Midas Church Hill spot revving up with $1.6M property purchase

Midas of Richmond held a ‘Friendsgiving’ event last week at the site, where it’s planning its sixth area location. (Photos courtesy Mark Smith)

Plans for a sixth Midas of Richmond store are in full swing with the purchase of a long-dormant auto shop site in Church Hill.

The former Duke’s Auto Electric & General Repair property at the corner of East Broad and North 21st streets sold last week to an entity tied to Mark Smith, whose Midas of Richmond franchise is planning its next outpost there.

“I think it’s going to be a homerun market for us,” Smith said Monday.

The nearly half-acre site sold for $1.65 million, the price that Smith and the seller had agreed to when he put it under contract over the summer. The deal with 2018 East Broad LLC, a group of local investors including developer Zac Frederick, closed Nov. 22, according to city property records.

Frederick’s group had been planning an 18-unit infill of for-sale condos and townhomes for the site, but ended up not pursuing the project. It put the property up for sale last year with an asking price of $1.8 million, after buying it six years ago for $925,000.

The three-parcel site, consisting of 2012 and 2018 E. Broad St. and 304 N. 21st St., was assessed by the city this year at nearly $1.18 million combined.

Mark Smith inside the nearly century-old building, which was used as an auto repair garage continuously until it went dormant several years ago.

The sale came about a month after Midas secured approval from Richmond’s Commission of Architectural Review, which granted a certificate of appropriateness for its plan to rehab the building. The century-old structure is in the city’s Shockoe Valley Old and Historic District and operated continuously as an auto repair garage until a few years ago, according to Midas’s CAR application.

Catherine Easterling with consulting firm Sadler & Whitehead handled Midas’s application, which notes that the franchise is seeking state and federal historic rehab tax credits for the project. Smith has said he plans to put as much as $1.5 million into improvements to the property, including new landscaping and a new roof, decking and paint for the building.

Lined up to design the project is architecture firm Baskervill, which also designed the newest Midas space on Arthur Ashe Boulevard. Smith said he has three firms that are vying to be the general contractor. BCLS Landscape Services, out of Ashland, drew up a landscaping plan included in the CAR application.

A landscaping plan shows additional parking and service areas planned for the site at Broad and 21st streets. (City documents)

Smith said he’s aiming to complete the rehab and open the location by July 1, 2024.

Until then, he said the site will be hosting a car loaner program, with loaner cars offered for discounted services on brakes and tires. Smith said he’s also planning to host monthly neighborhood events at the site, which hosted two already over Halloween and Thanksgiving.

“We’ve had a trunk-or-treat there; we had a successful Friendsgiving there. We’re going to have events there every month,” Smith said.

Midas was represented in the purchase by Thalhimer agent Brian Berkey. Lory Markham and Tom Rosman with One South Commercial represented the selling group.