After pumping the brakes, Texas firm working to reignite Quality Inn redevelopment plan

The Quality Inn Central hotel sits on about 4 acres near The Diamond. (BizSense file photo)

Despite hitting financing roadblocks in its initial attempt to buy and redevelop a Northside hotel, a Texas-based firm isn’t giving up on the project. 

Representatives for Trinsic Residential Group said Monday the firm is working on raising capital for its planned $118 million redevelopment of the Quality Inn Central hotel at 3207 N. Arthur Ashe Blvd.

The 176-room hotel, located just north of Interstate 95, has stood along Arthur Ashe Boulevard since the 1970s. In late 2022, Texas-based Trinsic put the 4-acre property under contract when it planned to purchase the property, demolish the hotel and build a new mid-rise apartment building with 375 units. 

That contract expired in recent months, but that hasn’t stopped Trinsic from pursuing the development. 

Charlie Rimkus is a senior vice president at financing solutions firm Northmarq and said that he and colleagues Matt Straughan and Joel Heikenfeld are helping Trinsic in conversations with several investors interested in financing the five-story development. 

Rimkus said high interest rates and construction costs have made raising equity a challenge, but several parties are interested in providing the roughly $50 million in equity needed to get the project rolling again. 

“Everything takes awhile in today’s environment with where (interest) rates are,” Rimkus said. “It’s been a risk-off environment, but I think we’re starting to see a risk-on environment, meaning people are going to be more eager to put capital out and put it to work in high-quality locations and projects like this.”

As it works to secure financing for the development, Trinsic is also aiming to submit a new rezoning request for the property. In early 2023 it filed a rezoning request for the property but withdrew it last year.

Rimkus said the specs of the development haven’t changed since Trinsic’s initial proposal three years ago: The hotel would be replaced by a five-story, 375-apartment building with no commercial space. Womack+Hampton Architects is the designer. 

The property is currently not under contract and remains owned by an entity tied to Bill Patel, which bought it in 2007 for $2.2 million. The city’s most recent assessment of the 4-acre parcel valued it at $6 million. 

Rimkus said Trinsic’s development would look to build on the momentum in the area, namely CarMax Park, the under-construction future home of the Flying Squirrels, and Novel Scott’s Addition, a new 275-unit building that recently began welcoming residents across the street. He said the ballpark’s construction and the completion of Novel have helped put Richmond on the map for prospective investors. 

“When you have such a well-built project like this, the economics do make sense. It’s just a large check and Richmond isn’t on every institution’s radar,” he said. “It’s getting there. I think there’s a lot of interest in Richmond, but there’s a finite swath of the market that’s going to look at Richmond.”

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