20-unit townhome project moving forward on Quioccasin with assist from housing trust fund

Richmond BizSense | By Jonathan Spiers

Published September 910, 2025

The latest residential development to be fast-tracked through Henrico’s Affordable Housing Trust Fund program is getting underway following a groundbreaking ceremony that included U.S. Sen. Mark Warner.

Warner joined county officials and builder Center Creek Homes for the ceremony that kicked off construction of Pemberton Row, a 20-unit townhome development that will be targeted to households below 120% of the area median income, with prices per unit around $350,000.

The $9 million project, off Quioccasin Road just east of Pemberton Road, is Center Creek’s largest in the Richmond area to date and the third project to be awarded incentives through the housing trust fund, which Henrico launched last year with a $60 million cash contribution fueled from tax revenue from data centers in the county.

Warner, who hosted a housing affordability summit at The Westin Richmond earlier that day, praised Henrico’s program, which he described as innovative across Virginia and beyond.

“To take a controversial issue like data centers and say we’re going to take a good chunk of the revenue and dedicate it in a very creative way to the issue that I hear about in any community in Virginia – urban, rural, suburban – and to say we’re going to put it into this combination land bank and housing trust fund, that in itself was remarkable,” Warner said in his remarks during the ceremony.

The homes at Pemberton Row will be priced at around $350,000 and available to income-qualified buyers making below 120% AMI, or about $136,000 a year for a family of four, Center Creek’s Dan Magder said. The roughly 1,500-square-foot homes will each have four bedrooms and 3½ bathrooms.

Center Creek bought the nearly 2-acre site at 9214 and 9216 Quioccasin Road in April from Walutes Development Two LLC, an entity tied to Maurice “Chipp” Naylon IV, who had previously secured entitlements for 20 townhomes. County records show Center Creek paid $935,000 for the two parcels, which Henrico assessed this year at $616,300 combined.

COO Greg Shron, who runs Center Creek with Magder, said the company was connected to Naylon and the site through Henrico administrators, who he said identified the project as a candidate for the housing trust fund when Naylon was looking to sell.

“We had a meeting with John Vithoulkas, the county manager, and he was very focused on making sure that an equitable portion of the trust fund dollars got deployed in the higher-income neighborhoods of the county,” Shron said, noting that Pemberton Row is one of two trust fund projects in western Henrico funded through the program so far.

Other homes funded through the program include seven at Mungo Homes’ 24-unit Discovery Ridge development at Gayton Road and Lauderdale Drive; 25 at HHHunt Homes’ 123-unit Parkside Townes near Sandston; 25 at StyleCraft Homes’ 165-unit Crossings at Mulberry off Chamberlayne Avenue; and 16 at Ryan Homes’ 484-unit Landmark Condos near Sandston.

Administered by the local Partnership for Housing Affordability nonprofit, the program has allocated over $8 million of the $60 million in allocated funds through $90,000-per-unit grants to developers. In addition to the grants, participating developers also benefit from incentives such as expedited plan reviews and waived permit and utility connection fees.

Shron said those incentives and the previously approved entitlements helped make the project work for Center Creek. He did not share a cost estimate for the project, which received a $2.2 million grant through the trust fund.

“We were able to make it work with the $2.2 million grant that we got that bridged the gap between a project that would have been completely underwater and a project that made financial sense to execute,” Shron said.

During Monday’s ceremony, Magder, Center Creek’s CEO, noted challenges faced in providing lower-priced housing in higher-income areas, and pointed to the trust fund program as one of several tools needed to help overcome them.

“Land costs are higher in a neighborhood like this, so the subsidies have to be higher on a per-unit basis to make affordable housing here,” Magder said.

“I think it’s something that the policy community has to get used to a little bit. If we want to avoid continuing segregation of our communities by income, we’re going to have to bite the bullet and look at high-opportunity neighborhoods and what does it take to intersperse affordable housing across this community.”

Magder added: “We’re looking at creating options for Americans to live in wonderful neighborhoods like this one, and it’s only by partnering with the Henrico housing trust fund that we can ensure families at a range of income levels can access the same schools, the retail, the amenities that are here. That’s what opportunity looks like.”

Other speakers at Monday’s ceremony included Henrico Supervisor Jody Rogish, whose Tuckahoe District includes the site, and Jovan Burton, executive director of Partnership for Housing Affordability.

Work on Pemberton Row is set to start later this month, and Shron said the homes are targeted for delivery next summer. Center Creek is working on the project with engineering firm Bowman and landscape architect Studio39.

Center Creek’s other projects in and around Richmond include several infill homes along Cary Street and Arthur Ashe Boulevard in the city’s Fan District. It’s also planning a 16-home infill beside a centuries-old house on Grove Avenue beside the Malvern Manor apartments.