Lamplighter Coffee Roasters has made an offer on this property at 205 W. Brookland Park Blvd. (Photo by Tina Eshleman)
If all goes as planned, the next Lamplighter Coffee Roasters café will be on Brookland Park Boulevard, a commercial strip on Richmond’s North Side that has been seeing reinvestment after a long period of decline.
The company operates three other locations in Richmond, but the building at 205 W. Brookland Park Blvd. would be the first property owned by Lamplighter partners Zachary Archibald, Noelle Archibald and Jennifer Rawlings.
“We have an offer in on the building,” Zachary Archibald says, adding that the offer has been accepted. “We’re in the due diligence phase.”
Barring unforeseen obstacles, Lamplighter would take ownership in mid-June. A one-time service station, the building most recently housed a workshop for woodworker Sam Forrest. City property records list the site’s value at $116,000.
Lamplighter’s team is planning a café similar to the Morris Street and Addison Street locations, Archibald says, but with one big addition: They’re working on getting Virginia Department of Agriculture certification to offer a farmstand on one corner of the lot, with produce from purveyors such as Tomten Farm and Whipporwill Farm.
Also in the works is a jobs program in collaboration with Richmond Cycling Corps, a nonprofit with which Lamplighter shared space in Scott’s Addition when operating its Kickstand coffee kiosk — which later expanded next door to become its current Summit Avenue location.
Two entry-level positions with Lamplighter, one in its roastery and one in the Brookland Park Boulevard café, would be reserved for youth who have been through the RCC program, Archibald says.
A warm welcome from neighboring business owner Anthony Tucker of Nomad Deli and Catering Co. helped give Lamplighter’s partners the confidence to move in, Archibald says. "He's such a great ambassador for the neighborhood."
The Archibalds and Rawlings want to adapt their vision to match what the community around Brookland Park Boulevard wants, he says. “It’s important to create a space that's welcoming to people already in the neighborhood,”
