Four-story building proposed at 823 Caroline Street

A four-story building is proposed for the vacant lot at 823 Caroline Street in downtown Fredericksburg.

The lot is between the buildings that house Bangkok Cafe and Abner B’s Ice Cream. It is one of the few vacant lots along Caroline Street; a building that used to be on the lot was demolished in 1958 to make way for a newly constructed JCPenney department store.

Property owner Jim Nikitakis has been working with architect James McGhee on a building that would be about 25-feet wide and 135-feet deep. The ground floor would include about 3,000 square feet of commercial space, and the second through fourth floors would be residential (five units total are proposed). Parking is proposed in a basement level accessed off Sophia Street. Three stories of the façade would be directly off the Caroline Street sidewalk, and the fourth floor would be set back about 15 feet from the street.

The proposal was before Fredericksburg’s Architectural Review Board on Monday night. The project could later come before Fredericksburg City Council for approval. Here is a rendering: