Construction crews noticed at Hadad’s Lake, although swimming gap’s future is unclear

Heavy building tools was on-site at Hadad’s Lake earlier this month. (Mike Platania pictures)

Dirt is shifting at Hadad’s Lake, the longtime Varina swimming gap, regardless of its new proprietor’s intentions and identification being unclear. 

The 36-acre former water park and venue at 7900 Osborne Turnpike bought this summer season for simply over $1 million, and in current weeks building tools has been on-site, clearing some smaller buildings like gazebos and the rope swing that fed into the location’s signature natural-bottom pool, which appears to be like to have been drained. The largest constructing on the property, a 5,400-square-foot banquet corridor, nonetheless stands. 

O.P. Holdings LLC, an entity tied to Juan Wilson, purchased the 2 parcels that make up the vast majority of Hadad’s Lake in a pair of offers in June and July for $1.06 million, Henrico County data present. The sale value was about $10,000 larger than the properties’ most up-to-date assessed worth of $1.05 million.

It’s unclear what’s in retailer for the property. No plans or permits have been filed with the county for the property lately, and Wilson has not responded to a number of requests for remark despatched via his lawyer, John Griffin, and his actual property agent, Scott McClaine of Lifelong Realty.

The Hadad household purchased the land within the Nineteen Sixties and initially ran it as Hadad’s Palisades earlier than later renaming it Hadad’s Lake. 

The gazebos and rope-swing at Hadad’s Lake have since been razed.

The water park was open to the general public every summer season via 2023, providing the pool, diving boards, volleyball courts, the aforementioned rope swing and extra. 

Hadad’s Lake additionally hosted its share of offbeat occasions all through the years, resembling after-parties for reveals on the Richmond Coliseum within the Nineteen Seventies to the Best Friends Day music competition within the 2000s. The pool can also be the place a Viking funeral was held in 2014 for Oderus Urungus, the onstage persona of GWAR’s late entrance man Dave Brockie. 

The Hadad household initially listed the majority of the property on the market in 2023 however didn’t discover a purchaser. The bigger, 30-acre parcel at 1140 Mill Road was bought in a foreclosures public sale in 2024 for $261,000 to Fauzia Shafik of Fairfax, who has since bought to O.P. Holdings. 

This yr the Hadads put the remainder of the property up for public sale, not in a compelled sale, however no bids got here in. Shortly after that they put the property in the marketplace for a conventional sale.  

The household held onto a 2.5-acre parcel at 1150 Mill Road. 

Print Article