The three-story building stands near the intersection of Broad and Adams streets. (Mike Platania photo)
A cloud of sadness hangs over the recent sale of a downtown building, since the group that sold it found out one of their partners passed away just days after the deal closed.
Real Property Management-Richmond Metro and James River Housing Partners last week sold 10-14 W. Broad St. for $2.45 million, city records show.
The 107-year-old building stands three stories tall on the edge of Jackson Ward, with 14 apartments above ground-floor commercial space.
The group had owned the 16,000-square-foot building since 2018, purchasing it for $2 million from locally based Monument Cos., which had redeveloped it using historic tax credits in 2012.
But any celebration of the sale was short-lived as sad news reached RPM’s Ralph Reahard and JRHP co-founder Kevin Bohm a few days after the Nov. 12 closing. Ali Semir, JRHP’s other co-founder, died unexpectedly last week at age 41.
A native of Ethiopia, Semir attended VCU and Georgetown after growing up in New York City.
Semir and Reahard were frequent collaborators, having done numerous deals along Broad Street in recent years. Reahard said they met in 2017 and gradually built a portfolio valued at around $50 million.
Reahard said he was shocked to hear of Semir’s passing and expressed his condolences to Semir’s family.
“I feel a heightened sense of duty, I guess you would say, to provide for his estate and his family and make sure that the active deals we have are managed with care,” Reahard said.
Bohm, who’ll now lead JRHP alone, said he already misses Semir.
“It’s a terrible and tragic loss. He was a charismatic and intelligent investor, and we shared a lot of moments together,” Bohm said.
Reahard said that in the days after Semir’s passing, he’s heard from many members of the local business community.
“I’ve been impressed with the amount of folks that have reached out and expressed support. It’s been nice to see that kind of outreach, it puts everything in perspective,” Reahard said.
“Commercial real estate can be highly competitive and we go toe-to-toe with folks on a lot of different deals. … We fight and quibble, but we’re all human and have stuff going on in our head and at home.”
Semir is survived by his wife and three daughters. Details of his death and related funeral services were not available.
The buyer of the Broad Street building was Praveen Gupta, a local investor who owns about 50 units in various properties throughout the Fan and Arts District.
The city most recently assessed the property at $2.2 million. One South Commercial’s Ryan Rilee and Tom Rosman brokered the deal.
Reahard said that the apartments in the building are more than 95% leased and that the commercial studio has been leased to the same tenant who’s operated multiple businesses there for around 15 years. Photo studio MySelfies is currently in the space.
“We bought (the building) really as an operational arbitrage play to (bring in) some better marketing and better management to try to turn it around,” Reahard said. “Other than some paint and some HVAC here and there, we made no value-add plays.”
Gupta said he’s planning to invest about $50,000 in improvements to the building, including security, flooring and paint. “It’s a few smaller things, nothing huge,” he said of the upgrades.
Gupta said he mostly looks for deals involving multifamily buildings in the neighborhoods around VCU.
“Everything near VCU is doing very well. I’m bullish on what VCU’s been doing there,” Gupta said, referencing the university’s Center for Arts and Innovation under construction at Broad and Belvidere streets.