The old bank building at the corner of Brookland Park Boulevard has sat mostly empty for three years, its Art Deco facade a daily reminder to Northside residents of promises made and broken. Now, construction crews are back, and the new owner is betting that what this corridor needs isn’t another mixed-use development or boutique retail — it’s a place where kids can learn to throw a punch.
Cherry Pick’d Boxing purchased the building earlier this year from the Richmond Redevelopment and Housing Authority, which had taken it back after the previous revitalization effort collapsed. The youth-focused boxing organization is now converting the space into a training facility, a project that represents both genuine neighborhood investment and the complicated economics of corridor revival in Richmond.
The Brookland Park commercial strip has been stuck in a frustrating holding pattern for over a decade. City officials and community leaders have long identified it as ripe for revitalization — the bones are there, with walkable blocks of early 20th-century storefronts serving a historically Black neighborhood with deep roots. But the pattern keeps repeating: a developer makes promises, secures the property, and then the project stalls or fails entirely.
RRHA’s involvement adds another layer to this story. The authority has faced criticism for its management of properties across the city, and critics will likely ask why a failed project sat dormant for three years before finding a new buyer. The agency did not respond to requests for comment about the terms of the sale to Cherry Pick’d or what oversight existed during the previous developer’s tenure.
What makes this attempt different is the model. Cherry Pick’d isn’t trying to make the building pencil out as market-rate apartments or craft cocktail bars. The organization focuses on youth development through boxing, and its financial sustainability doesn’t depend on Brookland Park suddenly becoming the next Carytown. That might be exactly what the corridor needs — an anchor tenant with community ties rather than profit margins as its primary metric.
The renovation work now underway will transform the former banking hall into training space, with plans for after-school programming that could draw families from across Northside. For a neighborhood that has watched commercial vacancy persist while other Richmond corridors boom with investment, the sight of active construction carries real symbolic weight.
But Brookland Park has been burned before. The question isn’t whether Cherry Pick’d has good intentions — it’s whether good intentions are enough to break the cycle that has kept this boulevard frozen in potential for so long.
- Cherry Pick’d Boxing purchased the vacant Brookland Park bank building from RRHA earlier this year
- RRHA reclaimed the property three years ago after a previous revitalization project failed
- The building will be converted into a youth boxing training facility