Midtown Meltdown

Are you looking for an apartment complex to live in next school year? Midtown Apartments, also known as Current Midtown, is centrally located in Williamsburg and within a walkable distance from the College of William and Mary campus. However, just because something is a new-build does not mean there won’t be any problems.

There’s a new landmark on the Williamsburg skyline. Where usually one finds the orange brick of the campus of the College of William and Mary or the muted wooden siding of the storefronts of Colonial Williamsburg on Duke of Gloucester Street, with typical colonial architecture, this new site sports bright pops of colour on vinyl siding, modular design, and a formidable five-story height. There’s no missing the bright green bike lane that runs alongside it or the seemingly evergreen construction in the area.

While undoubtedly a break in the typical aesthetics of the city, the new Midtown Row development is not an accident or an oversight. It represents a concerted effort by the City of Williamsburg and its partners to move the city forward — perhaps in a different direction — and to meet, sometimes imperfectly, new and developing needs that accompany its status as a college town.

“Because I’m a fan of Midtown myself, I would challenge people to think about how [Williamsburg] can’t just be a one-trick pony,” said Caleb Rogers ’20, a Williamsburg City Councilman who was elected in 2020 while still a student at the College. While maintaining Williamsburg’s historical character, he said it was important to continue to look at diversifying the City’s offerings.

“‘We’re making sure to maintain those traditions, but we also need to recognise that growing cities, or any city, including small cities like Williamsburg, need to think about how they can be inviting for different groups of people as well,’ Rogers said.”

“We’re making sure to maintain those traditions, but we also need to recognise that growing cities, or any city, including small cities like Williamsburg, need to think about how they can be inviting for different groups of people as well,” Rogers said. “And that’s things like restaurants, and retail, and mixed-use, and housing that is more affordable for someone who might appreciate an apartment-style rather than a $1.2 million home along Indian Springs [Road]. That’s where we have to diversify, and that’s what Midtown Row does well.”

The Midtown area of Williamsburg was targeted by the City’s 2017-2018 Goals, Initiatives, and Outcomes policy plan. The existing development, formerly known as the Williamsburg Shopping Centre, was more than half-a-century old, and it was not always able to maintain tenants due to a lack of foot traffic so far removed from residences, tourist attractions, and the College’s campus. However, it also housed Williamsburg standards like Sal’s by Victor, a well-known Italian restaurant.

Broad Street Realty, a developer based in Maryland, bought the property in January 2017, and began the process of approval and negotiation with city officials for the realisation of Midtown Row. Among more than a dozen properties in the Broad Street portfolio, it is the only one that is “mixed-use,” meaning zoned for both residences and commercial space. Recently finished, the area is home to four new buildings with four floors of residential apartments for an occupancy of over 600, as well as commercial space on the ground floor. The complex also boasts a common green space, a club house, a pool, and fitness facilities.

The hope is that placing residents among commercial space will act as an anchor for new businesses located in the development. Matt Sileno is the founder and owner of Matchsticks BBQ, and the future occupant of his first brick-and-mortar location in the newly- renovated, original Williamsburg Shopping Centre, now also owned and managed by Broad Street.

While his opening was delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic — he signed his lease on the space three weeks before the original shutdown in March 2020 — Sileno plans to finally open his doors by the end of the year.

“They only had the virtual plans for the buildings behind me, they weren’t even breaking ground for those yet,” Sileno said, describing his meeting with Broad Street that sold him on his Midtown Row location.

“I watched the virtual tour and I thought, ‘Wow, I’ve got an even better location. I’ve got one of the most popular restaurants in the City [Sal’s by Victor] two doors down, I’ve got the Food Lion, the Marshalls, there’ll be so much foot traffic.’ And then when they showed me all that development behind me, I said, ‘Wow, that’s an even bigger plus,’” he recalled.

Aras Holden, the Vice President of Acquisitions and Development at Broad Street, described the process of working with the City on this mixed-use commercial and residential space as “a pleasure,” noting that their visions almost entirely aligned throughout the process.

“I know that [the] architecture [of Midtown Row] is a frequent conversation,” he said in a phone interview on the subject of the unique aesthetics of the development relative to the rest of the City. “The original conceptual design had nods to colonial architecture.”

However, the Williamsburg Architectural Review Board, which approves most of the visual design of properties in Williamsburg, Holden recounts, “wanted the modern architecture in this part of Williamsburg.”

As a mixed-use development, the City and developers hope Midtown Row will fill several needs in the City, including providing affordable housing, especially for students at the College. This became more apparent as the Williamsburg City Council once again debated the issue of whether to continue issuing exceptions to a rule that limits the number of people able to rent single-family homes in the City, which particularly affects student renters.

In a March 11th 2021 council meeting, Councilman Edward “Ted” Maslin described the “relief that [the Midtown Row] apartments and the revised dorm policy may provide to our neighbours,” referencing the College’s requirement that both Freshman and Sophomore students live on-campus (as opposed to the previous rule, in place prior to the matriculation of the Class of 2023, which required only Freshmen to live in dorms).

Both of these new developments are, in part, designed to take pressure off of the Williamsburg rental and housing markets, especially as it relates to student tenants living in residential neighbourhoods around the College.

Councilwoman Barbara Ramsey also pointed to Midtown Row apartments, or Current Midtown, as an option for student renters in theAugust 12th 2021 council meeting. She responded to concerns brought to the council by students supportive of the four-person exemption that the apartments, in a new building with lots of amenities, were not truly affordable in the way that rooms in residential homes had proven to be.

“For a person in a four-bedroom, four-bath [at Current Midtown], the cost of that room is $860,” she said. “I think people have to remember that that includes all of the utilities, including internet, it’s furnished, each person has a bath, each person has a washer and dryer, and they are new, and so supposedly everything will be working in those units compared to so many of the old houses in the other neighbourhoods.”

Some student residents of Current Midtown, however, complain that their units are not as functional as the Councilwoman hoped in her statement at the council meeting.

Natalie Goldstein ’23 was originally attracted to the high-end amenities of Midtown Row and its proximity to campus when she and her roommate began their search for off-campus accommodations in 2019.

“I look around my apartment and there’s missing lights in the ceiling, there’s missing furniture, missing trim, construction’s not done.”

While she enjoys living there, she says it does come with its fair share of faults. She recalls that when she moved into her apartment in the fall of 2021, the lobby of her building was visibly unfinished. Emron Ahmadzai ’23 said his move-in was delayed two weeks because construction on his apartment wasn’t finished. He was compensated with a free month of rent.

“The first day I was allowed to move in, I get here and there’s dust everywhere,” he said. “I look around my apartment and there’s missing lights in the ceiling, there’s missing furniture, missing trim, construction’s not done.”

As of our interview on October 27th 2021, none of those problems had been fully resolved, despite maintenance requests to the building administration.

“It definitely shows that it was quickly put in and renovated just by the way that it looks,” Goldstein said. “You can tell by the crack that is already in my ceiling that it’s terrible construction.”

Ahmadzai detailed flooding in his apartment caused by the improper construction of his balcony.

“Our balcony is angled towards the door,” he said. “So any time it rains a lot, we get a big leak into our apartment. I contacted maintenance, and they were like ‘Yeah, just put a towel on it. There’s nothing we can do.’”

Both residents expressed particular concern about the appliances in their apartments; their in-unit washing machines and dryers have been broken for several months, and Ahmadzai’s refrigerator beeped erratically for weeks.

“‘Our balcony is angled towards the door,’ he said. ‘So any time it rains a lot, we get a big leak into our apartment. I contacted maintenance, and they were like “Yeah, just put a towel on it. There’s nothing we can do.”’”

They were given vouchers for the laundromat across the street on Monticello Avenue to do their laundry.

According to them, staff at the apartments repeatedly passed the buck, leaving problems unresolved.

“It hasn’t been what my expectations would have led me to believe,” he said of his time at Current Midtown.

Holden responded to these claims by pointing to the frustrations of supply chain issues and lingering COVID-19 delays.

Yet, Ahmadzai said the amenities, like the pool and gym, are very nice, and the ability to negotiate over rent when conditions aren’t as promised will keep him living at Midtown over a move back to campus, despite the challenges.

A key aspect of the promise of Midtown Row are the events and sense of place and community that the City and Broad Street want to develop.

For Sileno of Matchsticks BBQ, Midtown Row’s dedication to the community was clear when they let him park his food truck in the parking lot during the early months of the pandemic to distribute free lunches to kids with the non-profit he and his ex- wife founded, The Lunchbox Program.

“We asked [Midtown Row], and they said, ‘absolutely,’” Sileno recalled. Every Thursday, Matchsticks BBQ offered around 85 free lunches to local schoolchildren, who, while waiting in the parking lot, became friends. “

It became like we were all just hanging out, like a family reunion every Thursday,” he said.

He also plans to keep his food truck busy with events like a concert series planned for the green space in the complex.

Events, like a taco night and Matchsticks’ Grand Opening in October, have already gotten underway, perhaps with limited support from the student residents.

“For me, personally, I don’t really care much about [the community events],” Emron said. “I just want a decent place to live that’s relatively cheap.”

“Me and my roommate don’t really go to the events because we know it’s not a fully college apartment complex,” Goldstein said. “It’s families too, so you can go, but it’s not really something people hang around.”

Holden underlined engagement with students as a place for potential growth at Midtown. “We want to create a gathering place, places that are inviting,” he said.

Midtown Row has reached out to the College, engaging in discussions with the newly-opened Institute for Integrative Conservation (IIC) about potentially designing a mural, in collaboration with the Williamsburg Public Art Council, that would be environmentally-focused.

“Midtown Row shares our vision of adding value to the Williamsburg community and of cultivating community,” said Erica Garroutte, a programme manager at the IIC. “It was very clear that together, we can do more than we could do alone.”

“In general, the IIC is very excited about exploring opportunities to work with Midtown Row on other community engagement opportunities,” she said. “We’re just scratching the surface.”

While the residential spaces at Midtown Row are fully leased for the 2021-2022 academic year, most of the newly-built commercial spaces on the first floor remain empty, but Holden expects that to change.

“COVID-19 provided a speed bump, but things will continue to improve,” he said.

For Rogers, Midtown Row represents what he calls “smart growth” in Williamsburg.

“‘Midtown Row shares our vision of adding value to the Williamsburg community and of cultivating community,’ said Eria Garroutte, a programme manager at the IIC. ‘It was very clear that together, we can do more than we could do alone.’”

“We’re not putting skyscrapers up,” he said. “We want a managed increase of people in a certain area— [Midtown] being literally the geographic centre of the City— so that we can bring in more businesses and more people, which certainly leads to more revenue for the City, but it also means that Williamsburg is a more vivacious town.”