RICHMOND, Va. – Deanna Lewis found something in a crumbling Church Hill block that she couldn’t ignore.

Within the derelict exteriors of its seven small row houses, a broken-down general store and a vacant lot, Lewis saw an opportunity.

“I had driven past the block for seven years,” she said. “Although it was vacant, painted multicolor and boarded up, there was just something about it that would turn my head.”

So she bought the entire block.

Lewis paid about $159,000 for the properties between 2511 and 2525 O St. She said the structures – many long vacant and some condemned – were built in the 1870s by James Netherwood. Netherwood was a popular local contractor who built many monuments around Richmond, including the Robert E. Lee statue on Monument Avenue.

Lewis plans to restore the O Street buildings and sell them as single-family homes.

Click here to continue to read about Lewis’ plan on RichmondBizSense.com.