Welcome to…
Carver Station
Project features will include the restoration and adaptive reuse of the 1910 Virginia Railway and Power Company substation, a food hall of ‘Original-To-Richmond’ food concepts, a micro-retail center featuring local makers, and a cowork center for small and emerging businesses.
Preserving the Substation
The building, later known simply as the West Substation, featured an exterior designed to be compatible with the other industrial district buildings of the area and characterized by seven-course American-bond brickwork, wide door and window openings with rock-faced granite lintels and smooth granite sills.
The main room was subdivided into two spaces by a row of steel columns that supported a 12’ deep “switch gallery” mezzanine along a part of the east wall.
The 25’-wide, two-story area that held the motor-generator area accommodated a large “fish-belly” crane that rolled from north to south, designed to shift or replace the motor-generators. Three large iron ventilators were spaced above this room. The motor-generators were augmented by transformers and oil switches along the east wall on the first floor, and by a voltage regulator on the north end of the main room.
Fortunately, for those who admire the design of these historic industrial structures, the building, the crane assembly and supporting framework are all in excellent condition and waiting to find a new purpose with a new generation of Richmonders.
The Crane Room
Vibrant, sustainable communities have a center – a town square, a gathering place for meeting friends and sharing news.
The Crane Room creates an authentic core for the Carver community, grounded on 110 years of history, and appropriately scaled and in balance with neighboring residential uses. The convertible space will allow for gatherings of up to 250 people, space for daytime coworking, and a venue for wine & spirits educational seminars.
Historic Industrial Interior
Cowork Lounge by Day
Small Plate / Wine & Spirit Lounge by Night
The success of any food hall is dependent on a celebration of regional or cultural authenticity. Celebrating local cuisines and a farm-to-fork approach is more valuable than a mass-market concept.
The Food Hall at Carver Station will feature quality and diversity sourced from the experienced and diverse Richmond food ecosystem. Each local vendor will be organized around a multi-purpose common dining area, with shared infrastructure and utilities.
12 Unique Food Concepts
Beer, Wine, & Spirits
Integrated Online Ordering
If you’re a chef or food entrepreneur who would value being part of a new and original Richmond food experience,
we want to hear from you:
Micro-retailing can provide Richmond’s small merchants and makers with perks that standard storefronts cannot. A micro-business can experiment with establishing a brick & mortar presence in a lower-risk physical retail space.
The mixed-use design of the larger project creates a continuous flow of visitors from the Food Hall and a resident population of office workers.
Independent Shops
Unique-to-Richmond
Retailer Support
If you’re a maker or specialty retailer interested in the benefits of being in a mixed-use space, we want to hear from you:
Coworking & Micro-Office
Carver Station is designed to serve an eclectic variety of entrepreneurial work environments, from modern co-work spaces, to dedicated desk areas, to innovative private offices. Maritime shipping containers will be organized to provide larger and more identifiable spaces for new and small businesses.
Carver Station creates a place for entrepreneurs, startups, and incubator businesses to establish an identifiable brand presence, while benefiting from a shared infrastructure.
“A niche working community between coworking and traditional office leasing is realized in the ‘office pod’, a modular system derived from the dimensions of a maritime shipping container.”
We are in the process of determining office and cowork features and benefits. We’d like to hear from you.
Share Your Thoughts
Are you interested in being a part of Carver Station? We welcome your thoughts and questions.