couple of years ago, this is pre-pandemic, about businesses that left Henrico and went to Scott’s Addition. It wasn’t a big number — you know, 10 or 12 small businesses, architectural firms, engineering, survey firms,” Romanello says. “What we were seeing was companies

“Place is becoming more and more important.”

—Anthony J. Romanello, Henrico Economic Development Authority

leaving Henrico to go to Scott’s Addition to pay higher taxes and higher rents. Why? Because of the importance of place.”

Scott’s Addition, a former industrial area of the city that’s morphed into apartments, breweries and restaurants over the past decade, offered something suburban office parks didn’t — a bustling community of young professionals.

“Place is becoming more and more important, and the pandemic accelerated that trend,” Romanello says. “Because we tested the internet. It worked worldwide. We thought that knowledge workers could work anywhere in the world. Well, now we know knowledge workers can work anywhere in the world, as long as they have Wi-Fi.” Located at the midpoint on the East

Coast between New York and Miami, Richmond’s relative affordability — especially compared to larger Northern cities — along with its vibrant dining, arts and culture scenes, are luring new residents from across the country.

In 2019, 64,000 people migrated to the Richmond region, according to U.S. census data compiled by the Greater Richmond Partnership. The largest percentage of new residents were from Northern Virginia — roughly 15%, or 9,690 people — but otherwise the relocations came from all over, including New York, New Jersey, Philadelphia, Atlanta, Los Angeles, Miami and Dallas. Another 7% emigrated from Europe, Central America, South America and Africa.

The increase in migration has fueled growth. The city of Richmond’s population has risen 11% over the last 10 years, jumping from 204,000 in 2010 to 226,000 in 2020, according to the most recent U.S. census data. Henrico grew by 9%, from 307,000 residents to 334,000 over the same period. Chesterfield, meanwhile, ballooned 15%, its population surging from 316,000 to 364,000.

While the in-migration census data for 2020 won’t be released until late spring, overall population growth during the first few months of 2020 slowed to a crawl.

“We can say that from mid-2019 to mid-2020, the Richmond metro area’s population grew by about 9,500 individuals.

That was the lowest [12-month] total since 2011,” says Michael Cobb, a senior market analyst with CoStar Group, a real estate data and research company. “In AprilMay-June, you really had a lot of people in lockdown, not really moving. You likely saw more people move in the second half of 2020.”

In other words, the pandemic initially stunted the region’s growth, but it was only temporary. While the new numbers aren’t available yet, recent trends in the residential housing market suggest metro Richmond’s population is set for another explosion.

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education

public schools

ALWAYS IN SE SS I O N To close the achievement gap, school districts consider the switch to year-round calendars

KARLY ANDERSEN

By Ryan McKinnon

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fter two years of pandemic-induced learning loss, school leaders across the region are increasingly turning to an educational innovation that has traditionally been off-limits in Virginia — sending students to school year-round.

In July, Hopewell became the first Virginia school district to shift to an 11-month calendar. For much of the fall, administrators at Richmond Public Schools engaged in a citywide listening tour, asking families, teachers and community groups what they think of a similar shift after initially shooting down an earlier proposal in March of last year.

Leaders from Goochland County spent much of the last year entertaining the idea before tabling the discussion in November, while Chesterfield County already has two elementary schools on a year-round schedule.

If the agrarian calendar was good enough for generations of children well into industrialization, why the big push to move away from it now?

The interest in year-round school stems from a combination of new state laws and an intensifying need for solutions to help students rebound from months lost to virtual instruction due to COVID-19. But the groundwork was laid well before the pandemic.

Beginning in the late 1980s, school districts were required to obtain a waiver from the Virginia Board of Education to begin school before Labor Day, but in 2019, the General Assembly passed legislation giving school districts far more flexibility in crafting their own calendars.

Following a 2012 study by the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission (JLARC) that found historically underper-

forming groups improving more rapidly in schools on extended-year calendars, the state began offering school districts grants to explore shifting to a year-round model. Minority students and those from low-income families in year-round programs all scored higher on state Standards of Learning assessments than peers on the traditional calendar, according to JLARC’s review.

“Every time there is a decline, it correlates with the summer.”

— Stephen A. Geyer, Goochland County Public Schools

Now that districts have both the state’s permission and the funding to consider new calendar approaches, many are doing just that.

In Richmond, the School Board has been debating the issue since first asking Superintendent Jason Kamras for yearround options in 2020.

Kamras’ team has been gathering reams of community feedback, asking groups about extending the year by two

weeks, or making a more dramatic shift to an 11-month calendar running from Aug. 15 to June 29 with three one-week breaks between each quarter.

Those one-week “intersessions” ensure students still get time off, but in Richmond those weeks would also be used for targeted remediation to help students who are behind academically to catch up.

As school districts struggle to maintain minimum staffing levels and parents yearn for pre-pandemic normalcy, shifting to a year-round calendar can be a tough sell.

The Richmond School Board voted down a proposal in the spring to shift to a year-round calendar during the current school year. When Kamras presented options in November, the board raised questions about how well the administration had surveyed the community, if the plan would improve student outcomes and if the district had the operational staff necessary to make it happen.

“Personally, I do favor the opportunity to at least try it, even if it has to be a pilot program to see how it works out,” Richmond City School Board Chairwoman Cheryl Burke says. “But change is hard.”

In mid-January, after Kamras presented survey results that found a majority didn’t support sending children to school year-round, the School Board voted to stick to a traditional calendar.

“I continue to believe we need more instructional time, but an extendedschool-year calendar isn’t the only way to achieve that,” Kamras said late last year.

“We can also explore more robust summer programming, Saturday academies and extended-day options.”

While school boards are understandably hesitant to mess with cherished traditions like summer vacation, there is broad consensus among educators that

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education

public schools

struggling with mental health issues.

“There’s a lot of pressure on teachers to be everything; even though we continue to add mental health resources, students feel the most comfortable with their teachers” when they need help, she says.

RPS added days off in the fall for teachers to recharge and has partnered with local businesses to provide discounts for teachers on a variety of services. Additionally, Superintendent Jason Kamras meets monthly with a teacher advisory council, “where he can talk directly with teachers who have boots on the ground,” Abubaker says.

Supporting teachers includes supporting students, Abubaker notes, which is why RPS this year starts each day with a community circle, time during which students are asked to consider and respond to a prompt. “We’re creating quiet time and space, a moment of mindfulness,” Abubaker says. “This happens every single day in every single school, which is pretty incredible.”

Shawn Smith, chief communications and community engagement officer for Chesterfield County Public Schools, notes that the district has seen an uptick in school employees seeking counseling services through its Employee Assistance Program, designed to help employees cope with traumatic events. “Many people have sought counseling as they have coped with the pandemic,” Smith said via email. “We encourage employees to use EAP services as it is a paid benefit that supports mental health.”

Within the schools, CCPS teachers and staff have received mental health awareness training so they can identify students who might be struggling.

Additionally, Google monitoring is used at the middle and high school levels to scan and review student files for inappropriate images and language, identified by keywords.

“The student support services team includes school counselors, school social workers, school psychologists, mental health support specialists and behavioral intervention specialists,” Smith says.

“These trained staff members are ready

to support students’ social-emotional and mental health needs in a variety of ways.”

In 2018-19, Hanover County Public Schools was the first division in Virginia to form a Mental Health Task Force, created in response to data trends around students’ mental health needs, Assistant Superintendent for Community Engagement and Legislative Affairs Chris Whitley said via email. “We continue to implement the … recommendations, such as classroom lessons that help our students apply the knowledge, attitudes

“Strong relationships between students and staff are at the heart of everything we do.”

—Eileen M. Cox, Henrico County Public Schools

and skills necessary to understand and manage their emotions,” he said.

For teachers, Hanover school officials altered the fall calendar to include a flexible learning day and a student holiday.

The district has sought to protect teachers’ planning and collaboration time by increasing the number of substitute teachers — relying more on retired teachers, offering financial incentives for new substitute hires and doubling the number of long-term substitutes in every school.

“We recognize the significant and

tireless effort that has been required of our educators during these trying times,” Whitley said. “We also recognize the need for some relief that, in turn, allows them to better serve our students and families.”

In October, Henrico County Public Schools announced a modified Wellness Wednesday, offering teachers and students greater flexibility within the in-person school setting. On Wednesdays, class time can be used for individual or group instruction, academic enrichment or remediation, or special initiatives addressing the social and emotional needs of students. Eileen M. Cox, chief of communications, said via email the change is part of the district’s overall approach.

“Strong relationships between students and staff are at the heart of everything we do,” she said. “Through these trusting relationships, students and staff members are encouraged to reach out to a school counselor, teacher, co-worker or supervisor to express a need or ask for help. By openly acknowledging stressors and providing resources through various avenues … we are working to prioritize mental wellness and destigmatize mental health issues.”

The district is including additional funding for school mental health professionals as a legislative priority and will maintain its partnership with Henrico County’s Department of Social Services to support student wellness, Cox said, adding, “Our goal is to continue to seek opportunities to work with state and regional providers and agencies to expand the services we provide students.”

The VEA’s Fedderman noted that while teachers value relationships with their students and students’ families, it’s important for parents to remember that teachers have lives and pressures, too.

“Teachers are under near-constant stress, some from the demands placed on them and some from their own devotion to doing what’s best for all their students,” Fedderman said. “Getting phone calls and emails in the evenings just increases the pressure they feel. One of the most important things that parents can do is to respect teachers’ boundaries.”

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A Mountain of Fun at the Most Complete Club in the Mid-Atlantic

804-501-3300; 1,978 students, Reginald Davenport, principal; also home to the Center for Education and Human Development.

Mills E. Godwin, 2101 Pump Road, 804-750-2600; 1,783 students, Leigh Dunavant, principal; also home to the Todd Allen Phillips Center for Medical Sciences.

Henrico, 302 Azalea Ave., 804-228-2700; 1,444 students, Karin Castillo-Rose, principal; also home to the Center for the Arts and an International Baccalaureate program.

Hermitage, 8301 Hungary Spring Road, 804-7563000; 1,613 students, Michael Jackson, principal; the Advanced Career Education Center at Hermitage offers a variety of career-preparatory skills and industry certifications. The campus is also home to the Center for the Humanities.

Highland Springs, 200 S. Airport Drive, Highland Springs, 804-328-4000; 1,869 students, Kenneth White, principal; the campus is home to the Advanced Career Education Center at Highland Springs, which offers career-preparatory skills and industry certifications. The campus also offers the Advance College Academy for Business Administration and the Center for Engineering.

J.R. Tucker, 2910 Parham Road, 804-527-4600; 1,725 students, Art Raymond, principal; the school is also home to the Advance College Academy for Social Sciences, the Center for Spanish Language and Global Citizenship and the International Baccalaureate program.

Varina, 7053 Messer Road, 804-226-8700; 1,453 students, Darin Thompson, principal; the campus is also home to the Center for Communications and Media Relations.

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Operating expenses toward instruction: 68.9% It’s good to know: The district prides itself on the use

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of one-to-one technology that focuses on engaging, higher-order thinking throughout all classrooms.

New Kent is also home to the Bridging Communities Regional Career and Technical Center/Governor’s STEM Academy, which provides high school students from six counties with training in computer science, engineering, criminal justice, nursing, diesel mechanics, culinary work and small engine mechanics.

New Kent High School, 7365 Egypt Road, New Kent, 804-966-9671; 1,073 students in grades 9-12*; Chris Valdrighi, principal.

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POWHATAN COUNTY Student population: 4,305 Number of schools: 3 elementary, 1 middle and 1 high AP course enrollment: 24.7% Dual enrollment: 3.7% On-time graduation rate: 92.3% Fully accredited schools: 100% Operating expenses toward instruction: 72.1% It’s good to know: Powhatan Middle School was recently named a “Virginia School to Watch” recognizing its high-quality middle school program. PCPS has an integrated K-12 STEM program with nationally and internationally recognized STEM coaches at the elementary level, a STEM innovation lab at PMS, and offerings in cybersecurity, AP Computer Science, and engineering at PHS. Powhatan High School, 1800 Judes Ferry Road, Powhatan, 804-598-5710; 1,453 students, Michelle Martin, principal. Offerings include the Advance College

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SPONSORED CONTENT

A RICHMOND MAGAZINE BOLD WOMAN OF 2020 & 2021

Supporting Needs of Female Business Owners & the Real Estate Community LEAH COLEMAN, OWNER REAL ESTATE COUTURE, AND OWNER, BOSS BABES RVA WITH A PASSION FOR REAL ESTATE AND

LEE SALTER CREATIVE FIRM

giving back, Leah Coleman has been able to

transfer those interests into her career as a Realtor, an entrepreneur, and a business leader.

Coleman, who created her own investment company in 2018 called Real Estate Couture LLC, also works as a Realtor and is the new owner of Boss Babes RVA, an online networking group founded by Christine Greenberg with close to now 10,000 members. Coleman gives credit to the team of administrators & moderators who have helped Boss Babes engage with more than 97,000 comments in 2020, thousands more in 2021. BBRVA has become a real FORCE for good connections & helping others elevate.

“We are kind of a little underground movement of our own,” Coleman says. While the group originally focused on business and professional questions and resources, Coleman and her fellow administrators recognized that there were other needs the group could meet, especially with the onset of the COVID19 pandemic. In a big step, they allowed people with personal needs to reach out as well. Through Coleman’s own businesses, she began helping more women with finding private & lending resources for real estate investments & encouraging renovation as a way to bring more inventory to the market, even helping with design, & resale/launching Airbnb's. She also has organized groups on

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investment, on entrepreneurship, women of faith prayer meeting on Zoom weekly, & piloted several successful collaborations.

Yedda Stancil, fellow entrepreneur & author, helped gather a group of business & career women weekly over the summer/fall 2021 for launching her book & course called 'Shut Up & Sit: Finding Silence & the Life Changing Magic that Comes with It." Then, along with fellow wellness focused Boss Babes- joined a global retreat effort in Africa in fall 2021.

Formerly, she had piloted an entrepreneurial retreat in Belize, 2019, with Impact Junkies.

Now, as things begin to open up again, Boss Babes has returned to its business focus, and Coleman hopes to strengthen the network even more with more in-person events and educational opportunities.

“Rise and rebuild is our theme,” Coleman says. She looks forward to planning Boss Babes meet-and-greets with business owners/ corporations, as well as getaways delivering on EXPERIENCES & a varying conversation series. “We want to begin to work on shifting a networking culture into more of a collaboration culture,” she says. "We can help everyone see our city & their business pursuits with greater vision and potential, doing all we can to influence each member to play bigger in life and in their work."

“We are kind of a little underground movement of our own.”

“We are kind of a little underground movement of our own.”

leah@dodsonprop.com 804-484-2018 leahcoleman.co bossbabesrva.com

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dining

traditions

Mise en Place

HOW A FORMER CHEF IS PASSING ON HER CULINARY PROWESS

T

here was no single moment when I decided to teach my daughters — Lily, 10, and Hazel, 3 — how to cook. They’ve been in the kitchen, clinging to me as babies, strapped to me as infants, climbing on step stools as toddlers, all along. The thing about kids, mine at least, is that they have a keen sense of what seems to bring joy to the people around them.

There’s something infectious in it, and they want, desperately, to be included.

There are only a few dishes I remember cooking with my mom when I was growing up, namely deviled eggs and the occasional pot roast. With my dad, there’s a lingering memory of learning how to thicken a sauce with a cornstarch slurry

from his book of Chinese recipes when I was 7. But from around the age of 8, I saw that cooking was a way for me to take care of my mom and to entertain and impress everyone else, and I was happy to do it. From that point on, I never really stopped cooking for others, and it only made sense that when they were born, my daughters would be the beneficiaries of that energy.

We started with baking projects.

Unlike the improvisational nature of stovetop cooking, baking has tools, measurements and exact steps that make for natural teaching moments. Plus, baking is tactile, it’s exciting, and you get to lick the spoon at the end. Challah was one of the earliest recipes for both girls. It’s simple, but there are plenty of ways for things

to go awry, and I figure we’ve done them all — forgotten salt, forgotten honey, used old yeast, underbaked, overbaked. We’ve made and eaten dozens of mistakes.

Over the years, the girls have chosen their lanes. Hazel is the dough queen.

From cookies to pasta, if it’s got strands of gluten coming together to form some sort of structure, Hazel wants to make it (and poke it and rip off a chunk of it and eat it raw). While both girls love a project that ends with sweets, Lily prefers the savory recipes. She’s developed a signature ricotta mix for lasagna that she immodestly calls “Lilcotta,” and she’ll always jump at the chance to stretch and top her own pizza dough.

Hazel also loves looking through cookbooks, and we’re assembling a modest

KARLY ANDERSEN

By Stephanie Ganz

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parting shot

See more photos taken around Richmond at instagram.com/richmondmag.

NEWLY SWORN-IN Gov. Glenn Youngkin, with first lady Suzanne Youngkin, was all smiles during a chilly, but festive, inauguration ceremony at the Virginia Capitol on Saturday, Jan. 15. Ushering in a new Republican majority after two years of Democratic control, Youngkin preached unity and pledged to “restore trust in government.”

Later that afternoon, Youngkin issued 11 executive orders, most notably lifting mask mandates in public schools, which immediately met resistance from several of the state’s largest school districts — including Henrico and Richmond — which vowed to continue requiring universal masking in schools.

The conflict quickly led to a lawsuit from parents in Chesapeake, and school officials across the state pointed to a state law passed in February of 2021 that requires districts to follow CDC guidance on mitigation strategies, which includes facial coverings, to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

A former private equity executive, Youngkin ran an aggressive campaign that centered on cutting taxes and giving parents more say in K-12 education, but he also pressed for more bipartisanship during his inaugural address. “Our politics have become too toxic,” he said. “Soundbites have replaced solutions — taking precedence over good faith problem-solving.” —Scott Bass

JAY PAUL

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