Two square miles of undeveloped land just south of town, Biscuit Run, have been bought by Hunter Craig for an astounding $46.2M.

The land will be turned into a development named “Fox Ridge.”

It will include somewhere between 900 and 5,000 residences, which would bring about a significant increase in the Albemarle County population.

More than six months after being put up for private auction, the 1,353 acres known as Biscuit Run and Forest Lodge had sold for $46.2 million.

The sprawling parcel, which lies just a few miles south of the Charlottesville city limits on Old Lynchburg Road, was sold to Forest Lodge LLC, fronted by developer, builder and bank president Hunter E. Craig.

The developer plans to turn most of the property into a mixed-use, high-density development called Fox Ridge.

The huge, wooded parcel was sold to settle the estate of I.J. Breeden, a Northern Virginia developer who purchased the property more than 30 years ago.

David Breeden, a sculptor whose family will retain a chunk of the original property and continue to live it, said his father knew the land's value when he first spied it while "down on maneuvers" during World War I.

"He saw the only real open land was south of town," Breeden said of his father.

I.J. Breeden originally paid about $800 an acre for the property, David Breeden said.

While the property is zoned a mixture of Rural Area, Residential R-1 and the potentially denser Residential R-2, a request by Forest Lodge LLC has been filed with Albemarle County to rezone a significant chunk to Neighborhood Model District.

That rezoning of 870 acres would allow for 2,500 to 4,970 residential units on the property.

The existing zoning allows for about 900 development rights.

But I believe it will be more like 3100.

If rezoned, the Fox Ridge project would also be able to accommodate a variety of commercial uses.

The proposed project also includes areas for office space and a school, according to Claudette Grant, an Albemarle County senior planner.

In addition to frontage on Old Lynchburg Road, the property abuts Route 20 and the residential community of Mill Creek South.

The proposed Fox Ridge project includes a connector road between Old Lynchburg and Route 20.

A few extra thousand residential units coming on to the marketplace would help to battle some of the area's "affordability issues," according to Dave Phillips, CEO of the Charlottesville Area Association of Realtors.

"Adding more supply would bring us back to a more normal marketplace," Phillips said.

The application for rezoning will move on to a work session with the Albemarle County Planning Commission, likely in February, Grant said.

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