The historic home of the A.D. Price Funeral Home at 212 E. Leigh St. in Jackson Ward will soon gain more apartments.

City Council has cleared the way for development of a $13 million, five-story apartment building on the former funeral home’s parking lot at 2nd and Leigh streets.

The council on March 14 approved a special use permit authorizing Baker Development to undertake the development for the owner, City & Guilds, that is led by David Gammino.

The new building is to house 63 apartments – 44 one-bedroom and 19 two-bedroom, a clubroom on the top floor, a rooftop deck and 39 parking spaces and storefronts on the ground floor.

A.D. Price was Richmond’s first Black funeral home. Alfred D. Price launched the operation on the site in 1883 and then built a more modern, three-story building in 1902 that fronted Leigh Street.

The Price family continued to own the funeral home into the 1990s. Two attempts to revive the funeral business ultimately failed. The main building was converted into 14 apartments around 2010, and a carriage house on the property, a 1913 replacement for the original funeral home, has since been converted to eight apartments.

The only reminder of the funeral home is a state historic marker remembering A.D. Price, his business and his contributions as a prominent businessman.

Mr. Gammino purchased the property, including the two apartment buildings, in 2020 for around $3 million, and now uses a portion as headquarters for his development and property management firms.

The development will add more housing to a traditionally African-American section of Downtown that has seen significant change in the past two decades, including a dramatic expansion in apartments during the past 10 years.