Richmond Magazine is reporting that Executive Chef Roger Murphy is leaving his 10 year post with Old Original Bookbinder’s to work with the Boathouse at Rocketts Landing. Bookbinder’s new Executive Chef is Matthew Tlusty.

“It was a big decision for me to leave there to go to the Boathouse, but I just feel that we’re going to make it the best restaurant in Richmond,” says Murphy… “It’s very weird that the James River is one of the most beautiful rivers in America, and there are no restaurants on the river.”

Just in case you can’t wait till tomorrow, check out the Boathouse’s menu.

Photos of the almost-ready Boathouse at Rocketts Landing went online today. The sister location to The Boathouse at Sunday Park in Midlothian, the Boathouse at Rocketts Landing is set to open next Friday, August 14.

According to the RTD, Zuppa is planning to move from its current location in Shockoe Bottom to Rocketts Landing.

Business is picking up at Rocketts Landing, with the addition of a popular Shockoe Bottom restaurant and a commercial developer opening new office at the development straddling the city boundary with eastern Henrico County. [via]

The Rocketts Landing Captain’s Blog has a neat aerial photo of the ongoing development by Tom Stiles’ Sky Shots.

The Rocketts Landing development project is of particular interest to Stiles because of its size and location. “It’s nice to see a new development in the old, industrial landscape that surrounds Richmond,” he said. “Unlike other job sites which usually have only one square building, Rocketts Landing is made up of numerous buildings all set against a backdrop of the James River which depending on the weather changes color.”

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The Virginia Boat Club & VCU Crew Club will host Richmond’s first and only collegiate regatta. Teams participating in this event include Virginia Commonwealth University, University of Richmond, George Mason University, North Carolina State University and University of Maryland at Baltimore County.

The event will take place on March 29th from 9:00- 2:00 at Rocketts Landing.  

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The folks at Rocketts Landing have been hard at work getting Richmond’s only private marina ready for the 2009 boating season. The marina’s first stage includes 40 slips that span the first phase of Rocketts’ waterfront and accommodate boats up to 45 feet in length. Slips are currently available for lease and are scheduled to open in April.

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As previously mentioned, the River District expects two new restaurants in 2009. Style Weekly has the story:

The Boathouse at Rocketts Landing: It could be summer or fall for the first restaurant in the neighborhood east of downtown. Wood-fired pizzas, drinks on the deck, river views from two levels and tented event space on the James will juice things up, and owner Kevin Healy is ready to build a successful run in Brandermill with a similar formula.

Croaker’s Spot South: Manchester will eat this up: fresh fish and southern sides, major experience and a hot urban sibling. The project in the residential Old Manchester Plaza Building heads toward a winter opening.

The Rocketts Landing blog has some some details about what’s next:

… the next phase of construction at Rocketts will bring a handful of upscale townhomes to the banks of the James River. I’d very much like to say they’re a stones-throw from the water. I’m confident I can easily throw a stone from where construction will begin into the water of the James. But enough about stones. [...] The homes will range in size between 3,240 square feet to almost 5,000 square feet. Prices range from $1 million to $1.6 million.

The RTD has a look at the next phase for Rocketts Landing, “to build five swank riverbank town houses”:

The development’s next phase — the Riverbank Terraces — is designed to reflect the elegant architecture along Monument Avenue, said Marti Cooke, the project’s director of sales and marketing. [...] The town homes, ranging from 3,240 square feet to 4,495 square feet, will be listed for $1 million to $1.6 million. The facade will be limestone with touches of black wrought iron and very high-end finishes, Cooke said. Construction is scheduled to start in early 2009 with completion by midyear.

The Rocketts landing Captain’s Blog says that the Power Plant building, the first building at Rocketts to be entirely commercial, “could be substantially completed by September” and that “the developers are in talks with restaurants to take some of the space”.

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The Rocketts Landing Captain’s Blog has put together a slide show of the May 10 Capital to Capital ride.

From the New York Times’ recently opened archive comes an account of flooding in Rockett’s, Shockoe, and Manchester before the turn of the last century:

The rush of the increased volume of water and ice from the upper James River [...] has resulted in in one of the heaviest floods ever known here. The wharves at Rockett’s, the landing place for steamers, and the streets for blocks around are under water, and the Virginia Navigation Company’s wharf has been swept away.

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The folks behind Rocketts Landing recently launched a community/development blog for the community/project called The Captain’s Blog featuring “the latest news and commentary about Rocketts Landing and the evolution of Richmond’s East End waterfront”.

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