Richmond BizSense reported on 14 September 2026 that T-Force Freight has filed a City of Richmond permit to demolish its former headquarters at 1000 Semmes Ave. The reporting is by Mike Platania, who covers commercial real estate for BizSense, and the facts below are his. We are aggregating someone else’s work, so we credit it up top rather than at the bottom.
A nine-story building is coming down, the parking deck with it, leaving about eight acres of transit-zoned land in the middle of Manchester. Nothing residential has been filed. The gap between “cleared land” and “new condos” is where owners nearby should be paying attention.
What the permit covers
Per BizSense, the permit filed last week calls for all existing structures on the property to come down, including the nine-story, 226,000-square-foot office built in the 1970s as the local headquarters for Overnite Transportation, later UPS Freight. The onsite parking deck is slated to be razed too.
TFI International, the Montreal trucking company that acquired UPS Freight in 2021 and rebranded it TForce, listed the building in 2022 and has now hired demolition firm S.B. Cox. Platania reports TFI appears to still be marketing the property through its in-house team, and that TFI spokesperson Julie Coutu declined to comment.
Bruce Milam of Bruce Commercial Realty, a veteran broker not involved in the listing, told BizSense the building may have systems and layout problems that make residential conversion impractical, and that it could be cheaper to demolish than convert. He also found it curious the deck is not being kept. That is a broker’s read, not TFI’s stated reason.
Say it plainly: a demolition permit is not an approved redevelopment, a site plan or a housing project.
Eight acres, up to 13 stories, and for-sale supply
The offering is not just the office. It includes three whole adjacent city blocks, roughly eight acres in total, which BizSense describes as among the largest available parcels in Manchester in recent years. No sale has materialised in four years on the market.
Zoning is the part that matters for housing. TFI had the site rezoned in 2023 to TOD-1, Transit-Oriented Nodal, allowing mixed uses and up to about a dozen stories. Under the city’s proposed new zoning it would be MX-13, allowing up to 13. You can check any parcel’s current district through the City of Richmond’s Zoning Administration office, and the rewrite grows out of Richmond 300, the adopted master plan.
Zoning sets a ceiling, not a plan. Eight contiguous acres at that height is enough capacity to change what is for sale south of the river. It is equally possible the land sits fenced for years. Both fit the only thing filed so far.
One assumption worth correcting: “transit-oriented” in the label does not mean the Pulse stops there. GRTC’s bus rapid transit line runs between Willow Lawn and Rockett’s Landing, not along Semmes Avenue, though GRTC’s system map does show local bus stops on Semmes.
If you already own a Manchester condo or townhome
Through demolition. Truck traffic on Semmes, dust control and street closures. That is a showing-day problem if you list in the next year, not a value problem.
The cleared-lot stretch. Empty acreage is not a selling point, but it is not new competition either. Large Manchester sites have moved slowly.
Whenever something gets built. This is the horizon that touches resale. New for-sale product competes with an existing unit on finish, layout, parking and monthly fee, not price alone. A 13-story building also changes light and views for specific addresses, which is a per-unit question. Owning on a block facing the site is a different conversation from owning six blocks toward Forest Hill.
Want to watch the block rather than read about it? We will set up a saved search for Manchester so new listings, price changes and closed sales near Semmes Avenue arrive automatically. Ask us to set one up, or browse the full listing search yourself first.
How to read a big site three blocks from your door
Separate permits from approvals. Demolition and land-disturbance permits say something is being cleared. A rezoning case, site plan or special use permit says something is being built.
Read zoning as a ceiling. MX-13 allowing 13 stories does not mean 13 stories. It means nobody has to ask permission for them.
Check comparable sites. The Diamond District litigation shows how long large public-private sites take; the August assemblage sale in Goochland shows how quietly big land trades close.
Ask what changes on your block. Views, light and traffic routing are address-specific. Neighborhood-level commentary, ours included, cannot answer them.
More of these sit in our Richmond area news archive. The City of Richmond hub and the Shockoe Bottom page cover two other districts living beside sites in flux.
Market data: Richmond City, July 2026
Central Virginia Regional MLS, via the Richmond Association of REALTORS. Single-family, current as of 10 August 2026.
| Measure | Richmond City, July 2026 | vs July 2025 |
|---|---|---|
| Closed sales | 218 | +6.9% |
| Median sales price | $450,000 | -3.4% |
| Days on market | 17 | -5.6% |
| Months of supply | 1.5 | -16.7% |
| Median price per square foot | [DATA NEEDED: median price per square foot, July 2026, by area] | |
City-wide single-family figures. Not Manchester figures, and not to be read as a Manchester median.
Questions about the Semmes Avenue site
Has anyone filed a plan to build housing at 1000 Semmes Ave?
No. As of 14 September 2026 the only filing BizSense reports is a demolition permit covering all structures and the parking deck. No rezoning case, site plan or residential application has been filed.
How is the proposed MX-13 district different from TOD-1?
TOD-1, the district applied in 2023, allows mixed uses up to roughly a dozen stories. MX-13 under the proposed rewrite allows similar uses and up to 13 stories. For a neighbour the practical difference is one extra story of by-right height, not a change in permitted uses.
Does the GRTC Pulse run on Semmes Avenue?
No. The Pulse runs between Willow Lawn and Rockett’s Landing. GRTC’s system map does show local bus stops along Semmes Avenue, so the corridor has bus service, but it is not on the Pulse route.
What is happening at 901 Semmes Ave?
A separate property. CoStar Group bought the 117,000-square-foot former SunTrust office there in 2022 and listed it for lease after moving into its downtown tower. It is not part of the TFI offering.
Does TFI control the entire assemblage?
No. Erik and Lacey Colley bought a roughly 1,200-square-foot single-family house on a 0.1-acre lot at 1006 McDonough St in 2022, inside the acreage TFI controls. They told BizSense they have been renting it and are open to discussions about selling, but have not been approached recently.
Will a cleared site nearby lower my Manchester condo’s value?
No published data isolates that effect, and anyone quoting a percentage is guessing. What is measurable: Richmond City carried 1.5 months of supply in July 2026 at a $450,000 single-family median. Competing supply only exists once units are actually built and delivered.
If you want that Manchester saved search set up, tell us and it will be running the same day.
