Listings update live from CVRMLS · Profile last reviewed July 2026
Presidential Court occupies the old Dooley Madison mansion at 212 West Franklin Street, just a few blocks east of VCU’s Monroe Park campus and a short walk from the Jefferson Hotel. The building itself is genuinely beautiful. The interiors are a more complicated story, and so is the history — this was a first-wave conversion that came to market at close to the worst possible moment and spent years working its way back to normal. It has gotten there. But a buyer should understand how it got here.
Insider’s view — any red flags?
Walk the specific unit and ignore the building’s reputation in both directions. The spread between the best and worst floor plans here is wider than in any comparable Richmond building, and the price per square foot will not tell you which one you are looking at. Then check current owner-occupancy — this building has carried rental density before, and warrantability is the thing most likely to affect both your financing and your eventual resale.
Red flags: Several. This is a building where the specific unit matters enormously and the building average tells you almost nothing. In any condo that starts out with a high degree of rentals and a low sales velocity, the likelihood of an underfunded (or lightly funded) reserve budget skyrockets. The changes in reserve budget requirements for condos means a lot of condos with underfunded reserve budgets are in danger of losing their warrantability status.
History
The conversion belongs to the first wave of Richmond condo conversions in the 2000s. The developers acquired the old Dooley Madison mansion and renovated it into what was marketed as “The Presidential Court Club” — the original listing copy promised marble baths, granite counters, stainless appliances, birch cabinetry and natural oak floors, and it was not overselling: the finish level was real. The timing was not. Units hit the market in 2007, directly into the credit collapse, and they did not move. The developer’s own listings from that period read like a distress signal — 15% off original list price, $4,000 in closing costs, a full year of condo fees waived, and an extra $1,000 for VCU and MCV students who showed a school ID. That is not a promotion; that is a building trying to get sold. Several units ended up rented instead of sold. That solved a short-term problem and created a longer one: rental density pushed the building against warrantability limits, which restricted the financing available to the next round of buyers and slowed things further. It took years to work through. It did work through — Presidential Court today is a straightforward market-rate for-sale condominium with strong university proximity.
Design & units
This is where the acquisition price shows. The developers paid enough going in that they had to find every sellable square foot the building could yield, and the floor plans reflect the effort. Units range from roughly 350 square feet at the smallest to nearly 1,900 at the largest — an extraordinary spread inside a single building, and the clearest evidence that space was carved wherever it could be found. The mix skews heavily to one-bedrooms, with a meaningful number of two-bedrooms and a handful of larger plans. The practical consequence: unit quality here is not uniform. Some are genuinely excellent — well-proportioned, full of light, taking real advantage of the original architecture. Others are awkward in ways no amount of finish can solve.
Neighborhood
Monroe Ward, on the grandest surviving stretch of West Franklin Street. VCU’s Monroe Park campus is one to two blocks west, the Jefferson Hotel is a short walk, and downtown, the Fan, and the Broad Street corridor are all within easy reach. This is one of the few Richmond addresses where owning a car is genuinely optional, and the proximity to the university is the single most durable thing about the location.
What sets it apart
Very few buildings in this catalog have this much architectural quality and this much variance between units. The upside is that the good units here are legitimately special and priced against a building average that does not reflect them. The work is in telling the difference.
See it in context
Open full 3D view in Google Maps → · Photorealistic 3D Tiles via Google Maps Platform · coords from MLS-median (30 listings).
Available now
2 active · 1 under contract · live from CVRMLS
Type & features
- Height
- Mid Rise
- Parking
- Street
- Amenities
- Elevator · Doorman
Recent sales
| Address | Beds / Baths | Sq Ft | Sold | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 212 W Franklin St Unit#U203 | 1 / 1 | 552 | Mar 2026 | $204,000 |
| 212 W Franklin St Unit#U108 | 1 / 2 | 972 | Feb 2026 | $220,000 |
| 212 W Franklin St Unit#UG06 | 1 / 1 | 466 | Dec 2025 | $143,500 |
| 212 W Franklin St Unit#G3 | 1 / 1 | 795 | Nov 2025 | $199,000 |
| 212 W Franklin St Unit#U102 | 1 / 1 | 1,237 | Oct 2025 | $252,000 |
| 206 W Franklin St | 1 / 2 | 1,264 | Apr 2025 | $314,950 |
| 212 W Franklin St Unit#U206 | 2 / 3 | 1,527 | Oct 2023 | $340,000 |
| 212 W Franklin St Unit#U108 | 1 / 2 | 972 | Sep 2023 | $199,000 |
Frequently asked
Where exactly is Presidential Court?
212 W Franklin, 23220. In the Monroe Ward neighborhood.
When was Presidential Court built?
Presidential Court dates to 1916 (Historic conversion).
How many units are in Presidential Court?
Presidential Court is a 30-unit condominium regime in Monroe Ward.
Is Presidential Court a condo conversion or new construction?
Presidential Court is a historic conversion — an older building adapted into condominiums, dating to 1916.
What are the HOA dues at Presidential Court?
HOA dues at Presidential Court run roughly $275–$550 per month, depending on the unit. Confirm the current figure with the HOA before relying on it.
