Clarification
4/8/2017, 7:56 a.m.
Leroy Williams, a trustee of Pilgrim Baptist Church, said the church “is not making any plans” to sell its longtime home at 1900 Whitcomb St.
Mr. Williams said he received calls from members concerned that the church was going to be sold based on the Free Press article in the March 30-April 1 edition about a stalled plan to begin the transformation of the nearby Whitcomb Court public housing community and the adjacent Eastview neighborhood.
“The story did not say the church was for sale,” he said, but some people misunderstood an aerial photo of the area and believed that the church’s property could be part of plans to bring new development to the area.
Richmond city officials and others, though, are eyeing the former city juvenile court and detention complex that sits west of the church across Mecklenburg Street as a potential site for new apartments so the area could follow in the model of Creighton Court on Nine Mile Road.
There, new apartments and homes are in the process of being developed on the site of the former Armstrong High School. Some will be reserved for current residents of Creighton Court, and when they move to the new units, their vacant apartments can be demolished to make way for redevelopment of Creighton Court.
