Richmond BizSense: Spy Rock extends reach into Innsbrook with 331-unit project planned on Cox Road

Mike Platania

Hundreds more residences are in the works for Innsbrook as one of the area’s busier developers is going big for its first project in the western Henrico neighborhood.  

Spy Rock Real Estate Group recently filed plans for a 331-unit development at 4650 Cox Road that will feature apartments and townhomes. 

The project would rise on land that’s currently a mix of grassy area and surface parking lots and calls for 270 apartments and 61 for-sale townhomes, according to a plan of development filed with the county last month.  

The residences would be the first of a multiphase project. The initial phase would sit on about 10 acres near the intersection of Cox Road and Sadler Place. A second phase, which has yet to be designed, would rise on 30 acres to the south.

The project site is currently owned by major Innsbrook landlord Highwoods Properties. It’s unclear whether Spy Rock is under contract to purchase the land.

Spy Rock managing director Jake Bloom declined to comment. 

Plans show that the apartment building on Cox Road would be 5 stories tall while the townhomes would be 3 stories and primarily situated as rows of four. The development would be supported by 519 parking spaces. 

Poole & Poole Architecture is listed as the project architect and Timmons Group is the engineer. 

The development looks to be permitted by-right, as the land is zoned Urban Mixed-Use (UMU), a designation that allows for higher-density, mixed-use developments.

Based in Scott’s Addition, Spy Rock has projects in the works all over town, including a mixed-use mid-rise in the Westwood area, income-based apartments in South Richmond, and a new apartment building near the Diamond District. The Cox Road development would be Spy Rock’s first foray into Innsbrook. 

The effort to add more residential density into the historically office-based Innsbrook started gaining momentum about 10 years ago, and many of the office park’s first wave of multifamily complexes have been sold in the last year or so, including the Innsbrook Square, Metropolis at Innsbrook and Innslake Place apartments. Construction of The Verve, a sister building to the Metropolis at Innsbrook apartments, recently got underway.