Westhampton Richmond Restaurants and Shops to Watch

York Court doesn't look like much from the sidewalk. It is a three-story, 18-unit apartment building on York Road that has stood since 1963, a block off the intersection everyone in Westhampton just calls Libbie and Grove. Most people walking to dinner nearby have probably never registered it as anything other than background.

That may be changing. Richmond BizSense reported in January that Center Creek Homes is planning an eight-unit townhome development at 5706 York Road, where York Court currently stands. The site sits near the intersection of Libbie and Grove, just north of the Westhampton on Grove development. City property records show the Dickinson family has owned the building since 1967, when it paid $146,000 for it, and it was most recently assessed at $2.6 million. The parcel is zoned UB Urban Business, which doesn't allow single-family residences on its own, so Center Creek is seeking a special-use permit and has already met with neighborhood associations in the Libbie-Grove area.

The permit process is still working its way through the city, so nothing is final. But it's worth pausing on where this sits, because this corridor has already been through this exact motion once before, and most of the businesses everyone treats as permanent fixtures are actually the result of it.

This isn't the block's first rebuild

In 2016, a group of residents launched a "Save Libbie & Grove" campaign, pushing back on plans to demolish the old Westhampton Theater. What eventually got built instead, called Westhampton on Grove, redeveloped the theater property and the adjacent Long & Foster building at 5706 and 5702 Grove Avenue after more than 18 months of community meetings and design revisions. In response to feedback from the city and neighbors, the design team lowered the buildings from four stories to three. The finished project put service retail and restaurants on the ground floor, Class A office space on the second, and residences on the third.

Today that same block is where Beijing on Grove, The Continental, and Taste Unlimited all sit. None of them read as "new development." They read as the neighborhood. That's sort of the point.

"It's about preserving this community for the next generation, but also tuning into our modern needs and wishes."

That's how one neighborhood advocate, Catherine Whitham, described the balance at the time, and it's a useful way to think about what's about to happen a block north.

Why the corridor still feels frozen even when it isn't

Richmond's UB Urban Business zoning, which covers the Libbie-Grove shopping district, is written specifically to keep new development from disrupting the pedestrian-scale character of the street, and to promote retention of existing structures where possible. That's not an accident of taste. It's policy, and it's a big part of why a corridor that has quietly replaced a movie theater and is now eyeing a 1963 apartment building still feels, block to block, like it hasn't changed in decades.

Center Creek Homes isn't new to this kind of infill work either. The company has handled similar projects along Arthur Ashe Boulevard, on Cary Street near the Fan, and on Quioccasin Road in Henrico. If the York Road project follows that pattern, expect a design built to match the block's existing scale rather than announce itself.

What's actually open right now

None of this changes what's worth walking to today. The current lineup on Libbie and Grove:

• Libbie Market — opened in 2010 after Ukrop's sold its grocery stores to Ahold-Giant and the family's specialty store was set to close, until former Ukrop's employees Buster Wright and David Taylor bought it themselves following a resident-led "Save the Market" campaign
• Stuffy's — a Richmond staple serving classic sandwiches, heated rather than toasted, for generations
• Stella's Grocery — opened its fourth location at 5802 Grove Ave in 2021, in a roughly 2,000-square-foot space that had been a Starbucks, complete with a meze bar
• Levy's — a longtime women's clothing fixture known for classic, wearable style
• Alton Lane — custom-fitted suits built around digital measurements with a quick turnaround
• Apothec — home to a Restorative Libation Bar and a Carytown Teas satellite counter pouring from more than 200 loose-leaf blends
• Palette Home — a full-service interior design showroom on Grove Avenue with a Farrow & Ball partnership
• Bar West — a neighborhood favorite for cocktails and watching the game
• Cameo Cakery and Café — known for cakes, pastries, and specialty coffee
• Hampton House — fine linens and curated gifts, a longtime wedding registry stop

Peter-Blair, Piffy Boutique, and 1z2z3z round out a strip built for the errand you didn't plan on turning into an afternoon.

What to watch next

The York Road proposal has not gone before the city for final approval, and Center Creek's own track record suggests a redesign rather than anything dramatic. But the pattern is now visible enough to name: a building on this corridor ages out, the neighborhood pushes back or weighs in, something new goes up that's shaped to fit, and within a few years it just becomes part of the walk. It happened at the old theater. It may be about to happen again on York Road.

If you've been curious what a corner like this is actually worth, or what redevelopment like this tends to do to values nearby, that's the kind of question Kelly Blanchard Real Estate fields often from people who already call Westhampton home.