The Boulevard is still a mistake. Keep an eye out for other news…

I’d rather see the City wait and see how these plans might ultimately be able to work together.

I think we can all agree that high speed rail at the Main Street Station opens the door for a wealth of economic opportunity, increase in real estate value, and increased opportunities for business and develpoment in the Shockoe Bottom area. What an opportunity for Richmond residents when it comes to job hunting!

How exciting to be able to live in Richmond and work in Washington DC and have a reasonable commute! What an incredible option for Richmond!

WITHOUT A DOUBT, high speed rail must be in close proximity to a city bus hub, so that all citizens of Richmond and surrounding areas benefit from the significant federal and state investment that will be required for high speed rail to become a reality.

Lets get our priorities straight here – no development in Shockoe Bottom should proceed if it is not entirely clear that it will be compatible with a major transporation hub at the Main Street Station.

So don’t get distracted by the failure of this one proposal. If high speed rail and a major bus hub come to Main Street Station, developers will be flocking to the Bottom providing us multiple opportunities to give feedback on how the current eyesore of a concrete expanse should best be utilized.

The EL president has made numerous proclamations that an EL team would play in Richmond next season, regardless of whether or not one is purchased by Bostic. Another article in the RTD said that the CURRENT owner of the Defenders was considering transferring the team to Richmond because the Norwich market is incapable of supporting a full season of minor league baseball (due to its limited population, cold weather, and regional competition).

Also, I agree with everyone who is upset that this plan to revitalize the Bottom failed. I also think that putting the counties on the line for the Diamond refurbishing is DUMB. This brings people away from the counties and generates tax dollars for the city. The only thing that would make this logical is if the city repaid the counties WITH INTEREST to essentially redistribute the taxes earned by the city until the counties’ money is repaid.

sprestonduncan, your response borders on inappropriate.

I don’t have a dog in this hunt, but I have a number of friends in Old Town Alexandria and I think it’s safe to say that Old Town Alexandria would not be the charming place it is today if the citizens had not opened their wallets to build that posh Triple A ballpark down by the Federal Court.
Yessir, the crack of the bat made Old Town what it is today, no question about that.

Sort of like the $50 million we spent on the train station that no one rides?

I think it is the same people.

I’m no traditionalist and certainly want to live in a more progressive Richmond, but some people seem to have bought into a developers lie, and actually believe that the future of downtown RVA was reliant upon a now defunct plan.

I’ve got a great idea. Let’s invest in THE COMMUNITY! Imagine that! independent businesses receiving aid instead of another large scale investment debacle. What the hell is wrong with you people? You honestly believe that pouring money into a parking lot would work? For once, can we please pull our heads out of the ass of Big Money and invest in the amazing resources that struggle daily to maintain their existence?

And to all of you singing the praises of Alexandria, GET THE HELL OUT OF RICHMOND.

Go and stop complaining. If you want to live in a soulless pit of stress and distraction without any culture or community to speak of, PLEASE, move to NoVa, and let the rest of us build something real, something human. It is the most potent reaffirmation of my opposition to the shockoe ballpark when it’s supporters complain that we’ll never be like Alexandria. Go live in your bubble of sterility, buy your art from Ikea and eat at Mikes American Grill. We’ll be just fine, don’t worry about us.

I am surprised there has not been more discussion of Paul Goldman’s idea- using mass transit/high sped rail and MCV’s proximity to create a world-class hospital/medical center in Shockoe Bottom.

The problem with cultural tourism, i.e. a slave museum, is that no one is interested in funding them. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124164783046593317.html

Bullwinkle in post 15 hits the nail square on the head:

“It’s not just about baseball though – it’s about a conjuring a vibrant, diverse, and cosmopolitan downtown Richmond….

This is a setback…”

I am tired of hearing this fantasy b.s.
We are already paying for this sort of thinking with the Convention Center and the Broad Street C.D.A.

“but the hundreds, if not thousands, of new residents, workers and tourists drawn to the bottom…”

And here is the second part of the scam. How long are Richmond residents going to be expected to underwrite these white elephants that never pay off? These developers overpromise and opverpromise again and again.

Let’s get back to dealing with our future- the schools and neighborhoods we live in. Let these bozos go to Six Flags and ride a coaster to nowhere.

I will believe you if you can come with a major proposal that meets those requirements. No one has yet.

I think a great opportunity- note, the only one being offered- has been missed here.

It was held up as an example for all stadiums to follow. The newer stadiums leapfrogged over the Diamond in amenities and had soaring costs. I believe I read the Diamond cost less than $15 million to build. Compare that to today’s stadium.

Any building requires maintenance. The Diamond saw very little and even fewer upgrades

I agree with previous comments that high speed rail service in the bottom will be a game changer for the future of the bottom and Richmond in general.

The beauty of Shockoe Center project was that it brought a diversity of much needed development to tens of acres of blighted, empty eyesore. The opponents of the stadium were always right that stadiums never pay for themselves. The stadium was only the entertainment anchor to a coordinated private/public investment strategy that would encourage the development of the much more important housing, offices and business venues that would bring life back to Shockoe Bottom. Sure the TIF would consume of the tax revenue generated by the development for a period of time, but the hundreds, if not thousands, of new residents, workers and tourists drawn to the bottom would have brought in substantially more revenue to the City than is currently being provided by the empty parking lots (which are probably destined to remain empty parking lots for the next 10 years).

Now that the Shockoe Center proposal is dead I hope the City won’t mistake support for creating an interesting, mixed-use neighborhood in a currently desolate wasteland with a demand to waste money fixing up a 40 year old, over-capacity, crumbling stadium that has not in 40 years encouraged any beneficial development in its vicinity (please don’t try to say that the development of Movieland or Strong Hill had anything to do with the Diamond). There are a million other things that the City needs to spend tax payer money on other than fiximg up the Diamond b/c I am pretty darn sure that the new development propsed by Opening Day Partners for the area adjacent to the stadium (bumper boats and a skate park – yep that’s it) is going to increase the City’s coffers by about zero dollars.

With the official collapse of the Shockoe Center proposal I will be curious to see if the proposed apartment/condos on Broad and 20th and 18th and Marshall proceed with any great haste.

Good luck and bring your wallet.

Consider “Nationals Park” in your new stomping grounds.
Local taxpayers promised pie in the sky, fleeced for 700 million dollars.
Only a year later, crowds down 27 percent and on any given day, half the seats are empty.

Case closed.

Where is this written in “broken-up parking lot” stone?

Given your previous statements and what we now know about what would have been the public financing in the Shockeoe Center proposal, I question your credibility, Fanboy.

I am surprised there has not been more discussion of Paul Goldman’s idea- using mass transit/high sped rail and MCV’s proximity to create a world-class hospital/medical center in Shockoe Bottom.

But regardless…

Even with the Shockoe Center proposal “dead”, the baseball stadium debate is STILL distracting Richmond citizens from other, more important priorities and issues.

Citizens must demand more from leadership and media than just the continued slugfest.

http://www.vagreenparty.org/richblog/?p=379

http://www.timesdispatch.com/rtd/business/transportation/article/RAIL04_20090603-223403/271778/

Shockoe Bottom is destined to remain a blighted, filthy eyesore for generations to come. Way to go, Richmond!

Now can we please return to the Boulevard, fix up the Diamond, and get on with baseball?

This is a setback…

http://lifeinthe804.blogspot.com/2009/06/help-select-richmonds-new-advertising.html

However, I am bummed about the failed effort to get a ballpark in the Bottom. Even if the bonds were part of the issue, I’m sure the (typical) community grumbling / opposition didn’t do much to encourage developers to make this investment in our neighborhood.

Opposition could not have killed it, there was never any public input, other than a lot of comments on blogs and comments in the Times Dispatch, and the developers trying to sell the idea in a bunch of meetings. They just figured out it wouldn’t work in this economy and the second Davenport study reiterated that the city would have to be on the hook for the bonds.

When they first proposed the TIF financing, I emailed a friend who lives in another state and has thirty years of stockbrokerage / financial planning expertise, and he said TIF financing, in his experience, rarely works, generally the locality ends up being stuck. He mentioned things like the failed project in D.C. that was done with TIF financing, as well as other places. I think we’re much better off without these developers; let someone else step up with a viable plan.

Our team has made the difficult decision to suspend our involvement in the Shockoe Bottom/Main Street Station and the Boulevard projects. We have carried these projects as far as our collaborative team can under the present circumstances.

For the past two-and-a-half years, our team, led by Highwoods Properties as the Master Development Advisor, has been focused on developing a plan to revitalize two underdeveloped areas of our City, Shockoe Bottom and the Boulevard. We believe the revitalization of these two areas would bring approximately $800 million of new economic development to our community and would be a significant tax revenue generator in our City for generations. Unfortunately, discussion of these opportunities was overshadowed by the debate over a ballpark.

The Davenport study validated our fundamental premise that a self-financing ballpark in Shockoe Bottom, supported by TIF revenue from surrounding private development, is highly feasible. Davenport also found, as we have said consistently, that such a plan is not possible in today’s revenue bond 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. 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.

Since presenting our conceptual plan in response to a City RFP to redevelop Shockoe Bottom in October 2007 and the subsequent response to a second RFP for the Boulevard, there have been many changes impacting our proposals, principally high speed rail and the baseball team ownership. In our opinion, the most exciting change is the prospect for high-speed rail at Main Street Station. We agree with City leaders that this is a significant economic opportunity for Shockoe Bottom and the City of Richmond.

Further, the good faith effort by a group of local investors to buy a baseball team did not succeed. That has 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.

Our plan proposed a Transit-Oriented Development in Shockoe Bottom that could accommodate a major GRTC presence. We reached an agreement in principle with GRTC on utilizing the Train Shed for its bus Transfer Center; both groups (the development team and GRTC) made concessions to enable this agreement. While there is no conflict between high-speed rail and the proposed Shockoe Bottom project, it is unclear if it will be possible to accommodate both high-speed rail and a major bus Transfer Center that would serve half of GRTC’s routes from the Train Shed.

Another of our key components for Shockoe Bottom was respecting the African American historic and cultural heritage opportunities by making them integral features of the proposed development. While the Slave Trail Commission’s vision was not made public, we understood the outline of its property interests and we adjusted the boundaries of the project to enable the preservation of this important area.

We believe heritage is compatible with baseball, high-speed rail, and some level of bus transit. 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.

We continue to believe that both Shockoe Bottom and the Boulevard area hold enormous untapped potential for economic and community enhancing development. It was an honor to have been selected to lead this effort to bring large-scale, private development back into our City in these two under-performing gateway areas.

I was kind of looking forward to it. Hopefully that parking lot won’t just sit empty for the next 20 years now.

I look forward to moving to Alexandria.