Current MLS Listings for Church Hill
City of Richmond (Zone 10)

There is a lot to be said about Church Hill.

As one of the truly original neighborhoods of the City, it has some pretty amazing history dating back into the 1700′s (“Give Me Liberty or Give me Death!”)  As one of the largest neighborhoods in the City, it has a wide variance of properties with differing construction styles and ages.  As one of the furthest eastern neighborhoods in a city that has a western bias, it has had a timeline that has ebbed and flowed from thriving to depressed and back.  With such a large and sprawling urban footprint, the actual lines of Church Hill differ greatly from the imagined lines of Church Hill and sometimes this confusion causes perception issues for those less familiar with the City neighborhoods.  CH also lacks natural protective borders and thus revitalization becomes more challenging than other in neighborhoods.

Church Hill is part of what is considered the "East End" of Richmond and is sometimes lumped in (both fairly and unfairly) with other neighborhoods such as Fulton Hill and Bottom, Fairmount, Union Hill, Montrose Heights and Chimborazo.  Church Hill also either contains or is in close proximity to some nefarious housing projects in Richmond such as Fairfield Court, Creighton Court, Whitcomb Court and Mosby Court.

The Downtown Master Plan incorporated parts of the neighborhood more or less from Libby Hill Park to 25th Street and south of Broad.  While this comprises only a small section of the overall neighborhood, these sections that border Tobacco Row are the ones that tend to hold value better than the northern and eastern sections and are the more ‘recognizable’ parts of CH.  This subsection of CH also has some spectacular views, a higher quality of construction and a park and two major roads to help define the neighborhood and protect investment there.

Much of CH is considered “Historic’ and thus eligible for the Tax Credit programs but the limited number of major structures (the majority of CH is single family residential) means the larger scale project-based revitalization opportunities are limited, especially when compared to Manchester, Jackson Ward or Carver.  This has led to more challenges to sustain redevelopment momentum with a literally ‘house-by-house’ approach to neighborhood change.  Since many renovations are done by individuals and not professional developers, the quality of renovation can vary greatly.

This is not to say that CH is without momentum.  Several development groups have undertaken projects that have impacted the neighborhood both within and on the borders.  Echo Harbor (in some form)  and Rockett’s Village are two major mixed-use projects that are bringing focus to development east of Downtown.  Likewise, Shockoe and the Cold Storage Complex which border Church Hill and the NE neighborhoods have added over 1,000 apartments in 2010/2011.  This is totally reshaping the Metro population behavior and changing Richmond’s attitude to “The Bottom” and “The East End.”