If a new ballpark is built in Richmond, it won’t be located on a new Boulevard development, close to The Diamond — it will be built in the downtown Shockoe Bottom area, as the city awarded development rights to the Boulevard area and downtown to Highwoods Properties.If a new ballpark is built in Richmond, it won’t be located on a new Boulevard development, close to The Diamond — it will be built in the downtown Shockoe Bottom area, as the city awarded development rights to the Boulevard area and downtown to Highwoods Properties. It’s not been formally announced, but the city is poised to reject the development bid from former city manager Robert Bobb that called for a new ballpark built by entrepreneur Peter Kirk. Instead, Highwoods Properties is proposing a new downtown ballpark in the city’s Shockoe Bottom area. This is a problematic site: it’s on a flood plain, and activists want to see the area restored as a reminder of the city’s central role in the slave trade.
The decision freezes Bobb and Kirk out of the ballpark-development process; it also means it’s very unlikely independent ball will gain a footing in the market. With affiliated ball in a position to retain the Richmond market, the next issue becomes what team plays there. A local group wants to bring in a Class AA team into Richmond, but we continue to hear the pecking order is the Charlotte Knights (Class AAA; International League), followed by the Bowie Baysox (Class AA; Eastern League). This territorial decision will be controlled tightly by St. Pete, so we don’t expect the same sort of feeding frenzy we saw when the Greenville market opened.