Richmond City Council approves Diamond District

MLB must still OK 1-year delay for new stadium

Published May 8, 2023 by Kate Andrews

Richmond City Council members voted unanimously Monday to approve the $2.44 billion Diamond District mixed-use development, which aims to include a replacement for the 38-year-old stadium of the Double-A Richmond Flying Squirrels baseball team by the end of 2025. Councilors also approved an ordinance to convey 61 acres of city-owned land to the Richmond Economic Development Authority, which will then sell it to the Diamond District development team.

“We’re about to see a major development that is going to radically transform not just one portion of the city, but it’s going to impact the entire city,” Council President Michael Jones said before the vote Monday night. “I’m excited about that. Who can’t get behind baseball? But it’s not that I’m just behind athletics. I’m behind jobs. I want to see men and women from around the city working. I want to see our young people — North Side, South Side, wherever — learning trades. … I’m excited about what the future holds for the city and where we are headed.”

Monday’s vote gives the RVA Diamond Partners LLC development team the city’s go-ahead to move forward on the project, which includes building a 9,000-capacity, $90 million-plus baseball stadium and a hotel with at least 180 rooms in Phase 1, which is expected to cost a total of $627.6 million.

However, one more significant stakeholder must weigh in: the Flying Squirrels and Major League Baseball, which set an April 2025 deadline for all Minor League Baseball facilities to meet certain standards. The Diamond, which opened in 1985, is considered too old to renovate and must be replaced. The Diamond District plan calls for the demolition of the smaller Sports Backers Stadium next to the Diamond, where the replacement Squirrels ballpark will be constructed. The city will pay an estimated $25 million for a new Sports Backers Stadium in partnership with Virginia Commonwealth University, which will include the new stadium in its Athletic Village project adjacent to the Diamond District.

Included in the development agreement is a set of deadlines for the design, demolition, groundbreaking and completion of the new stadium:

• Schematic design: May-August 2023
• Design development: August-December 2023
• General contractor design budgeting, bidding and materials procurement: August 2023
• Construction documents: November 2023-June 2024
• Demolition of Sports Backers Stadium, mass grading, environmental remediation: February-April 2024
• Groundbreaking for new stadium: April 2024
• Ballpark construction: August 2024-December 2025

The stadium is expected to cost at least $90 million, and the city is anticipating $118 million in financing for the stadium’s construction.

The agreement sets $80 million as the minimum Community Development Authority (CDA) bond proceeds for the construction of the baseball stadium and public infrastructure, and the city will fund the first phase’s infrastructure with $23 million in Capital Improvement Plan General Obligation bonds, according to a PowerPoint presentation made available earlier this month.

The city also will add additional land parcels to the Incremental Financing Area, beyond the 67-acre Diamond District, to help fund the project, and $10 million in property sales will help reduce the stadium bond debt. The city agrees to pay incremental tax revenue for nine fiscal years, including a hotel use surcharge of 2% within the district and a 0.25% consumer purchase surcharge on all purchases within the CDA district.

The project also will include more than 3,000 rental and for-sale residential units, 935,000 square feet of office space, 195,000 square feet of retail and community space, and two hotels.

The city also must rezone the 67-acre Diamond District and create the Stadium Signage Overlay District, create a Community Development Authority and design standards, and reach lease agreements with the Flying Squirrels and Virginia Commonwealth University. The developer must also submit the subdivision of the land to Richmond City Council to create the new Diamond District.

RVA Diamond Partners includes Richmond-based Thalhimer Realty Partners, Washington, D.C.-based Republic Properties Corp., Chicago-based Loop Capital Holdings LLC and San Diego venue developer JMI Sports.

Rufus Williams, managing director of LoopWealth, a division of Loop Capital, said Monday that the team of developers is “excited about this project … and look forward to working with our partners and members of the city to make this happen. It has been quite a process getting to now.”

“Tonight, with the City Council’s approval of the Diamond District Partners agreement, we are one step closer to putting shovels in the ground and delivering a critical development project for the city and people of Richmond,” Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney said in a statement Monday night. “This game-changer development will bring a high-quality baseball stadium, good-paying jobs, affordable housing, new small businesses, billions in investment, and green space.”

Several council members and others involved in the Diamond District process acknowledged Richmond’s long baseball stadium conversation. In 2008, the Richmond Braves Triple-A team left for the Atlanta area in part over the aging stadium, and the Squirrels, which moved to Richmond in 2009, expected to be at a new downtown stadium by 2012, but the plan failed. Most recently, the city was forced to move forward on a new stadium or lose the team, with MLB stadium standards set to be enforced in 2025.

In a statement Monday, Lou DiBella, president and managing partner of the Richmond Flying Squirrels, said, “City Council approval of the development agreement for the Diamond District is a big step in the continued revitalization of Richmond, one that the Squirrels are happy to be a part of. We look forward to continued momentum with respect to the design and construction of our long-awaited home.”

DiBella had expressed concern in April over the delay of firm plans for the stadium and surrounding development. “This is not about your Flying Squirrels wanting a new ballpark,” DiBella said in a statement April 11. “If there isn’t a stadium built that meets prescribed MLB guidelines, is suitable for professional baseball, and is worthy of the great City of Richmond, there will be no Opening Day 2026 in RVA.”

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