Leonard Sledge at last year’s Excellence in Economic Development Awards, where nine awards were presented for Richmond-area initiatives. (Photos courtesy Richmond EDA)
When Leonard Sledge steps down in June after five years as Richmond’s economic development director, he’ll be returning to a job he’s held once before.
Sledge is leaving Richmond to become economic development director for the City of Hampton, a post he occupied from 2013 to 2017.
The move will be a homecoming in more ways than one. Sledge noted that Hampton is his hometown, and he’s a graduate of Hampton City Schools.
“I’m really looking forward to it. It’s going back home for me, the city that I grew up in but also the city that I previously had the opportunity to serve as a director of economic development,” Sledge said Thursday.
“I have enjoyed thoroughly the economic development work, projects and programs that we’ve been able to move forward in Richmond over the past five years,” he said.
Sledge did not say what’s prompting the move, which comes as Richmond is advancing its Diamond District project and has yet to advance its City Center project to redevelop the area around and including the shuttered Richmond Coliseum.
Sledge said his departure will not slow down either effort.
“That work will continue,” he said of City Center, which the city is coordinating with the Greater Richmond Convention Center Authority.
“There are a lot of great minds that are working on that project to keep moving it forward, from the city to the EDA to GRCCA,” he said. “Like all of the projects that we’ve worked on, we just want to make sure that we’re moving it forward in the best way and in the best interest of Richmond, and in this instance the broader region also.”
Sledge and the Richmond EDA staff outside their offices at Main Street Station.
Sledge added that while the presentations he’s typically given to City Council on the Diamond District were handled Monday by Sharon Ebert, the city’s deputy chief administrative officer for economic and community development, he said he was in attendance at that meeting and has remained involved in the project.
The City of Hampton announced Sledge’s rehire in a release posted Wednesday, the same day Richmond BizSense reported his planned departure. The release quotes Hampton City Manager Mary Bunting, who said the city is “thrilled that Leonard has agreed to return and take our city to the next level of economic growth.”
Sledge was selected after a nationwide search, according to the release. Hampton advertised for the position late last year.
Sledge started with Richmond in June 2019, filling the director position that had been left open since 2014, when then-director Lee Downey was promoted to deputy chief administrative officer. The department was later led by Chief Operating Officer Jane Ferrara, who left the city in 2020.
Sledge at a Diamond District event in 2022. (BizSense file photo)
In his five years with Richmond, Sledge has led the department in several high-profile development efforts, the Diamond District among them. He also managed the solicitation for the twice-attempted casino project and played a central role in negotiations on the Riverfront Amphitheater and neighboring CoStar office complex, which are under construction, and the VCU Health-anchored Public Safety Building redevelopment that was ultimately aborted.
Sledge also had a hand in developing Richmond’s Strategic Plan for Equitable Economic Development. But he said his proudest achievement in his time with the city has been the tack taken.
“The proudest is not a project, per se, but how we approach doing economic development in the city of Richmond,” he said.
“The approach that we’ve taken is what’s driven our success to move these projects along, from the Diamond District to City Center to the CoStar project … to the Affordable Housing Grant Program to increased collaboration between the city and the city’s Economic Development Authority, and everything else that we’ve done to grow jobs and investment in the city of Richmond.”
Improved collaboration between the EDA and City Hall was among what Lincoln Saunders, the city’s chief administrative officer, credited Sledge with in remarking about his departure earlier in the week.
“We appreciate Leonard and he’s done incredible work. He has truly been a right-hand person for the mayor, myself, for council, supporting a lot of important projects for the city,” Saunders said.
John Molster, chairman of the EDA board of directors, also praised Sledge’s work in his years serving the board.
“Leonard made a great contribution to our success, and we’ll miss him,” Molster said Thursday. “It’s great for Hampton, and we will look forward to an opportunity to properly thank him before he goes.”
Sledge at the groundbreaking ceremony for CoStar’s new downtown headquarters building.
Sledge’s return to Hampton will bring him full circle in a career that’s included director gigs with the College of William & Mary and with Henry County, Georgia, where he worked for a year and a half between his Hampton and Richmond stints.
Of his time in Richmond, Sledge said, “I’m extremely appreciative of the leadership and collaboration, from Mayor Stoney to CAO Saunders, DCAO Ebert and City Council collectively.
“Richmond is the shining star for the commonwealth of Virginia from an economic development standpoint, and the work that we’ve been able to move forward helps to set the stage for current and also future growth,” he said.
Sledge’s last day with the city will be in June. Saunders said an interim replacement would be named in the coming months.
I wish Mr. Sledge and Hampton the best. I have no idea how much frustrations here were whose fault — often one is shackled by the higher-ups for various reasons — MAYBE Hampton will be a more interesting challenge for him, as that city has a lot of potential and problems. Fort Monroe and Buckroe Beach seem to be really promising areas if they just can get themselves to do the things that need to be done to draw more people and businesses in. I stopped by once just to see the Emancipation Oak at HU and some of the… Read more »