Triple Crossing looking to add 20 townhomes beside its Fulton brewery

A conceptual rendering shows the townhomes that would front Northampton Street uphill from the brewery. (Images courtesy Triple Crossing Beer)

When the guys behind Triple Crossing Beer bought the warehouse that’s now their Fulton brewery, they didn’t give much thought to the roughly 2 acres of undeveloped land that came with the site, co-owner Scott Jones said.

Seven years later, he and co-founders Adam Worcester and Jeremy Wirtes are teaming up with a group of local real estate agents to develop that uphill land with 20 modern-design, “chalet-style” townhomes.

Jones, who said the project has been four years in the making, said it was shaped with feedback from the neighboring community and the Greater Fulton Civic Association. He described it as an investment in the neighborhood that they’d hoped to make near their original location downtown but didn’t have the room to work with before expanding to the 4.5-acre Fulton site at 5203 Hatcher St.

The ‘chalet-style’ townhomes are being designed around the site’s hilltop location.

“Fulton’s still a growing area and still ripe for opportunity, and that’s where we wanted to build a place where we could expand the brewery, stay awhile, and hopefully enact some change in the local community,” Jones said.

Noting the process was slowed with the pandemic, he added, “I think that time actually produced a much richer and complete project at the end of the day, because we now have talked to neighbors over the years, building a project that’s really going to be a value-add for them and a value-add for us.”

Patrick Sullivan, left, with Triple Crossing co-owner Scott Jones outside the brewery’s Fulton facility. (Jonathan Spiers photo)

Working with 510 Architects and developers Trib Sutton, Charles Wentworth and Garrison Gore, the group is pursuing the project that arose from discussions with Patrick Sullivan, an agent with One South Realty Group who’s signed on to sell the homes and has had a hand in other residential infill projects in the area.

Wentworth and Gore are managing directors at commercial real estate firm Newmark, while Sutton is an executive at Divaris Real Estate and part of a group that’s developing seven infill townhomes on Grove Avenue across from Mary Munford Elementary School. 510 also designed that project, which likewise involved engineering firm Sekiv Solutions.

Sullivan said the Fulton project, called Fulton Crossing, would bring a new type of housing product to the area that he said is being designed with the hilltop site in mind. He described the design of the split-level homes as a Pacific Northwest style with “a ‘70s, modern feel.”

Two-car garages and carports would provide off-street parking.

“With this being on a hill, we wanted to pay a little bit of that chalet style to it, so we have some sharper roof lines, and it also plays well with a very historic neighborhood,” Sullivan said. “It’s definitely contemporary architecture, but it gives you a mountain-type feel to it within the city of Richmond, where we don’t have much architecture like that.”

With wooden siding and accents evoking a mountain lodge, the two- and three-story townhomes would have views over the brewery that Jones said would appeal to buyers looking to live close to nature as well as downtown. He and Sullivan noted the site’s proximity to the river and the Virginia Capital Trail, and they said the project would retain as many trees on the site as possible.

“The cool thing about these is they’re not going to look any larger on the street than any other property. That was the main goal,” Jones said. “We didn’t want these giant, 30-foot-high monstrosities; we wanted it to seem as natural as possible from a height perspective.”

A map highlights the wooded half of the property where the townhomes would rise.

The homes would be clustered in groups of four, with 16 of the units fronting Northampton Street and the remaining cluster facing Potomac Street. The Potomac Street homes would be three stories, while the Northampton ones would be two with an optional third story.

The homes would have two bedrooms and two bathrooms, with upper-level balconies and lower-level decks. Sizes could range from 1,400 to 2,200 square feet, though Sullivan said those numbers could change based on market demand and feedback from city planners.

The group is applying for a special-use permit from the city to allow the homes on the site, which is zoned for light industrial use. Mark Baker with Baker Development Resources is representing the group in its application.

The project would add sidewalks along the streets and a trail connecting the homes to the brewery. Firepits and community gathering areas are also planned, and each home would have off-street parking via carports and two-car garages.

Most of the homes would front Northampton Street, while one cluster would face Potomac Street. (City documents)

Sullivan said prices for the homes would be based on the market but would be in excess of $500,000. He said he expects half of the homes will sell before they’re built, as he saw with the 7west townhomes he listed in Manchester.

Should their permit request be approved later this year, Jones said they’d like to break ground on the project next spring and would aim for an 18-month completion. Jones said a project cost estimate is variable right now, and he said they have not yet selected a general contractor.

The project follows Triple Crossing’s opening last year of its third location: a 3,000-square-foot taproom in Winterfield Crossing in Midlothian. The Fulton facility totals 30,700 square feet. The brewery was founded 10 years ago.

The townhomes would follow a trend of residential development that has sprouted up around at least one other established local brewery. At the original Hardywood Park Craft Brewery, apartments and condos marketed as Brewers Row have attracted additional development interest.