New player in the baseball stadium game
A plan has been put forth for a privately funded stadium on the Boulevard.
News came out yesterday that is bound to shake up the current discussion around where to put the new Flying Squirrels baseball stadium. What could be a game changer is that this plan is supposedly privately funded and would remain on the Boulevard. I use the word supposedly since the mystery development team hasn’t released any information to the public at this time.
Under the broad outlines of the proposal, an 8,000-plus capacity stadium would be built entirely with private money on about 10 acres of Boulevard land, Baliles said. The first phase would involve a small amount of residential, retail and restaurant development. The developers also would have the option of building out the rest of the 60-acre Boulevard area that city officials believe is primed for revitalization.
Once finished, the stadium would be privately owned, Baliles said. He said it could open in April 2016, the same date as the proposed Shockoe stadium, as long as the city completes site preparation work by the end of this year.
No meetings have taken place with the mystery developers and the Mayor’s office. City Council and the Mayor have both been given a general overview of the plan.
Photo: John Murden
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Richard Hayes
When Richard isn’t rounding up neighborhood news, he’s likely watching soccer or chasing down the latest and greatest craft beer.
Notice: Comments that are not conducive to an interesting and thoughtful conversation may be removed at the editor’s discretion.
How much did the Mayor and members of City Council know of this Boulevard proposal when the Mayor tried to force Council’s vote back in February?
I assume “without taxpayer money” includes using existing City owned property without compensating the city for it? I know in the current plan it was to be sold, and developed into a job and tax $ generator.
If you read the article, it says:
“He also has suggested that $2.7 million anticipated from Boulevard land sales go to bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure.”
Implying that this proposal includes the developers paying for property.
This is never going to happen. Just people from the counties trying to drag this our further. The Mayor is the only one in the region that has a brain at all. 15 years from now all that ugly asphalt will still be there. Don’t want the people in the counties to have to see any poor people or anything.
Tammy D. Hawley, the mayor’s press secretary: “What we’d like to see is solid financials and then we’d be happy to entertain reviewing alternative ideas with any interested parties,” she said.
HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA {damn} HAH HA HA.
Good one Tammy!
@joe What’s funny is that Shockoe Bottom doesn’t even have any “poor” people in it. Many creative, young professionals living in good lofts and apartments. It’s just more bullshit from suburbanites who feel they are too good and hold their noses high above their image of the inner city. That will probably never change though.
For the last year+ we have heard that the baseball stadium and the surrounding development is a money-generating step. If it is such a good deal, then it makes perfect sense to have private money take on the risk, instead of socializing the risk to the city and privatizing the profit that results.
This seems like a proper step: if this is an economic machine, then there should be no hesitance in moving the project forward when public $ will be less exposed.
Of course, it remains to be seen if the businesses willing to pledge $ to a Slavery Heritage Center will still support it when they no longer will make profits out of the Shockoe development. I suspect we’ll see that they don’t really care about it if they aren’t being given free taxpayer $.