A new boutique hotel is headed to Richmond’s Fan District

Shenandoah Mansions, a 73-room boutique hotel at 501 N. Allen Ave., is scheduled to open in fall 2024.

The six-story hotel is located just north of the circle on Monument Street where a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee once stood. It is located in the Shenandoah Building, which formerly housed the Greenfield Residences senior living facility.

Shenandoah Mansions comes from New York City-based hotel company Ash, which owns four other boutique hotels including The Ulysses in Baltimore, Maryland, The Peter & Paul in New Orleans, Louisiana, and The Dean in Providence, Rhode Island.

“Like its sister hotels, Shenandoah Mansions will serve as an embassy for the neighborhood, exporting the best of Richmond to the world and bringing the best of the rest of the world to Richmond,” Ari S. Hickman, co-founder and CEO of Ash, said in a statement.

“Our team designed the hotel’s interior to reflect Virginia’s architectural heritage mixed with antique and antique furnishings collected from our travels around the world,” he said.

The hotel will include retail space, a hotel bar and a third location for Ash–Bar, an all-day dining concept and European café.

“Our hope is that this merger will create a second living room for Fan residents, inviting them to join us at Ash–Bar or explore our signature style in the perfect hotel bar. We look forward to welcoming the community next fall,” Hickman said.

The hotelier purchased the six-story, 35,355-square-foot building on 0.45 acres for $3.5 million in 2021.

Shenandoah Mansions is one of the tallest buildings in the neighborhood and will offer sweeping views of the Fan from its rooms and suites. The hotel will maintain its red brick exterior.

The cost of the project had not been revealed at the time of publishing this news.

Shenandoah Mansions isn’t the only boutique hotel in the works in the Fan neighborhood.

Dear John, A 19-room boutique hotel is slated for construction at 1912 W. Cary St., from Brion and Nicole Jesse, owners of Shendigs, the popular cake bakery. This project is expected to be completed in 2025 and is still in the special use permit phase.

Tourism is on the rise in the Richmond area. Visitors to the Richmond area spent nearly $4 billion in 2022, a significant increase from the previous year. Domestic spending rose 21% from the previous year and exceeded pre-pandemic levels.

In July, Richmond International Airport hosted a record 440,000 passengers. Air traffic in Richmond is now exceeding pre-pandemic numbers.

Industry officials said the biggest driver of tourism is visits from family and friends. People come to Richmond because their brothers, sisters, and old classmates live here. These visitors often stay in hotels.

Richmond has seen more boutique hotels added to the landscape in the past few years.

The Moxy, a 100-room Marriott-branded boutique hotel, opened in downtown Richmond last year. The Graduate Hotel, a 205-room hotel, opened on West Franklin Street in downtown Richmond in 2018. The Quirk Hotel, a 75-room hotel from Ted and Katie Ukrop, opened on Broad Street in downtown Richmond in 2015.