Highwoods Properties presented the Richmond City Council today with plans for a new ballpark in the city’s Shockoe Bottom area. The proposal calls for a 6,500-seat ballpark with a total capacity of 8,500 when you add in berms, suites and picnic areas.
Highwoods Properties presented the Richmond City Council today with plans for a new ballpark in the city’s Shockoe Bottom area. The proposal calls for a 6,500-seat ballpark with a total capacity of 8,500 when you add in berms, suites and picnic areas. The total cost of the ballpark would be $60 million: $40 million in private financing and $20 million in unspecified government funds (either tax credits or city/county funding). The plan, as presented to the City Council, has an affiliated team playing at The Diamond during the 2010-2011 seasons before moving to the new ballpark in 2012; the plan also calls for local owners to buy an existing team and move it to Richmond. We’re talking a ballpark that could accommodate either Class AA or a Class AAA team (it’s designed to be expandable to 8,500 seats), but we’re not entirely sure there’s an affiliated team looking to sell. For Highwoods, the ballpark is part of a very ambitious $785-million development plan both for the area surrounding The Diamond as well as the Shockoe Bottom area: Highwoods officials admit they have no financing arranged and don’t see any being arranged until issues in the credit markets are resolved. True, they are taking on partners — Robert Bobb, the former city manager who had presented a ballpark solution with Peter Kirk, is working on the Boulevard redevelopment with Highwoods — but we can’t help but wonder how a relatively large development will fly in Richmond, especially with the credit markets they way they are.