Peter Guyre (left) and Zachary Reid stand at the entrance of what will become the Richmond Art Garage on Brookland Park Boulevard.
A former garage and woodworking shop at 205 W. Brookland Park Blvd. will become a showcase for works by emerging artists, the property’s owner says.
Under the business name Richmond Art Garage, Zachary Reid and his wife, Jennifer, bought the building and adjacent paved lot from developer Charlie Diradour. The sale closed on Thursday, Reid says.
In 2017, Richmond magazine reported plans for a fourth location of Lamplighter Coffee Roasters, but co-owner Noelle Forest Archibald says that the company decided to focus instead on streamlining and refining its existing operations. Diradour’s company, The Diradour LLC, bought the 1964 building and adjacent property in August 2018 for $230,000, according to city property records. He told the Richmond Times-Dispatch soon afterward that it could become a coffee and sandwich shop.
A former news and features reporter for the Richmond Times-Dispatch (where, full disclosure, he and I worked together about 10 years ago), Reid shifted in 2016 to focus on creating his own art. He wrote about that transition in an essay Richmond magazine published in January.
Reid says he has been looking around Richmond for more than two years for a place where he could open an art gallery, but he couldn’t find the right combination of location and price. Then while visiting his brother-in-law, Peter Guyre, who was doing carpentry work at the soon-to-open Ninja Kombucha brewery and storefront on Brookland Park Boulevard, he looked at the empty building diagonally across the street and saw possibilities.
Zachary Reid looks out from one of the interior rooms at what is set to become the Richmond Art Garage.
Reid remembered that Diradour had bought the property and asked him about renting it. After talking for a couple of weeks, Diradour asked if Reid would like to buy the place. He said yes — the price was about $300,000 for the property and a nearby lot — and now he’s mapping out plans to transform the space. With Guyre’s assistance, Reid’s first order of business will be to fill in an opening in the floor and make it level; install a heating, ventilation and air conditioning system; fix the plumbing; and redo the bathroom.
Then he plans to expand a 40-foot shipping container by bringing in two more containers, one of which would be placed above the others, that will become additional gallery, office and studio space. Reid also wants to turn the paved lot into a weekend market and community space where vendors can sell produce and other items.
As for the gallery, scheduled to open next spring, “the focus is going to be on local artists who are early in their career, working their way up, and also people who do art that’s affordable to normal people,” Reid says. There will also be works by some of the artists he’s met on his travels, such as a photographer from Vietnam.
“It’s going to be fun,” Reid says. “On top of it all, there’s this wonderful ability to participate in this neighborhood coming back to life.”
Developed starting in the late 19th century as a streetcar suburb, the Brookland Park area shifted during the 1960s and ‘70s from mostly white to predominantly African American, a trend that began after World War II and accelerated with school desegregation. The community also began a period of economic decline, with fewer owner-occupied homes, more empty storefronts and declining property values.
By 2017, though, it seemed like things were turning around, as Richmond magazine reported in “The Revival of Brookland Park.” That trend has continued with the opening of businesses such as restaurant/music venue Fuzzy Cactus, a florist shop called The Flower Guy Bron, River City Market grocery store, Boho Fit Studio, Alma's RVA craft gallery and Diamonds and Dutch Pet Bath and Spa.
"Hopefully, it will stay a diverse community," Reid says. "This is one of the rare spots that you get black and white people living and working together."
The building at 205 W. Brookland Park Blvd., seen from the front
