Inside Richmond: The City's Pulse
Inside Richmond: The City's Pulse is your go-to podcast for staying connected with the heart of Richmond, Indiana. Dive into the latest community updates, local events, city initiatives, and stories that matter most to our vibrant community. Whether you're a lifelong resident or new to the area, this podcast keeps you in tune with the pulse of Richmond!
Inside Richmond: The City's Pulse
Episode 13 – Inside Richmond: The City's Pulse | Historic Charm, Modern Purpose in Downtown Richmond
The skyline of Richmond, Indiana is undergoing a powerful transformation thanks to a $100 million investment that's reshaping the heart of our city—and the story behind it is just as inspiring as the impact.
On this episode of Inside Richmond: The City’s Pulse, Dakota Collins of Earlham College and Roxie Deer of Richmond Neighborhood Restoration joined host Lindsay Darnell for a compelling conversation about the Revitalize Richmond initiative—a bold and collaborative effort breathing new life into our historic downtown.
What began with a $25 million Lilly Endowment grant has grown into a sweeping revitalization plan backed by more than $83 million in community partnerships. At the heart of this transformation is AP Development, leading the restoration of five iconic downtown buildings—the Knollenberg, Hittle, Jenkins, Odd Fellows, and the uniquely patterned “Cheese Grater” BMO Harris building—into vibrant mixed-use spaces featuring approximately 100 new apartments. Rather than demolishing these historic structures, AP Development is letting the buildings “tell them” what they want to become, honoring their legacy while building for Richmond’s future.
Meanwhile, Richmond Neighborhood Restoration has already breathed new life into key properties like the Secret Ingredient Building and the Readmore, with even more projects on the horizon—continuing their mission to revitalize downtown one building at a time.
The initiative revolves around three pillars:
- Activate: energizing downtown through projects like the Gorge Activation Plan and a community makerspace
- Build: restoring historic structures and creating modern residential and commercial space
- Connect: improving transportation links between Earlham College and downtown
Perhaps most exciting is the human element—a new director of small business success is helping entrepreneurs launch and grow, and Roxie Deer shares her personal journey of transforming grief into purpose through restoration work, especially on projects like the Readmore building. That project now stands as a symbol of hope and community healing.
🎟️ Want to experience it firsthand? Don’t miss the Readmore Open House—grab your tickets here:
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/readmore-open-house-tickets-1450147753969?aff=oddtdtcreator&fbclid=IwY2xjawL8wx9leHRuA2FlbQIxMABicmlkETFNR3YweXBlMlowT21MUkh5AR5InYCrWjdbwTBpxK0SL08SE2IY4B0SSpf8SLyDoY7AzRU-BiTz1lAtcBEsCg_aem__4lTtAeHsyu5KM6ufe7_Ng
To learn more, visit:
🔗 Revitalize Richmond: https://earlham.edu/revitalize-richmond/
🔗 Richmond Neighborhood Restoration: https://www.rnrinc.org/
Be sure to follow Revitalize Richmond and Richmond Neighborhood Restoration on social media to stay connected—and don’t forget to subscribe to Inside Richmond: The City’s Pulse to stay informed about the people and projects shaping our community’s future.
Welcome back to another episode of Inside Richmond. I'm Lindsay Darnell, your host, and today I have Dakota Collins with Earlham College and the Revitalize Richmond Initiative, and then Roxy Deer with R&R Richmond Neighborhood Restoration Guys. Thank you for joining me.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we're happy to be here. Thanks for having us.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so I wanted to get you on here. I know you guys have pushed a lot of information out on social media about Revitalize Richmond, but I thought it would be good for the public to hear it straight from you guys. So I do have several questions.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. Let's get into it.
Speaker 1:All right. So Revitalize Richmond received a $25 million grant from Lillian Endowment and over $83 million from community partners, creating $100 million plus investment in downtown redevelopment. What was the original vision behind this and how has it evolved in year two of the initiative?
Speaker 2:Yeah, that is a really great question. So it's important to understand that the Lillian Endowment, our primary funder for this initiative, put this call for proposals out just to four-year colleges and universities in 2023. And then Earlham knew that we wanted to be a part of something like this, something really exciting, something transformative for the community. But we know we're not community development experts. You know we do a lot of things really well, but that's not necessarily one of them. So we brought in community leaders, people that do this stuff day in and day out, and asked the question where would $25 million do the greatest good? Where could we see a mutual benefit for the college and the community around the college? Richmond, which is a requirement from the funder. And another requirement from the funder is that, while they would give up to $25 million, that could only be 30% of the total project costs. So you had to find at least $56 million in other sources to complement your project. We end up finding 83, but that is no easy feat for just anything, any cause.
Speaker 2:And so we had this conversation with this steering committee, this group of community leaders, to ask those three questions, and we really started to hone in on this idea that, with a lot of the projects happening in downtown or planned for downtown. That was where we could find the middle of those three questions and so we really pursued that with full force and we put together then probably 60 different people working across three different working groups to figure out what projects went in to this overall proposal. And now there are probably about a dozen of them went in to this overall proposal and now there are probably about a dozen of them, and they've gone at different speeds over the last year and a half. But I think what people will notice is that for the first year there was so much planning and background and deal making and negotiations. That is all still happening on various projects.
Speaker 2:But now things are really starting to be seen. We're going to talk about the Readmore a little bit later. That's near completion. We're able to announce this $30 million deal with the EDC and AP development that's going to affect five buildings. There's a lot of stuff finally starting to come about. So now we're moving into that active implementation phase for a lot of our projects.
Speaker 1:So, yes, I'm excited to talk about the Read More, and so, actually, my next question was about the $30 million investment. So a major component involves restoring five historic downtown buildings I'm not sure if a lot of the public knows, but Nolenberg, Hiddle Jenkins, Odd Fellows, which we're in right now, and BMO Harris into mixed-use spaces by summer of 2027. How did Earlham and its partners choose those particular landmarks and what broader message do they represent for Richmond's future?
Speaker 2:Absolutely so we really started to define early on what partners we wanted to engage with. We knew R&R had already had one successful project downtown and they were primed for more, but they focused on buildings of a certain size, and a lot of the truly iconic buildings downtown are those bigger projects that just there's no final vision for them at the end. They take so much, they're almost unwieldy and impossible for Richmond people to handle, and so we had to look outward. But we still got really close to truly local. So we were able to partner through the EDC with an Indiana-based developer, and everybody knows about the project at the former Elder Beerman site the six and main apartment units also a part of Revitalize Richmond and just an incredible project that is a new build, a brand new, fresh, modern building with all sorts of these modern amenities. It's going to be fantastic.
Speaker 2:But we also don't want to lose out on the historic character and charm of downtown Richmond, and so finding an Indiana-based developer that has specific expertise, experience and passion for some older buildings was just a dream come true for us, and it's actually.
Speaker 2:It has spoke a lot to me. We were talking to the developer and I said you know, we really need to know how many apartments we're going to have and what they're going to look like, and all of this, and he said, what you have to understand is that we don't tell these buildings what apartments we're going to get out of them. They tell us, and that changed my thinking on it, because it also instilled in me a really exciting thought that this developer gets it Like he really appreciates and has a passion for historic renovation, rather than just tearing something down and building something new which always has to happen, but it's not ideal, right, and so focusing in on those large projects that are truly iconic to downtown. Not many people know what the Hiddle building is, but when it's done you're going to notice it. Everybody knows Nolenberg's. You might not be familiar with the former BMO Harris Bank. You might know it as the Cheese Grater building, and so these are high profile, high priority buildings, and that's how we decided.
Speaker 1:And actually AP Development. They just completed Ben Hur Building in Crawfordsville.
Speaker 2:They sure did.
Speaker 1:So I have actually been seeing that on my Facebook news feed. I went and watched their grand opening and ribbon cutting and it is gorgeous inside.
Speaker 3:It's a beautiful building and they've done such a good job of keeping historic elements of the building and the exterior of the building keeps the character in building and they've done such a good job of keeping historic elements of the building and the exterior of the building keeps the character in the neighborhood and that's what we want here too. We don't want a downtown that's new building, old building, old building, new building and we're able to keep that character of a historic downtown.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and so the exciting thing about their open house was that they were actually getting lease agreements that very night, and so I am excited to see what that's going to do here and how many people are going to be able to enjoy these historic buildings and these apartments that are made in them.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm very excited and I think Crawfordsville and the Ben Hur Building, that's a good example of what we're going to see in Richmond. You know you've got the size of Crawfordsville, the stuff happening down there. It was one building with, I want to say, 40 apartments in it. We're doing 100 apartments across five buildings. They had 800 people, maybe more, at their open house. These streets are going to be jam-packed with people lining up to see the inside of the Nolenberg's building probably for the first time since it closed and then signing up for those lease agreements.
Speaker 3:Very likely that night.
Speaker 2:It's so cool. It's going to be incredible.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so that's one thing I'm excited about, and just being able to witness our future evolving in this town.
Speaker 3:I don't know that anybody has ever seen a downtown be revitalized this quickly. It's, you know, oftentimes it's one building at a time which has been the R&R model, and there's nothing wrong with that. But to see it all come to fruition at the same time and in a cohesive plan, I think that's what makes Revitalize Richmond so different is that everyone's on the same page and we're all going in the same direction.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think that's. One of the major things I want people to take away from this project is that downtown Richmond is a priority for this community. This renovation is incredibly important, but this community is lucky and blessed to be able to have something like this. Earlham's just happy to be a part of it. But we are a recipient of funding that we're able to pass on to the community, but not every community across Indiana, and certainly across the country, gets the chance to dump over a hundred million dollars into their downtown over the course of five years.
Speaker 2:It's nearly unheard of.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's super exciting and we are living this dream. Right now You're leading the Activate Build Connect strategy. From public art and maker spaces to transit improvements in urban housing. Which pillar has shown the strongest traction so far and how do they interrelate?
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's a really great question and one of the sort of complicated pieces of Revitalize Richmond and one of the sort of complicated pieces of Revitalize Richmond. And so I want to back up just a little bit and talk about those pillars, what they mean and what's in them, but I'm going to go a little fast, so hold on. So Revitalize Richmond is built on these three primary pillars that we have defined can lead to successful restoration of our downtown Activate, build and connect. And so within them, activate is the stuff that really truly brings that vibrancy to downtown that you feel any other place outside of the buildings and outside of where do we find that community? And so it includes renovation or, excuse me, the Gorge Activation Plan done by the Richmond Parks and Recreation Department. So we're putting in, in partnership with them, opportunities for kayaking and canoeing, a potential zip line, all sort of incredible stuff to make the Whitewater Gorge a destination. It includes a new maker space at the corner of 10th and Main Street being really started by Earlham alumni Eric and Becky DeMcick Eastman, and so we're in the process of that and we can talk about that in a little bit more depth.
Speaker 2:There is, we all know, that in order to have a really good downtown. We need exciting, fun, successful businesses in that area, and so we're doing a two-prong approach there. We have hired a brand new director of small business success. He's on week like two or three. He's literally brand new. But he's not new to the community. John Shebush is from Richmond. He's been involved in the community for a very long time and now he's taking all of the skills that he's garnered and his whole job is to help support local small businesses and budding entrepreneurs accomplish their dreams, whatever that is. So HillServe is sort of a hub of a center, a wheel of services. But then, alternatively, we're also contracting with retail strategies that will do some retail recruitment. We can talk about that a little bit more later too.
Speaker 2:Still in Activate we've also got funds for beautification and ambiance enhancements, some programming pieces that are designed to bring people to downtown. So that's Activate Under Build. We've got the Sixth and Main project. We've got everything that R&R is doing and we've got the $30 million investment with AP Development and the EDC, with AP Development and the EDC, and so that is all about true historic preservation, renovation and building up new buildings for apartment spaces and new retail space.
Speaker 2:And then finally, you've got Connect, which is about connecting the Earlham and Richmond communities through some transportation pieces. That's about putting in a multi-use path down West Main Street to connect downtown all the way to Clear Creek Park and then also connect to the front of Earlham's campus. There are some enhancements to public transportation, particularly through branding and then purchasing an electric bus, retrofitting it to look and feel like a trolley and having it go around the downtown of the depot district but also make a stop to campus. So those are the three pillars. We've seen a lot of work already in that build pillar because we had to prioritize it early on because those timelines can really be so long. We all know how hard it is to sometimes get material, to get work and all of these pieces. So we wanted to prioritize that early on because there was a lot of deal making on a lot of prep in advance of that.
Speaker 1:So now that we've got some of these pieces rolling, we'll be focusing on some of the other ones too that's exciting, um, so I did see the read more and it is a process, yeah, and not only with building materials, but then whether, especially when you're working on the outside the facade of the building, so if it's raining and it's just not great, you guys are postponed.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and I don't think people understand the process to just getting that building in our hands and determining that it's a project that we can do. I mean, we people see the the we purchased the building and they think we just went in and purchased a building. We had been working on that building for longer than Revitalize Richmond was even.
Speaker 3:I mean it was one of the first things I did in 2022 was go and look at Read More and go is this a building we can save? And from there we had to get architectural renderings and start working with all of our contractors the bidding process. So it takes about a year and a half for us to even determine if a project is worth moving forward before you even see an announcement. So we, when the grant money came in, it was okay, now what buildings? And getting to acquire them. That's the biggest piece. We can't save what we don't own. I think that's a quote we've repeated over and over in this process. And so getting the buildings in our ownership, but it takes a lot, but before that, we have to even determine if it's a project we can save.
Speaker 1:So when you are acquiring these buildings, is it difficult for some of the owners to let go.
Speaker 3:Yeah, absolutely, and I'm the same way right. You don't want to let go of something that you love or have a passion for. If you've owned it for a really long time, you probably have money invested in it, so you want that money back. You also feel like you own a piece of the downtown, and giving that up can sometimes be prideful. It can be you feel like you're losing an opportunity. All of those things play into it. No one wants to sell their home that they've lived in for 40 years. No one wants to sell a business or a building that they've had for that long as well, and so property acquisition is one of the toughest pieces for R&R.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So going back and talking about John Shebish, so in May and June 2025, revitalize Richmond you guys actually began recruiting a full-time small business and entrepreneurship coach, which was filled by John Shevish. So what are your expectations for Jonathan's role in both strategically and operationally, in activating downtown storefronts?
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely so. Like I mentioned earlier, I see John in his role as the center hub of a wheel of services. It's not necessarily his job to solve every single problem, but he can be that first step for a small business owner or somebody that wants to start a small business. When they don't know what to do, when they're having trouble, when they just need some support. Don't know what to do when they're having trouble, when they just need some support, he can be there for them, sometimes provide direct support. But if he can't provide that, connect them with somebody that can, so they're not scouring the internet trying to find somebody feeling hopeless about it all. They've got a direct resource and he works for the college.
Speaker 2:But he is centered downtown Richmond. His office is in the Main Street Resource Center at 814 East Main Street and he's there all the time If people need to contact him. All of his information is public and anybody can set up an appointment with him, even if it's just an idea that you have. Like, I really love to cook, I'd love to open up a restaurant, but I've got no idea where to start. Go talk to John, let him talk you through that process, connect you with, maybe a mentor that has done something similar in our area, let him connect you to the Indiana Small Business Development Corporation and let him sort of be your guide through this process. Or if you're an active small business owner and you've been in business for years but you've always struggled with marketing, let's say, or financials, and you've never had somebody to lean on, john can be that person for you to lean on.
Speaker 1:That's amazing. I think that's one of the most exciting things that Revitalize Richmond is providing right now is not only for current business owners, but also entrepreneurships that have had this goal. I have talked about this on a previous podcast that I've always wanted to do a restaurant, but then I thought, well, maybe a food truck. So you know, and me, I'm not an entrepreneur, so it's kind of hard, like I wouldn't even know where to start. So it's exciting that there's going to be someone there that can help guide you to you know, the direction that you need to take to be a successful business owner.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, and I think a lot of those conversations are. Often, you know, people have an idea of where they want to end up and unless they're experienced in the area, they might not see how they scale that down at first and then grow over years to be where they want to be and taking that big bite to get something your ideal vision is often overwhelming and it discourages people. So John and the people that he's connected with can help you really figure out how to make this realistic right now and then grow it over time. And we partner that with the incredible buildings that we're renovating and those are the people that we want to put in those storefronts. So if anybody out there has ever had a dream of having a business, especially as like service oriented main street style business, but don't know where to start and don't want to take on the burden of also owning one of these old falling down downtown buildings, Everything's coming together just for you to be able to put your store or your restaurant or whatever it is in downtown.
Speaker 1:And we'll make sure that we have his information pop up on the screen for everyone so they can contact them. Yeah.
Speaker 2:When people see his name, it's not going to look like Shebush but trust me, that is how you pronounce it.
Speaker 1:I checked.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:Um, when I actually uh, he was in WC. Leads last year with me. So, um, when I did meet him and we saw his name, I was like, I was like I don't know how to pronounce that, but then they, it's hard, when hard?
Speaker 2:when there are no vowels.
Speaker 3:It is you just start typing a bunch of random letters and you somehow get there, yeah.
Speaker 1:Okay. So how does this partnership with AP Development and the EDC, with the $30 million redevelopment of the five landmark buildings, how does this partnership support, Revitalize Richmond's goals and what are the projections for local economic impact, housing supply or business occupancy?
Speaker 2:That's a great question. So across all five buildings we're looking at about 100 living units. So that will complement the about 150 going in in Flaherty and Collins. We don't have super final numbers for the buildings for R&R, but we're probably talking in the range of 15-ish. So altogether we're looking at probably close to and with the other projects happening outside of Revitalize Richmond 275 living units downtown and a lot of people ask me who's going to live there. You know who wants to move downtown. There is always this chicken and egg situation and right now things are built on a promise. We are building apartments and supporting businesses because when businesses are in, these apartments are going to be filled. You know people are going to be excited to live in this vibrant area.
Speaker 2:My favorite stat that I say all the time is that about 42% of people that work in Wayne County don't live in Wayne County. They're commuting from anywhere else Indianapolis, dayton, oxford, the areas in between and often a lot of them actually work at Earlham. And so I talk to them a lot and say why are you living so far away and commuting 20, 45 minutes an hour every day? They can't find a place to live that they want to live because some people love living in one of those old buildings and restoring it over time. Some people just want a place to lay their head down, right. They don't want to have to go home and work on their house for hours.
Speaker 2:Both visions acceptable and totally perfect, but we've got to be able to accommodate multiple ideals for how people want to live. Those are a number of the people that we'll be relocating to downtown. We're going to bring in people from outside of our community and actually one of our metrics for Revitalize Richmond is stopping the population decline. You know we're not being overly idealistic saying we're going to grow to, you know, 50,000 people, but we just want to stop the decline so we can start focusing on growth. This is one of our measures or one of our tactics for that. Not sorry, go ahead.
Speaker 3:No, I was going to say I go through my texts at the end of each month and count up how many times people have asked me when can I move into the Readmore apartments? When will you be putting those on the market? We could have filled the Readmore building six times in the month of June. I mean, there is just that much demand for housing and a lot of times it's people. All of the times it's people who already live here but, they're in houses that are way too big for them.
Speaker 3:They're ready to downsize. Their kids have moved off to college, but they want something in a great location. They don't want something with a ton of maintenance. They don't actually want to own most of the time, they want a lease. They want something that's in a cool area. They don't want. You know, I think these buildings, these apartments are going to fill much quicker than anybody anticipates.
Speaker 2:Empty nesters and young professionals. That's who I think will be primarily attracting from in town and out of town. And If there's any doubt in that, we've got two outside companies looking to dump a lot of money in downtown Richmond, and they don't do that on a wish and a whim. They've done research. They feel as though this is an appropriate market. These are professionals that do this, and so I feel like Roxy and I can talk all day about our vision and our dreams and what we think, but they also have some data behind it.
Speaker 3:We didn't just pick these buildings and decide apartments were the best option. There's so much data that says this is where we need to go and this is why we need to do it, and we're seeing that play out right now.
Speaker 1:So I have a question Can you talk about how many apartments are in the Readmore.
Speaker 3:Yeah, absolutely so. The Readmore has two apartments on each floor of the upper floor, so there's four apartments total in that building.
Speaker 1:Two of them are two bedroom and two of them are one bedroom, and then the bottom is going to be retail space.
Speaker 3:Yes, so the bottom will be retail space that has been white boxed, which a lot of people are confused by that term and what that means. We have done the mechanical work in the building, which means new HVAC, new plumbing. Done the mechanical work in the building, which means new HVAC, new plumbing, new electrical, all things new. And then we put drywall up and subfloor down and so anybody can come in there, start their business and really have a blank canvas to do whatever they want to do with it. So they get to pick the floor, they get to pick the paint colors, they get to do all the design pieces, but they get to tell their insurance company that they're moving into a place with great plumbing and great electrical and they will. They don't have to invest their money in that kind of work, which is where the bulk of the expenses come from.
Speaker 2:They don't have to spend money. You know, hoisting up the floors, Lots of things behind this.
Speaker 3:You know we, when we walked into the Readmore we were tapping the floor to see if we could put our weight on it. They're going to walk into a safe, well-maintained, beautiful building that they get to put their splash of color on and their design elements and make it their own and know that they are not going to have to worry about a pipe bursting in the middle of the winter because of bad plumbing because of bad plumbing, and there have been so many entrepreneurs that have decided not to move into buildings downtown because that was going to eat up all of their capital for that business.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no more, yeah, no more. We're going to be able to provide entrepreneurs with a really good space.
Speaker 3:It looks brand new in there. It smells brand new in there which is great because the smell at the beginning was not fun because the smell at the beginning was not fun.
Speaker 1:So, considering the Makerspace project at 930 East Main Street by Erla Maloum, eric Dimmick Eastman facing delays, how is Revitalize Richmond working to ensure sustainable operations and local involvement in these complementary ventures?
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely. So. There are sort of two different kinds of revitalized Richmond projects. There are ones that are happening, no matter what, that we are funding into, and there are some that we're funding entirely. The makerspace is something that's been a conversation for a very long time. It's been a dream of Eric and his wife Becky's for years, and they're starting to put it into action. We saw where that could align with Revitalize Richmond and so we want to be a part of that. So this will be a non-profit organization that is designed to really support creativity in all of its forms. We're contracting right now with a firm that does makerspace design and building them up. They've done it several places all around the midwest, so we're very comfortable with them. But their first step right now is putting together really a community needs assessment what do the people in this community want to see in a makerspace? What would they use, how frequently would they use it, what would they use it for? And really just doing a lot of information gathering to then define what truly goes into the makerspace.
Speaker 3:Could you explain what a makerspace is? First, because I think that's a term that if you're in this world, you use it, but if you're not in this world, it's really confusing.
Speaker 1:I was going to ask you to go a little more depth into that.
Speaker 2:So yes, so a makerspace is a term that can be relatively broad, but it is really as true to the word as you can be. It is a space where you can make things I often think about. A good example is somebody wants to do some 3D printing, whether it's for a hobby or to start a business. But investing in a 3D printer can be a lot for somebody that's never even done it before. A makerspace is where we might have a 3D printer, all the materials that go with it, somebody to train you how to use it, or videos to do that, and you can come in, try it out. Videos to do that and you can come in, try it out. Make your stuff, whatever that stuff is, before you invest in your own, or you can just keep using it with some sort of membership-based model.
Speaker 2:Take that same sort of concept and apply it to many different crafts and trades woodworking, cad equipment, a sewing machine, any number of things and that's really where that community needs assessment comes in. What does the community have? That desire to go in and make something, and so the opportunities are basically endless. It's great for people that want to start a business where you do actually have to make something so you can utilize equipment there. It's great for crafters and hobby hoppers, which my girlfriend is one. She's so excited about this, trying all these different hobbies, and so there are a number of different people and ways that a makerspace can be utilized.
Speaker 3:It's cutting back the investment for that entrepreneur or that startup. I think about R&R and the number of times we've had to buy a specific tool to do something. If that tool exists at the makerspace, our membership would cover us going in and using it, and that's a perfect example of collaboration with these spaces.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. There are also makerspaces that do just. That is like sort of a tool rental garage where you can actually rent it out and take it with you to do something at home, depending on what the tool or type of equipment is.
Speaker 1:Yeah that's exciting. I really hope that they do a woodworking one. I love doing projects with wood. My sister's father-in-law, I mean, he can make anything out of wood and I've called him and said, hey, I have this project I want to do. Do you care if I come over and use all of your stuff? And he's got a whole wood workshop in his basement so he'll let me come over and use it. But having that in town because I have to drive about 30 minutes, one way to get to his house.
Speaker 3:And now you can just go downtown.
Speaker 1:Right, yes, exciting. So where do you see the biggest challenges ahead, whether funding timelines, developer coordination or community buy-in, and what strategies are being used to address them?
Speaker 2:So the good news is that Revitalize Richmond, in order to get the funding, was fully planned out. So a lot of people came to me at the beginning to say, oh, can we do this with these funds? Can we do this? And I wish the answer could have been yes, because I heard some really incredible ideas, but in order to get this funding, everything was planned out top to bottom, and so really we're in an implementation phase right now where we take that proposal and implement it to the best of our ability. There are always going to be challenges. There are always going to be delays. Roxy and I have both learned that everything takes longer than we anticipated.
Speaker 3:Much longer. We want it done right now.
Speaker 2:Right now.
Speaker 3:We wish all of this money had already been spent and we'd already made the improvements, but we know we have to be patient. Yeah.
Speaker 2:And so I think just there are probably 12 projects across Revitalize Richmond of various sizes. They all have their own timelines, their own people working on them, their own set of operations and expectations, and putting all of that together in a way that makes sense for the community is a little complicated, a little convoluted, but I would just encourage anybody that if you've got any questions about anything, want to talk about something or be involved in something, my email is open literally all the time, so just shoot me an email and I'd be happy to have that conversation with anybody.
Speaker 1:Yes, one thing that I wanted to kind of touch base on, to talking about Revitalize Richmond and all of the apartment units that are going to be going in. You are right next to Jack Elstro Plaza. You have the Farmer's Market, you have the Twilight Farmer's Market. There's other events that get held at Jack Elstro. I know Parks Department has a movie night there every summer and then you'll have the Gorge Activation. So once that's completed you can walk down there. But even in the wintertime the farmer's market you can walk or you could drive, I know some people yes, it's still not that far at the Star Jeanette.
Speaker 1:Some people are like oh, it's 30 degrees, I don't want to walk. But I personally love walking when it's cold. I'd rather walk when it's cold than being 100 degrees and pouring sweat.
Speaker 1:But then you'll have the library, which I know is getting ready to do a major renovation, but once it's back it should, I would say, be completed close around the time that downtown is completed, but you've got the library right there and then there'll be other retail stores here that you can and it'll just bring downtown back alive. I know when was a kid, it was the promenade, um, we would go to veaches, you know, and just kind of walk. We'd always go to joanne bakery, um, and now it's, it's starting to come back again. A lot of people don't realize there are bakeries down here, there's restaurants down here and it's enjoyable just to come down for lunch one day. So I don't think a lot of people realize that. You know there is still businesses here that you can still come and see before it's finished.
Speaker 2:Yeah and I don't want to imply for this community for a second that Revitalize Richmond is the first stab at improving downtown. People have been down here for decades trying to make this an exciting and vibrant space, whether it's through owning a business or when we renovated into Jack Elstro Plaza and then putting the farmer's market there. All of the things that you've mentioned, like this has been a long time coming for this community and people have made really strong efforts to get us to where we are, and it's all of those things that allowed us to make the case to our funder to get these monies, and that's the only way we were able to do it.
Speaker 2:If downtown was a lost cause. We never would have gotten the money.
Speaker 3:I think about the Elstro Plaza and how much pushback that project got. We don need another parks, we don't need all these things. But then you see something like the meltdown festival or you see and you see people walking downtown. For me it was this year watching the people disperse from the meltdown festival into downtown and going. Wouldn't it be so cool if, after the meltdown festival, there were all these little pop-up shops and all these things. All the lights were on and there were things to do. That makes a community come alive? I don't know that we would have picked downtown richmond without elstro plaza. I don't like those are. It's all part of that quality of life, quality of place check mark that we all look for in these projects and I think elstro plaza is one of the smartest things this community has ever done.
Speaker 2:Agreed.
Speaker 1:Yes, it's um. I love going to Elstro Plaza, especially on food truck Wednesday. So it's not just food truck Wednesday, I want to say it's also um eat local Wednesday, which um? Sometimes the lines are so big at the food trucks that I'll just come down here to downtown deli or Susie's Pizza, or maybe even at the Leland and go eat there, absolutely. So it's exciting. I'm excited to see everything. So, roxy, I'm going to kind of go towards you and start asking you some questions and put you out of the hot seat.
Speaker 1:So you've described your upbringing in Richmond as being intertwined with community and family, shaping your commitment to restoring historic homes and neighborhoods. How has that identity informed your vision of restoration as a relational, not just physical, process?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I've talked a lot about this. My family lost someone in the downtown explosion. So for me, growing up, my family never drove downtown. That was a space of trauma for them. One in the downtown explosion. So for me, growing up, my family never drove downtown. It was that was a space of trauma for them. And so if I wanted to go to Veatch's for my birthday or if I wanted to go to Joanne's and get a cookie, it was with friends or neighbors. And so I never experienced downtown, the promenade, as most people did, because my family just didn't go down there.
Speaker 3:And so as I became an adult, as I started to explore my own community in my own ways and moving back to Richmond, realizing that there was potential here but understanding why there were roadblocks in that way, and so I've had to do a lot of deep search in this, like personal searching, because I believe for a very long time like leave it, tear it down, we're done with it, move on, don't give downtown any refocus. And then it was. I remember for years driving by Readmore and going who's going to save that building? No one, no one wants to save that building. And then to be at the helm of the group that's changing that building and who's saving it.
Speaker 3:It's brought a whole new life and meaning to this and I feel like I'm restoring a personal chapter in my own book because I'm rewriting family legacy right that this is a town we're saving. It's a town that we honor our past and remember our past and those lost in that, but we get to write a new, bright, exciting chapter in the future. And that, to me, is it's a personal thing, like I call this my downtown, because it's that it's that important to me, that it's part of my identity. It's a personal thing Like I call this my downtown because it's that it's that important to me that it's part of my identity, it's part of my personal brand that it does, job aside, I want this town to be successful. I want this downtown to be successful and it all comes from my family and their. You know the experiences they had.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so did you ever see yourself being this involved with the community um?
Speaker 3:I don't know that. I ever. I don't think you plan a career where you're gonna fight for your downtown dakota, did you ever?
Speaker 3:for a moment I knew I loved this place. I don't know that. I knew that this is the role I was going to be in. I talk about construction. No, no one saw this happening. Um, in, in fact, I still. Sometimes I'm like, am I really doing this job? Like is this where I need to be? But it's really fun and it's it fills my bucket. At the end of the day I get to drive downtown and go. We saved that building and that building and that home and that home, and that is a feel good moment that you can't put into words.
Speaker 2:Roxy and I both went to Richmond High School and even knew each other then and I think I don't want to speak for you, but we got so much support from this community growing up and the opportunity to give back in this way that is so meaningful. I don't know it drives you each and every day, because there are tough times, there are challenges, but just remembering that it's not. The buildings are great and the project is great, but it's really about giving back to the community that made us who we are.
Speaker 3:Yeah, dakota and I've had so many mentors and advisors and people in our corners our whole lives. I mean we've never, I think. I don't think we've ever been told no, it's always go around this corner and find a different way, or talk to this person and they'll help you get in.
Speaker 3:And I think now we see our job as continuing that legacy, bringing new people in to the story, and it's if who's going to save it. If it's not, you know this group of people right now I don't know who will do it, and it takes somebody who's this passionate and this excited, and maybe this crazy, to get it done.
Speaker 2:So this is our chance, yeah.
Speaker 1:So, in partnership with Revitalize, richmond, r&r is completing the 901 East Main Readmore renovation and beginning work on the former US Bank building. Is that something that's still going on?
Speaker 3:Yeah, we currently still own that building. We don't know what the future of that building is right now. It's again, it's a really big project. That building is massive. It is underground it's just amazing there and we originally were thinking residential. But that building needs something different. It needs something really full and fun and it's a cornerstone of that community. So we're looking at all the best options for that building and how we can protect it and make sure that the future of that building is really well strong. Um, we are. We're not sure what the plans are yet and we hopefully will have an announcement in the next few months.
Speaker 2:I want to talk about how important yes you all securing that building for this community was Because a lot of people might not know, but they have seen how a lot of buildings downtown have dilapidated over years. So many of them were owned by people that lived across the country or in a different nation and just let these properties sit. And so this property, the former US Bank building, went up for auction and R&R.
Speaker 3:In an international like anyone could have jumped on, and so we all got. We knew it was coming. We had about a four-day notice that it was happening. Dakota, you know, and I were working together to figure out how much money do we want to spend to capture this building and we thought, oh, maybe a couple of people will bid on it. It was a pretty aggressive bidding process. Um, we were all sitting in the boardroom at Ivy tech with it up on the screen. It looked like something out of like a war room um, making decisions, and we actually lost the building in the auction and it went to somebody in Atlanta, Georgia, who had no plan had no plans had never,
Speaker 3:seen the building and, turns out, didn't have the money. His check did not clear, and so the next day we were made aware that the building had not closed and that we were being brought back into the conversation, and we tried to negotiate as much as we could on that building, but we knew the end of the day getting ownership. That acquisition was the most important piece of that puzzle, because while we may not be the ones saving it, we have to own it to figure out the next plants, because if not, the guy in Atlanta, georgia is going to own it till it falls to the ground, and that was made really clear the day we got the keys, I think we walked in the very next day and found a busted pipe, and he wouldn't have known about that. For who?
Speaker 2:knows how long yeah.
Speaker 3:I mean the building probably would have been in, it would have been already condemned at this point. So these buildings need constant upkeep, they need eyes on them constantly, and so having out of town ownership with no local management is a problem and getting our hands on that building, protected it yeah so sometimes it's more important just to get that in local control than the long-term future.
Speaker 1:So actually the Chamber of Commerce Hype Group got to tour it. I was there. I had been in the US Bank when it was US Bank, just in the lobby and to the teller.
Speaker 1:When we started touring that building, I was shocked at how so were we, and and like every little nook and cranny and you can go right down here and then there's another stairs that goes into another room and it's amazing, and so I'm excited to see what you guys can do once you have that plan. I know that we had talked that day and you had mentioned maybe like a steakhouse, a really nice steakhouse in the bottom. And that'd be the coolest that would be the coolest, and I know a lot of people want to say well, there's no parking in downtown.
Speaker 3:This building does come with a 60 park, a 60 spot parking lot. Um, it's just South of the um music city place apartments. I think people forget about that parking lot, but it is attached to this bank building. So again another reason why we needed to save it, because imagine losing all of that parking in downtown Richmond.
Speaker 1:Well, I know there was issues with parking when the BMO Harris or Cheese Grater building was owned by someone from a different state. There was always issues that you just could not park there. I accidentally had parked there. Luckily the tow truck guy wasn't driving through. But when I went and signed at the title company on my house and I came back out they were like, oh, you can't park there, they'll tow you. And I was like, oops, I didn't know.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I've had to beg, barter and steal to not have my car towed out of that parking lot but now it's in local ownership and we're able to park back there. So the parking is. Everybody says there's no parking spots. Making sure that the parking spots that do exist because there are plenty of parking spots are in local hands is another piece to this big puzzle well, and right now we we have the parking garage.
Speaker 1:Now I do know um there is going to be a number of parking spaces in that parking garage that will be dedicated to six main um the new development that's going up at the former elder beerman, but there'll still be other parking spaces there um you can utilize it right now it's a great parking lot.
Speaker 3:It's a great spot to park. It's. I know a lot of people get their photos taken up there because you really can see so much of richmond from up there. It's. It has a bad reputation, but it's safe, it's clean, it's doing a great job. The city's really protected that space yes, um.
Speaker 1:So. R&r relies heavily on over 150 volunteers and embraces historic homes by blending preserved charm with modern amenities people want. How do you maintain volunteer momentum and ensure each restoration meets both preservation standards and modern livability?
Speaker 3:That's a great question. So our volunteers are fantastic and I encourage everyone to come spend a Saturday morning with us. We do about two a month. We've been with the heat and the work on Doolin. We don't do any volunteer stuff downtown because we use local contractors for all of that work, but the residential we can use our volunteers more. So spend a Saturday morning with us 9 to noon and we do things from painting to neighborhood cleanups, to everything in between. We'll teach you how to do everything and there really is a community of people there.
Speaker 3:When I first started they were like who's the new girl and what is she doing? Because they've built such a close-knit community there and they welcome everybody in. If you don't, I've never painted before. They taught me how to paint. They taught me how to hang drywall, how to restore woodwork in the house. They learn themselves that they bring in a professional or they teach themselves, and we've really made that those volunteers a core of our organization. It's who we are.
Speaker 3:We want people to be proud of the work they're doing and be a part of the solution as well, and they really are. They believe in these projects just as much as we do. So I encourage everyone to join us. Follow us on social media and on our website to figure out how to get involved. But if your office wants to come spend a day, we'll set up. We can do some team building and then release you to do a project in the house. That really is kind of an exciting time to do. So that's one piece of it. And then I think what was the second part of that question?
Speaker 1:So preservation standards and modern livability.
Speaker 3:So we work very closely with Indiana Landmarks. We're one of their local partners and so they help us by giving us zero percent interest loans on every home that we do. And they haven't been involved as much in the downtown other than just being cheerleaders for us, because this is truly it's save the building or tear the building down, and saving the building is better than tearing it down. So we haven't relied on them for funds in the downtown projects, but what they have done is they've come in and help us pick historic colors and elements of design that you don't necessarily think about as historic, but it creates more of that character for the building.
Speaker 3:So that jasper green on read more that is from the historic color paint line. And we stick pretty close to those colors because not only are they gorgeous, fits the neighborhood, it fits the character of the buildings, but they're just really great colors and they really bring a. If you put a modern color on an old building it doesn't look good. So they've done a really good job about supporting us there and they I mean Indiana Landmarks is the cheerleader for us and they're the model. They've done a lot of this work across the state. They're the largest landmarks group in the country and it's because Indiana really has the historic buildings. We haven't torn them down, so a lot of newer communities are tearing them down.
Speaker 1:We've been able to preserve them from the beginning and you know what I think is in my personal opinion. I know not everyone's gonna have this opinion, but I love an old home versus a new build home. Yeah, I feel like the, the structure, the bones are a lot better than the modern homes out there, and that's not taking a dig, it's just absolutely not. You know, back then, the wood, the material, is a lot sturdier than what you're getting now.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and you heard AP development say the homes tell us, or the buildings tell us what we're going to do. That's so true. We walked into the house on North 12th Street, the Doolin house, and it didn't have a kitchen. You couldn't tell where the kitchen had been. Plumbing did not exist anymore, and so we brought a team in and they said well, based on the bones, this is where a kitchen needs to go. And it doesn't.
Speaker 3:If you think about a home, it's not a traditional place to put a kitchen, but when you start to think about where it will go and eventually the new footprint, how a new modern family will use a house, it's exciting. And so we've been able to kind of combine this historic home with modern elements that make it exciting for a new family. I think we get some pushback in the community. Well, you added a concrete pad to the garage. Well, no one's going to park their $60,000 car on a dirt floor. So we have to do things like that that bring the home to a livable, maintainable space for a modern family but keep elements of that home, the historic elements throughout the home.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I understand that. So when I was a kid I was raised by my grandparents but they bought a house in Abington that was built in the 1800s. It had no bathroom, it had no kitchen. There was an outhouse. It had a room that had a dirt floor, which was really fun. We dug and found all kinds of old stuff, oh I love that.
Speaker 1:But the whole summer we were there every day. I didn't do a lot because I was a kid I think I was seven or eight I was out playing in the woods or walking around Abington causing trouble. Yes, but I mean my grandpa and my uncle. They did everything. They put a kitchen in, they put a bathroom in, um, they did all the siding work on it. We got new flooring. Well, we saved the original wood floorings in the kitchen, but we did have to put carpet in the rest of the house, but that was my favorite house that we had ever lived in and I miss it so much.
Speaker 1:But it's exciting to see. Now I can realize and, you know, actually respect everything that my grandparents did to restore that house and it is a lot of work.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and it's the work R&R is doing. I think oftentimes people go, oh, they're just flipping, just flipping the home well, flip. That term really is like nails on a chalkboard to me, because flipping tends to be like the cheapest floors, the cheapest, you know, appliances, all those things. We don't skimp on the price, on these things. We really go all out to bring a gorgeous, beautiful home to a neighborhood in Richmond that probably was the eyesore of the neighborhood before R&R.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So beyond current projects, what new neighborhood or restoration initiatives do you see R&R pursuing next? Are there particular areas or types of housing you're excited to tackle?
Speaker 3:Yeah, outside of of Revitalize Richmond. So in Revitalize Richmond we have four more projects to do, three or four more projects to do, and we're working on identifying those currently. So we'll be in downtown for at least four more years. But we are focused heavily on the Star neighborhood and we are getting ready to reveal some new plans for that neighborhood. We know that the grand homes that R&R has done in the past doesn't work in the Starr neighborhood. We need to kind of scale back a little bit because of the place that that neighborhood is right now.
Speaker 3:Starr was just named on the top 10 most endangered places in the state. It's the first time that Landmarks has ever named an entire neighborhood, and so we originally weren't going to go to the Star Neighborhood, we were going to stay on the Main Street Millionaires Row area. But we felt kind of embarrassed that we're this organization that restores historic homes for neighborhoods and one of the most endangered is in our backyard and we're doing nothing about it. So we've been working with all the community partners to bring in a lot of attention to the star neighborhood. We are so excited for what we're getting ready to reveal. I think it's going to be. I think people are going to be excited about it and they will see it as neighborhood investment and not just one home at a time.
Speaker 2:I think that's so important, the idea of bringing back some neighborhoods, because even well-established neighborhoods in our community have started to crumble and fall apart not just the infrastructure but the community that goes behind having a neighborhood and by having homes in that space, that are spaces that people can be proud of, I think that'll start to reinvigorate that community.
Speaker 3:Well, and you're talking about how many people don't live in Richmond but work in Richmond as we secure neighborhoods and we start to remodel entire blocks, we start to make safe housing options for people and they go. Oh, I could live there because all three homes on either side have been redone and they're going to bring in new people, and so this energy will continue to grow. In the Star neighborhood we're keeping it really tight on that North 12th Street and really focusing in on that block right now, but as we grow this program it will continue to span out and we can bring an entire neighborhood back together, an entire. You know it's not just 10th Street and 12th Street Now, we've got the middle blocks and all the exterior blocks. That are all you know.
Speaker 3:Community block parties People don't do those anymore. You see community garage sales. All those things have to happen to make people feel connected to where they live. You also need clean sidewalks and you know good stoplights and stop signs and crosswalks and all those things, and so R&R is working with all of our city partners to make that happen.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yes, it's going to be gorgeous once everything's done and then you guys can get down there and work. My neighborhood it's an old neighborhood, it's Reefston.
Speaker 3:Yeah, oh, it's beautiful, it is beautiful.
Speaker 1:I love walking. Actually, the house I bought belonged to my aunt and uncle and they were gracious enough to sell it to me when they moved. But I just I love those old neighborhoods. It's actually considered a historic neighborhood, which I wasn't. I didn't know that. I was just told that, I think last week by Beth Fields, and I was like really I didn't know that, but I knew it was an older neighborhood.
Speaker 3:Yeah, Reefston's gorgeous and I think that's kind of. The people think about all these old homes but they don't realize how much money it takes to upkeep them and do it well. And they come with big yards and they come. We were just having a conversation about homes and their weed beds yesterday. And all of that takes time. It all takes money and young people don't have that time.
Speaker 3:We're all three young professionals sitting here. We don't have time to be out in our yard working all day maintaining a home, all those things. So what can we do? Don't have time to be out in our yard working all day maintaining a home, all those things. So what can we do? I think this is a problem our whole community has to address is what can we do to make owning a home easier for people more financially accessible? You know what are our standards and are they too much? Or can we cut back and make it so that people feel comfortable owning a home as well, so that they're not just opting out for a rental unit or those things that they're really investing in the properties that they own?
Speaker 1:I know one thing that I do is when I take my dog out, I'll see weeds in the flower bed and I'll just pick a few at a time especially with this heat that we've been having.
Speaker 3:You can't be out there.
Speaker 1:yeah, I'll pick a couple at a time and then just throw it in the dumpster.
Speaker 1:I don't think you're supposed to do that, but anyways and that's what I do, trying to kind of keep up the flower beds, because, right being a young professional, I have children. It's really hard to do everything go to work and then come home, take care of the kids and then go out and do yard work, I mean, and especially, like I said, in the heat, it's just like I don't want to do that. I'd rather just kind of hang out in here.
Speaker 3:Yeah, or do a project inside the house. So making home ownership not so daunting that's a topic for a whole other podcast, but making it so that people feel comfortable owning a home and financially responsible too.
Speaker 1:So there's going to be two more things I want to ask you. So you also founded the Deer Family Fund and then you host the Fight Like Jan Golf Event raising awareness and support for breast cancer prevention in Wayne County. How do you see those pillars of health for launch? Sorry, how do you? I'm gonna have to do that whole over again. Okay, so you also founded the Dear Family Fund and host the Fight Like Jan Golf Event raising awareness and support for breast cancer prevention in Wayne County. How do you see those pillars of health? Philanthropy I can't say that word, philanthropy.
Speaker 3:Philanthropy Philanthropy.
Speaker 1:Philanthropy. Okay, how do you see those pillars of health philanthropy intersecting with neighborhood and economic revitalization?
Speaker 3:Yeah, again, it goes back to my why. Why do I do all this work? So I lost my mom in 2017 to breast cancer, and her story was she volunteered for Reed, bravo and the Reed Foundation for years before that, and so everyone was shocked when she was diagnosed with cancer. Because how does someone who goes out and speaks to women to get their mammograms, how is she the one who falls to breast cancer? And so, adding that into my why and the number of people who supported me through that loss, and I start to think about the women in our community, what access to healthcare they have, and not just their healthcare, but do they have childcare while they're going to chemotherapy? Do they have transportation?
Speaker 3:We live in a community that's not easy. It's not easy to get from point A to point B if you don't have a personalized car, and so making sure that our nurses know how to speak to someone all these things that are part of the story. Right, our people are the reason we do everything. We need people to live in our downtown apartments, but we also need them to live healthy lifestyles and we need them to get their preventative screening. We need them to do the things to be healthy community members and Indiana is notoriously not a healthy state. And so what resources can we pour into these patients and these young?
Speaker 3:My focus right now is really on young adults, young women, knowing how to take care of their bodies, what they need to do to be preventative, because then they go home and they tell their mom, they tell their aunts, they remind their grandmas did you get your mammogram today? And people hate when I talk about mammograms. They're like it's so awkward, don't talk about it. I'm like if we don't talk about it it doesn't change the statistics, and so a lot of what I'm doing is just pouring back into the community that's cared for me for years. We can't have a great community without great people, and we need healthy people as well.
Speaker 1:That's amazing.
Speaker 3:Thank you.
Speaker 1:Um, so the last thing I want to ask you and kind of touch base on before we end is uh, read more is having an open house now not technically open house. Um, you guys are selling tickets for us and that's on August 28th. Can you tell us a little bit more about that, and why is there a cost for the tickets and what that money is going to go to?
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's a great question. We were just having this conversation that we probably shouldn't call it an open house, because in traditional real estate terms, an open house means you can just walk through to see the property and leave. Well, we're a non-profit, we've put 1.3 million dollars into project and so, to reveal it, we want to have a grand event. We want to have hors d'oeuvres and a bar, and we want people to be able to come in and really just embrace what this building is, and so this is a fundraiser for us. It's a cocktail hour with Richmond Art Museum is going to set the building like it's an art museum. We are going to have the building like it's an art museum. We are going to have entertainment from Richmond Symphony Orchestra and you'll get a private tour. But you're also going to learn the behind the scenes of it. You're going to hear from our contractors, you're going to hear from our investors, you're going to hear from people who have made this project happen. You're going to learn a little bit more about Revitalize Richmond while you're there. And so this is not just a traditional open house. This is an event to celebrate the work that's happened in this building, and it's the start. It's the first chapter in many more projects to come, and so this is a celebration. Let's get, let's have a fun night in downtown Richmond. We're working with Richmond Police Department now to figure out do we need to shut down the street because there's going to be so many people? I mean, tickets are flying off the the charts here, so we're trying to figure out how do we best accommodate that many people in downtown, which we haven't seen in a really long time, and it's really exciting that I go in that building almost daily at this point and I just to see it come from where it was like.
Speaker 3:Sometimes it takes your breath away because I one of the most iconic pictures I have is it was a year. Sometimes it takes your breath away because I one of the most iconic pictures I have is it was a year before we even announced we were taking it, and I'm standing at one end of the building and the contractors are at the opposite end of the building and they're looking up and you can see the sky Like it is. It shows how bad that building is, and that's the moment I went. This building we can't do it. It's not worth it. Like it's going to take too much money. At that point we didn't have revitalized Richmond funds and the contractors had to tell me, like we have to save this, we have to save this building. And then, once we got revitalized Richmond funds, we were like, oh hey, now we've got the money let's go for it.
Speaker 3:So it's been a team, collaborative effort here, and I can't think of a more iconic building to start revitalize Richmond with, and so we hope everyone will join us for a wonderful evening. Um, and we've got more events coming, um, not open houses, but other events coming in the fall in that building, so stay tuned for those as well.
Speaker 1:So where can the community get tickets if they would like to come?
Speaker 3:Yeah, so you can visit our social media. There's an event Bright that you can go to to get tickets. And then just let us know if you are interested in sponsoring. There are sponsorship opportunities. But we're going to have food from Corner Cafe. We're going to have the bars done by Smiley's Pub. Like I said, Richmond Art Museum, richmond Symphony Orchestra. We've got some really fun surprises along the way that night.
Speaker 2:It's going to be such a fun event. I really hope as many people as can will come out and join us for this. I mean, like Roxy said, this is the first completed project for Revitalize Richmond. That is a very big deal, and so we want to make it, like Roxy said, a true celebration that involves as many people as possible.
Speaker 3:And even if you've seen the projects I know you were in there what two months ago to see it staged. I mean it's. I don't even let my board members see it at this point. Like it is, we have shut the doors. No one's allowed in unless you're part of the staging team, because it truly takes it to five levels up. I mean, I walked in the other day and my breath was taken away. It just I was like oh, when do I move in? How?
Speaker 3:do like well how much do I pay for rent Cause I'm moving in today and the style elements that our design team have brought in they're just. I mean, I get chills thinking about it, so I really hope everyone joins us.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I really want to come. I just got to make sure I can secure a sitter for my four-year-old Going back to the rent. When do you guys think that you'll start leasing out those apartments?
Speaker 3:Yeah. So, dakota, do you want to talk a? Little bit about the future of the building.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So it is not in the Revitalize Richmond or in R&R's overall plan for them to maintain that building. It will be donated to a non-profit that will then be able to run, set the lease rates. They will probably contract with you know, an outside property management firm to do all of that. So R&R's goal here is not to do this long-term stewardship of the building. It is getting it ready for the next phase, the next chapter of its future, and so all of that will come after that is transferred.
Speaker 3:Okay, we're going to hold on to the building for a few months, just because it's a great place to show a little bit of our story off and we have a couple more events that we're planning to host in there, but the goal is that we will transfer this building and it will almost immediately be rented out. We've done the legwork to make sure the apartments have Wi-Fi, they have blinds, all these things, so that the next owner, all they have to do, is create the leases and people can move in.
Speaker 1:Okay, Well, guys, I want to thank you so much for coming on and talking about this. I think this was very informative for the public and I think it's going to get everyone excited even more than what they are informative for the public and I think it's going to get everyone excited even more than what they are.
Speaker 3:Yeah, if you want to stay up to date, I think it's really important to point out our social medias, so Revitalize Richmond, follow them on Facebook, instagram and revitalize richmondcom yes. And then Richmond Neighborhood Restoration. We're on Facebook, instagram and you can also follow our website to follow more information.
Speaker 1:Okay, guys, thank you so much.
Speaker 2:Thanks for having us. This has been fun it has and very informative.
Speaker 1:So that's Inside Richmond, the City's Pulse. Make sure to join me next time.