The Corner of Midlothian Turnpike and Alverser Drive Was Supposed to Have 350 Apartments. It Has 60 Front Doors Instead.

If you have driven past the corner of Midlothian Turnpike and Alverser Drive anytime in the last year, you have watched the same graded dirt and steel framing sit there through two winters, wondered what the cranes were actually building, and maybe stopped paying attention to the signage altogether. That is fair. This project has been "coming soon" since before most of the current construction existed.

But the thing that finally opens there this fall is not the thing Chesterfield County approved in 2022. Somewhere between the first rezoning application and now, the plan swapped apartments for owned front doors, revealed a grocery chain the county wouldn't name in its own paperwork, and settled into a pattern of ten-out-of-ten confidence in the season and zero confidence in the date. That pattern is worth understanding, because it tells you more about how this corridor actually develops than the tenant list does.

The plan that never got built

When SJC Ventures first brought this site to the Chesterfield planning commission in 2022, the pitch was a $175 million mixed-use project built around 350 apartments, a rooftop terrace and pool, structured parking, and 30,000 square feet of what the developer called high-end restaurant and entertainment space. The grocery anchor was real but unnamed. County staff, working from documents that hadn't cleared confidentiality agreements, referred to it in the official report only as "Major Tenant X."

Local guessing wasn't hard. SJC is an Atlanta firm that built its business almost entirely around one grocer: of the 20 grocery-anchored projects the company had completed at that point, 16 were anchored by Whole Foods Market. The math on "Major Tenant X" wasn't subtle. What nobody could confirm yet was whether Chesterfield would actually get one, and if it did, what would replace the apartments once the county's density appetite changed.

The reveal, and the swap

Whole Foods confirmed its own involvement in January 2025, the same week SJC broke ground on the site. It would be the chain's first Chesterfield County location, giving west-county shoppers an option closer than the company's existing Richmond-area stores at West Broad Village in Henrico and Sauer Center in the city.

That confirmation came bundled with a second change nobody had asked about directly: the apartments were gone. In their place, 60 for-sale townhomes, built by Eastwood Homes, three to four stories, ranging from 1,800 to 2,400 square feet. Onsite signage as of early 2026 priced them in the high $600,000s. Greenspace and a dog park remain part of the plan along Old Buckingham Road, where the residential piece sits back from the retail frontage on Midlothian Turnpike.

The distinction matters for anyone who lives nearby, not because of what it says about the developer, but because of what it says about who eventually moves in next door. A 350-unit apartment complex and a 60-unit for-sale townhome community produce very different neighbors, turnover rates, and long-term investment in the block. Chesterfield ended up with the second version.

What's actually signed

The full commercial footprint runs a little over 87,000 square feet across five buildings, with Whole Foods occupying roughly 36,000 of it. Here is what has been publicly confirmed as tenants heading into this fall, according to Richmond BizSense's reporting and industry coverage from Shopping Center Business:

By SJC's own count, only about 5,000 square feet of the development remained unleased as of early February 2026, which means the tenant roster above is close to final. Whoever fills that last sliver will round out the story, but it won't reshape it.

Why "this fall" hasn't changed since March

Chesterfield issued a tenant-upfit permit in February 2026 so Whole Foods could begin its interior buildout. SJC principal Jeff Garrison told BizSense at the time that the shell construction was nearly finished and that spaces would start turning over to tenants that spring. His stated timeline for opening: "this fall at the earliest."

That exact phrase, first at the earliest, showed up again in an August industry report on the property's new management assignment to KeyPoint Partners, with no sharper date attached. Six months separate those two statements, months in which the buildings visibly progressed, and the public timeline did not move at all. The full project, streetscape and remaining leases included, is still slated to wrap in the second quarter of 2027.

SJC's senior leasing director, Cori Jackson, described the intent behind the pacing when the grocery lease was first announced, saying the team was working to bring in "first to market retailers and restaurants to round out the mixed-use center." Read against the calendar, that ambition is also the reason nobody wants to commit to a date. Curating the right ten tenants takes longer than filling ten empty boxes.

What changes at that intersection right now

This isn't the first time Alverser Drive has anchored a dining trip. Tazza Kitchen's Alverser Plaza location, a short distance from the Midlothian Depot site, already carries a Richmond Magazine nod as one of Midlothian's better restaurants. What's changing is the scale: a corner that held one notable stop is about to hold ten, plus a full-size grocery store, within the same half-mile.

None of this touches the gathering spots that already define a Midlothian weekend. Mid-Lothian Mines Park on North Woolridge Road keeps its own calendar going, from the living-history demonstrations and trolley tours of Mid-Lothian Mines Day to the small road races that use its trails, including a Luau-themed 5K and 10K in May and an Eagle-themed run in July. Those events sit on the other side of town from Alverser Drive and aren't competing for the same foot traffic. What's arriving at Midlothian Depot is additive, a second commercial center for a part of the county that has mostly funneled everyone toward the same handful of shopping strips along the Turnpike.

If you live near that corner, the practical version of all this is simple. The apartments you might have heard about early on aren't coming. What's coming instead is a grocery store you'll actually recognize, a short row of national names, and 60 owned townhomes that will likely turn over more slowly than a rental building would have. The season is still fall. The exact week is still anyone's guess.

If the changes taking shape along this stretch of Midlothian Turnpike have you thinking about what your own street is worth these days, or whether it's the right moment to make a move, Kelly Blanchard Real Estate is happy to talk it through, starting with a free home valuation.