Okay, readers, choose one:

“Lofty”:
1. Elevated in spirit
2. Showing a snooty manner
3. Richmond’s downtown culture and newest coveted housing option.

If you answered “3,” congratulations! You won’t impress the GRE board, but you’re spending more time downtown, enjoying what the city, developers, and many residents insist is a success story with a spectacular view.

Venture Richmond regularly brings together city leaders, businesses, and consumers to nurture economic development, particularly downtown. They recently hosted a unique tour of stylish and livable lofts. Participants were guests in several homes for meet-and-greets with volunteer host residents. While some expected a sales pitch, the focus was on showing sophisticated living spaces and the people who make them home. The experience emphasized how many amenities Richmond offers downtown, all within walking distance. 

Admittedly, it’s a story we’ve heard before: In cities nationwide, as economic changes take hold, manufacturing districts and industrial buildings have fallen into disuse. Their combination of expansive interiors, favorable light, and cheap rent have made such spaces longstanding favorites of perpetually money conscious artists, who often turn abandoned areas into vibrant and viable communities. Great restaurants, innovative retailers, and galleries soon rise where artists work and live. When sedans start to slink through the streets, developers smell business. The story is older than Warhol’s Factory and has outlasted fifteen minutes of fame. Cynics claim that when commerce takes priority, the original spirit of bohemian loft living vanishes. Others cite statistics that suggest loft development addresses urban blight, creates jobs, and reduces crime. Brooklyn has DUMBO, St. Louis has Washington Avenue, and Philly loves Broad and Eighth Streets, right?

So how does Richmond rate in loft-appeal? Just count the ways. This year’s Venture Richmond Downtown Loft Tour featured walk-throughs in Shockoe Bottom’s Pohlig Paper Box Factory and The Reserve, both on Franklin Street. Along the Canal Walk the tour brought participants to The Vistas on Virginia Street. In Jackson Ward, the Tour brought visitors to Emrick Flats, 401 Brook Lofts, and Popkin Lofts, before finishing up south of the river, by stopping in at The Manchester Lofts of Porter Street, The Decatur of E. Third, and Warehouse 201 on Hull Street. 

Jim Daab, who along with his wife Laura owns Mystery Dinner Playhouse Theatre, attended the Saturday afternoon tour. “I loved seeing the creative reuse of these buildings. I was really impressed by the mixture of adaptive reuse and new construction at the Reserve,” Daab points out. “But the greatest part of the tour was when I realized later that my Saturday consisted of touring beautiful loft living spaces, attending an intimate acoustic concert in a new gallery space, and [sharing] a meal and drinks with friends in a tavern, all within blocks of each other in an area of the city that would have been deserted on a Saturday night just a few years ago.”

Richmond seems to have reached at least one lofty ideal.