Dodson going big with $25M mixed-use development in Colonial Beach – RichmondBizSense

A rendering of the beach-front townhomes and commercial space planned for Colonial Beach. (Courtesy of Dodson Development)

Two years ago, the town of Colonial Beach decided it wanted to start marketing itself as a tourist destination for Richmonders, Washingtonians and others around the Commonwealth.

The town, with its seasonal population of about 3,500 split between full- and part-time residents, is geographically positioned to do so, sitting on the Northern Neck and with beachfront land facing the Potomac River.

Last week, the town announced another step toward drawing in visitors with the help of Richmond developer Duke Dodson.

His Dodson Development bought 5 acres for $2.7 million, on which it is planning a multi-phase, mixed-use project thatll add townhomes, a hotel, office and retail space adjacent to Colonial Beachs Town Hall at 100 Wilder Ave. and 301 Douglas Ave.

While the four-phase project wont reach full completion until mid-2024, Dodson, who is president of the firm, said the project came together relatively quickly after he got word of it in mid-March.

It just got me really excited. I was looking at it for me and my family because we were looking for a river or lake destination. In Richmond, you have a couple of river or lake options but none stands out as obvious, Dodson said.

Colonial Beach is close to Richmond, D.C. and Fredericksburg, but it has a historic downtown and its a golf cart town. Based on a lot of factors, I feel like the times right for it.

The projects first phase would add 35 townhomes. (Courtesy of Dodson Development)

The projects first phase includes building 35 townhomes to start in the mid-$300,000s. The second phase calls for the renovation of three existing commercial spaces in Colonial Beachs downtown. Those will be followed by 36 waterfront condos along with 10,000 square feet of retail space. A boutique hotel will round out the project.

Dodson said he expects the total project cost to surpass $25 million. He said his family will personally own one of the townhomes and his Dodson Property Management will lease one of the office spaces thats being renovated.

As for retail, Dodson hopes to bring in what he describes as boardwalk-friendly tenants.

Well be marketing to places like coffee shops, ice cream shops, he said, noting that one of the commercial spaces being renovated is an old bank building that hes already shown to some breweries.

Richmond-based Fultz & Singh Architects is the projects architect, and local general contracting firms Vertical Builders and UrbanCore Construction will handle the build for different phases.

Itll be among Dodsons largest projects to date, and his first outside of Richmond, where hes developed a Gather-anchored project in the Arts District, and the former ARC building in Scotts Addition thats now home to Gelati Celesti, Potbelly Sandwich Shop and High Point Barbershop.

Ive never developed outside of Richmond because Ive always said I want to develop stuff that I can walk and see, Dodson said. Its pretty exciting. Well spend a lot of time out there in the summers in the coming years. It doesnt feel like a foreign market and Im getting more and more comfortable with it by the day.

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Dodson going big with $25M mixed-use development in Colonial Beach - RichmondBizSense