Overhaul of Diamond is last plan standing

By Will Jones

Published: June 24, 2009 on timesdispatch.com, with original article HERE.

A plan for baseball in Shockoe Bottom has struck out again. With the Shockoe Center dead, a proposal to transform The Diamond and bring baseball back to Richmond is now the only game in town.

Developers of the proposed Shockoe Center project announced yesterday that they’re walking away from the project, as well as a proposal for development along the Boulevard.

“We have carried these projects as far as our collaborative team can under the present circumstances,” the group led by Highwoods Properties said in a statement.

The developers lamented that their efforts to revitalize Shockoe Bottom and the Boulevard with about $800 million of development were “overshadowed by debate over the ballpark.”

The collapse of Shockoe Center leaves Opening Day Partners’ $28 million plan to overhaul The Diamond as the only publicly released plan for a ballpark in Richmond.

On Shockoe Center’s demise, the Highwoods developers added that the “good faith” but ultimately unsuccessful effort by a group of local investors to buy a baseball team had “fundamentally altered the way minor-league baseball will now return to Richmond. The city will need to negotiate directly with any new team owner on such issues as location, timing and financing of a new ballpark.”

Minor League Baseball and the Eastern League are in the process of identifying a franchise to relocate to Richmond with current or new ownership. An Aug. 1 deadline to clarify those issues is in effect.

In a statement yesterday, Mayor Dwight C. Jones praised the Shockoe Center developers for their vision, and he underscored their conclusion that ballpark financing “is just not possible in today’s revenue bond market.”

“At this time, the situation affords us an avenue to fully re-engage our regional partners in the discussion of the direction we, as a region, wish to move in,” Jones said. “We know there is excitement about Richmond as a baseball town and we have a commitment from the Eastern League that there will be a team on the ground in The Diamond next spring.

“What we must do now is to determine what our long-term solution will be and the best way to go about accomplishing that goal.”

The $318 million Shockoe Center project was announced last October after then-Mayor L. Douglas Wilder selected Highwoods Properties as the master developer for city property in Shockoe Bottom and on the Boulevard following a request for proposals. Wilder had nixed another private proposal for baseball in Shockoe Bottom earlier in his term.

Jones took office in January and proceeded cautiously on Shockoe Center, initially persuading the developers to push back a deadline for preliminary city approval from March 1 to Aug. 1.

The idea of baseball in the Bottom had its supporters as well as its critics, many of whom argued that Richmond’s plans for baseball should focus on refurbishing or replacing The Diamond, the longtime home of the Richmond Braves’ home on the Boulevard.

In March, the Jones administration hired consultants to review the financial viability of Shockoe Center, specifically its plan to finance the $60 million ballpark without city backing using tax revenues generated by restaurants, residences and other new private development around it.

However, the consultants, led by Davenport & Co., concluded that the project would be “highly feasible” with city credit support and “highly unlikely” to be financed otherwise.

In yesterday’s statement, the developers said the study “validated our fundamental premise” for ballpark financing and acknowledged that the plan “is not possible in today’s revenue bond market.” The developers emphasized that they had never intended to pursue financing in the current market.

“We are convinced, however, that the coming economic recovery would allow revenue bonds to be sold without the city’s general obligation backing, possibly as early as next year,” the statement said. “We have always maintained that the city’s debt capacity should be used for public projects like schools, streets and a new jail, and not for a new ballpark.”

Last month, Jones called on the Shockoe Center developers and other groups to resolve differences between their plans for Shockoe Bottom. Those projects also include high-speed rail, the city’s slave trail and a bus-transfer center in the train shed at Main Street Station.

In their statement, the Shockoe Center developers said they had reached a preliminary agreement allowing their project and the bus transfer center to co-exist. They also noted that they had dropped Shockoe Center’s $90 million third phase to accommodate the slave-trail project and related activities to commemorate the area’s importance in black history.

“We believe heritage is compatible with baseball, high-speed rail and some level of bus transit,” the Shockoe Center developers said. “However, all of these issues require further research, and important decisions must be made by all stakeholders before the private sector can be truly effective in the process.”

- Will Jones