The Historic Renwick Complex, located at 815 Princess Anne Street in downtown Fredericksburg, includes the 19th-century Renwick Courthouse, old jail, Wallace Library, and adjacent green space. The properties are among the city’s most significant historic landmarks.
In 2023, the city formed a Renwick Complex working group that spent six months examining the site’s future. The group established key priorities for staff to advance: continuing critical maintenance, pursuing public-private partnerships to facilitate adaptive reuse, leveraging tools such as historic tax credits and grants, ensuring full preservation of all three buildings, and incorporating a public use or access component. Schwartz emphasized the courthouse’s particular importance.
“The courthouse is the most significant of the three buildings, and within that, the courtroom is the most significant space,” Schwartz said. She added that “some public use or public access should be a component of this site moving forward, given how critically important it is to our community.”
The city has already undertaken substantial maintenance work on the complex. This includes $700,000 in structural repairs to the bell tower completed last year, along with HVAC and heat pump replacements, gutter repairs, and landscape improvements to support ongoing stewardship of the historic structures.
Last fall, the city contracted with consultant MVP, which brings extensive experience with PPEA projects across Virginia. The firm toured the buildings, reviewed the historic structures report, working group notes, and all prior studies. MVP assisted in crafting the solicitation document now under review. The consultant will help evaluate concept proposals, select teams for detailed submissions, and guide the process toward a potential comprehensive agreement.
Schwartz noted the complexity of the site. “We know this is a really challenging site. There’s not a lot of sort of economy of scale in terms of adaptively reusing these buildings. Each one is its own little puzzle,” she explained. The working group provided specific priorities while allowing flexibility for creative proposals from developers.
During the work session, council members inquired about potential renovation costs. Schwartz referenced a rough “vanilla shell” estimate — bringing the buildings to an occupiable state with functional mechanical systems — of approximately $20 million. She noted that exact figures would depend on the proposed uses, with no full consensus reached during earlier pro forma discussions.
The draft solicitation was distributed to the working group for additional feedback before presentation to council. Schwartz indicated the city aims to release the solicitation as soon as next month, with MVP’s assistance in outreach and team-building to attract qualified respondents.
The PPEA process represents the next phase in the city’s long-term approach to preserving and revitalizing the Historic Renwick Complex while seeking private investment to support its future viability. Council expressed interest in the update with no objections noted during the session.
