Note: The following is reprinted with permission from a story by award-winning independent local journalist Sean Tubbs. This story first appeared in Sean Tubbs’s newsletter, Charlottesville Community Engagement which is an invaluable resource for anyone trying to keep up with local news.
Former UVA basketball star part of redevelopment project at 1101 East Market Street
A former University of Virginia basketball player who also played in the National Basketball Association is part of a development team that seeks to build eleven townhouses in downtown Charlottesville.
“Just excited to be back in town and on about the progress with this project,” said Sean Singletary, who played for UVA in the mid 2000’s. “Ever since I graduated from school here, I’ve always wanted to move back here and just give back to the community. Charlottesville and UVA have done so much for me.”
A preliminary site plan has been filed with the city of Charlottesville to build several townhomes in the Little High subsection of the Martha Jefferson neighborhood [sic!] at the intersection of East Market and 11th Street.
In all, 11th Street Partners seeks to consolidate four lots into one before building ten townhomes. Several existing structures on those properties would be removed, but a house at 1103 East Market Street would remain as it is not part of this project and is owned separately.
As part of this plan, the house at 1101 East Market Street would be replaced with a new structure.
“We determined that the most beneficial to the community would be to demolish these existing structures and replace them with very attractive units that we think are going to add a significant benefit to the community at large,” said engineer Eric Woolley.
One of these would be a sidewalk on this stretch of East Market where there currently is not one on the northern side of the road. Utilities would be placed underground. Each townhouse would have three bedrooms and three off-street parking spaces.
“The way we’ve oriented the units, we think it’s going to be beneficial to the neighborhood by actually providing more parking within the development which alleviates the pressure of overlap parking to other neighbors,” Woolley said.
While the application for the Vue at East Market is by-right and would not require a decision by elected officials, a request to close off a public right of way does.
“The alley closure piece does have discretionary review by City Council but the other components would not,” said Carrie Rainey, a city planner.
One of Singletary’s three partners is Keith Payne, an All-ACC conference running back on the UVA football team.
“This is extremely exciting for our team to be able to develop in Charlottesville, especially downtown in a great neighborhood,” Payne said.
Payne said he and Singletary graduated together, and have always been looking for an opportunity to develop in Charlottesville.
“Being on the corner there, we felt this could be a vibrant site for the city,” Payne said.
The team wants to develop other projects in the community.
No one spoke at the community meeting on Wednesday. The public discussion can be viewed here.
