The Coliseum makes up the bulk of the 9-acre project site, which also includes the green-roofed Blues Armory building and Festival Park between them. (Skyshots Photography)
The City of Richmond is continuing work behind the scenes to advance its seemingly stagnant City Center project that would replace the shuttered Richmond Coliseum with a mixed-use development and convention center hotel.
Officials are considering expanding the project area for City Center to include more city-owned properties that could provide additional tax revenue for its planned tax increment financing structure. They’re also weighing different approaches to phasing the project, according to emails obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request.
A site tour of the Coliseum in 2022 kicked off the City Center selection process, which is now in its third year. (BizSense file photos)
Richmond is working with The Robert Bobb Group, a D.C.-based consultancy, to reevaluate City Center and help move it forward. Emails show it also remains in discussions with Capstone Development, which is said to be the last of four prospective development teams to remain in active negotiations with the city on the project.
Proposed to consist of a 9-acre assemblage, City Center would replace the Coliseum with a 500-room convention center hotel and a mix of office, retail and housing development. It also would involve rehabbing the neighboring Blues Armory building and include infrastructure improvements, parking and transit facilities, bicycle and pedestrian improvements, and public open space.
The city has yet to officially select or announce a City Center developer, more than three years after it issued a joint solicitation with the Greater Richmond Convention Center Authority in late 2022.
The duration of the selection process has been attributed to complexities involved in financing for City Center. The city transferred the properties in 2022 to the Richmond Economic Development Authority, which would maintain ownership through the ground leases with potential developers, similar to its agreements for the new Diamond District ballpark.
The Blues Armory building on Sixth Street is part of the project area.
Robert Bobb Group, which is also currently assisting the city’s search for a new chief administrative officer, was hired to help get City Center across the finish line in terms of a finalized program and project agreements. The firm is working with CWJ Advisors, a subsidiary of McLean-based Clark Construction Group, to review the project’s scope and assist with pre-development and project management work.
Robert Bobb Group also will advise on developer negotiations, project financing and finalizing agreements, among other tasks outlined in its scope of work. The firm started working on City Center in February after Richmond hired it last fall through a contract that’s set to not exceed roughly $359,000.
A cover letter from CEO Robert Bobb, who served as city manager for Richmond from the mid-1980s to mid-’90s, states that the work would lead to a project award within four months.
Robert Bobb Group also provided consulting work to an earlier version of the development team that’s leading the mixed-use portion of the Diamond District project. Capstone is the hotel developer on that team.
Project area could increase
A map shows the project area outlined in orange and other city-owned properties in blue. (BizSense file images)
The emails, which date from mid-December through early March, show that the parties are considering potential adjustments to City Center’s scope and project area, which currently includes the shuttered Coliseum property, the Blues Armory and adjoining properties beside and behind it that once made up the old Sixth Street Marketplace and Festival Park.
Among Robert Bobb Group’s tasks are to analyze City Center’s phasing and, according to an email from Richmond official Sharon Ebert, “provide recommendations on how to maximize new tax revenues prior to the start of the hotel construction.”
Ebert, the city’s deputy chief administrative officer for economic and community development, added in her email that the firm would review the project’s scope and whether more properties should be added to it, “to ensure sufficient tax revenues will be generated to adequately cover the debt service payments.”
If more city-owned properties are added to the project, they could enlarge a tax increment financing district that is planned to help fund parts of City Center through a community development authority. Tax revenue generated from the development over time would be used to pay for bonds that would help fund the project and would be issued by the CDA.
Specifics on how the CDA would work and how large the TIF district would be are not detailed in the emails. The city’s request for offers for City Center states that the project would utilize financing approaches “that minimize public investment and risk and maximize private investment.”
Matt Welch, acting director of the EDA, said Tuesday: “The details of a financing plan are still being negotiated, as we explore the best possible path to enabling a transformational project while also protecting the City’s financial resources.”
Additional properties that could be under consideration for the project include an adjacent city-owned parking deck at Fifth and Marshall streets; a city parking deck on Seventh Street across from the Coliseum; and the parking lot across Clay Street from the John Marshall Courts Building currently used as GRTC’s temporary bus transfer station. A permanent station is slated to be part of a larger development that GRTC is eyeing across the street at the city’s old Public Safety Building site.
Other City Center add-ons could include two city-owned sites south of Broad Street: a parking lot at 401 E. Broad St. and the bulk of the city block at 609 E. Grace St. Those sites were once part of the TIF district floated for the unsuccessful Navy Hill redevelopment plan and were among several city-owned properties that were declared surplus after Navy Hill was voted down.
A map of properties once proposed for Navy Hill shows the two parcels south of Broad Street.
According to the emails, in February, consultants toured the Coliseum, Blues Armory and Sixth Street Marketplace properties, as well as the adjacent Doorways lodging building that was not included in the City Center project area.
An email from Darren Linnartz, Capstone’s managing partner, reported to Ebert that he and Capstone President Norman Jenkins met with Ellen Robertson, whose City Council district includes the project site.
“The conversation was positive, and our takeaway is that Councilwoman Robertson is a strong proponent of the City Center redevelopment project,” Linnartz said in the email, adding that he and Jenkins “have been working on several scope and sequencing alternatives for City Center, with a goal of coming up with a plan that is less expensive from a public infrastructure standpoint.”
In addition to Robert Bobb Group and CWJ Advisors, the city also is working with investment bank Stifel on the CDA and financing for City Center.
In his budget presentation to City Council last month, Mayor Danny Avula mentioned City Center among economic development projects that he said are needed to broaden Richmond’s tax base. Tourism officials have said for years that a convention center hotel is needed in particular because existing downtown hotels do not have the capacity to serve the convention center to its fullest potential.
The behind-the-scenes work on City Center is continuing as Henrico’s arena-anchored GreenCity project has stalled. The county is in the process of taking back the former Best Products headquarters site after finding the project’s developer in default of agreements. A request for interest from other developers is planned to be issued later this month.
The Coliseum makes up the bulk of the 9-acre project site, which also includes the green-roofed Blues Armory building and Festival Park between them. (Skyshots Photography)
The City of Richmond is continuing work behind the scenes to advance its seemingly stagnant City Center project that would replace the shuttered Richmond Coliseum with a mixed-use development and convention center hotel.
Officials are considering expanding the project area for City Center to include more city-owned properties that could provide additional tax revenue for its planned tax increment financing structure. They’re also weighing different approaches to phasing the project, according to emails obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request.
A site tour of the Coliseum in 2022 kicked off the City Center selection process, which is now in its third year. (BizSense file photos)
Richmond is working with The Robert Bobb Group, a D.C.-based consultancy, to reevaluate City Center and help move it forward. Emails show it also remains in discussions with Capstone Development, which is said to be the last of four prospective development teams to remain in active negotiations with the city on the project.
Proposed to consist of a 9-acre assemblage, City Center would replace the Coliseum with a 500-room convention center hotel and a mix of office, retail and housing development. It also would involve rehabbing the neighboring Blues Armory building and include infrastructure improvements, parking and transit facilities, bicycle and pedestrian improvements, and public open space.
The city has yet to officially select or announce a City Center developer, more than three years after it issued a joint solicitation with the Greater Richmond Convention Center Authority in late 2022.
The duration of the selection process has been attributed to complexities involved in financing for City Center. The city transferred the properties in 2022 to the Richmond Economic Development Authority, which would maintain ownership through the ground leases with potential developers, similar to its agreements for the new Diamond District ballpark.
The Blues Armory building on Sixth Street is part of the project area.
Robert Bobb Group, which is also currently assisting the city’s search for a new chief administrative officer, was hired to help get City Center across the finish line in terms of a finalized program and project agreements. The firm is working with CWJ Advisors, a subsidiary of McLean-based Clark Construction Group, to review the project’s scope and assist with pre-development and project management work.
Robert Bobb Group also will advise on developer negotiations, project financing and finalizing agreements, among other tasks outlined in its scope of work. The firm started working on City Center in February after Richmond hired it last fall through a contract that’s set to not exceed roughly $359,000.
A cover letter from CEO Robert Bobb, who served as city manager for Richmond from the mid-1980s to mid-’90s, states that the work would lead to a project award within four months.
Robert Bobb Group also provided consulting work to an earlier version of the development team that’s leading the mixed-use portion of the Diamond District project. Capstone is the hotel developer on that team.
Project area could increase
A map shows the project area outlined in orange and other city-owned properties in blue. (BizSense file images)
The emails, which date from mid-December through early March, show that the parties are considering potential adjustments to City Center’s scope and project area, which currently includes the shuttered Coliseum property, the Blues Armory and adjoining properties beside and behind it that once made up the old Sixth Street Marketplace and Festival Park.
Among Robert Bobb Group’s tasks are to analyze City Center’s phasing and, according to an email from Richmond official Sharon Ebert, “provide recommendations on how to maximize new tax revenues prior to the start of the hotel construction.”
Ebert, the city’s deputy chief administrative officer for economic and community development, added in her email that the firm would review the project’s scope and whether more properties should be added to it, “to ensure sufficient tax revenues will be generated to adequately cover the debt service payments.”
If more city-owned properties are added to the project, they could enlarge a tax increment financing district that is planned to help fund parts of City Center through a community development authority. Tax revenue generated from the development over time would be used to pay for bonds that would help fund the project and would be issued by the CDA.
Specifics on how the CDA would work and how large the TIF district would be are not detailed in the emails. The city’s request for offers for City Center states that the project would utilize financing approaches “that minimize public investment and risk and maximize private investment.”
Matt Welch, acting director of the EDA, said Tuesday: “The details of a financing plan are still being negotiated, as we explore the best possible path to enabling a transformational project while also protecting the City’s financial resources.”
Additional properties that could be under consideration for the project include an adjacent city-owned parking deck at Fifth and Marshall streets; a city parking deck on Seventh Street across from the Coliseum; and the parking lot across Clay Street from the John Marshall Courts Building currently used as GRTC’s temporary bus transfer station. A permanent station is slated to be part of a larger development that GRTC is eyeing across the street at the city’s old Public Safety Building site.
Other City Center add-ons could include two city-owned sites south of Broad Street: a parking lot at 401 E. Broad St. and the bulk of the city block at 609 E. Grace St. Those sites were once part of the TIF district floated for the unsuccessful Navy Hill redevelopment plan and were among several city-owned properties that were declared surplus after Navy Hill was voted down.
A map of properties once proposed for Navy Hill shows the two parcels south of Broad Street.
According to the emails, in February, consultants toured the Coliseum, Blues Armory and Sixth Street Marketplace properties, as well as the adjacent Doorways lodging building that was not included in the City Center project area.
An email from Darren Linnartz, Capstone’s managing partner, reported to Ebert that he and Capstone President Norman Jenkins met with Ellen Robertson, whose City Council district includes the project site.
“The conversation was positive, and our takeaway is that Councilwoman Robertson is a strong proponent of the City Center redevelopment project,” Linnartz said in the email, adding that he and Jenkins “have been working on several scope and sequencing alternatives for City Center, with a goal of coming up with a plan that is less expensive from a public infrastructure standpoint.”
In addition to Robert Bobb Group and CWJ Advisors, the city also is working with investment bank Stifel on the CDA and financing for City Center.
In his budget presentation to City Council last month, Mayor Danny Avula mentioned City Center among economic development projects that he said are needed to broaden Richmond’s tax base. Tourism officials have said for years that a convention center hotel is needed in particular because existing downtown hotels do not have the capacity to serve the convention center to its fullest potential.
The behind-the-scenes work on City Center is continuing as Henrico’s arena-anchored GreenCity project has stalled. The county is in the process of taking back the former Best Products headquarters site after finding the project’s developer in default of agreements. A request for interest from other developers is planned to be issued later this month.
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Bob Bobb, really? This is the best consultancy firm Richmond can find? This guy was Richmond’s City Manager from 1986-1997. He was never an advocate for downtown redevelopment at that time and actually said there would never be any shopping or street life in downtown Richmond. In the face of an exodus of retail to the suburbs (remember Miller & Rhodes & Thalhimers?) he demonstrated zero creativity in working with a planning staff and City Council to strategize on creative solutions to keep downtown viable – as a result, it utterly tanked. And we’re retaining this guy to help work… Read more »
Unfortunately the city has no real expertise of their own on staff or in the political rely either.
I remember that song they used to play on B103.7 in the mornings making fun of his name… “Bob Bob Bob Bob is his first name. Bobb Bobb Bobb Bobb is his last name.” to the tune of Barbara Ann.
That IS funny. We had DJs like that where I am from too. Made it easier to get up in the mornings back in the 80s….
I THOUGHT that name sounded familiar – wow – a real blast from the past. Yeah – this could be a mistake. The City needs to keep looking.
The true IRONY in all this is that Robert “Bob” Bobb was the city manager when the Richmond Centre (if you remember its old name was built) and it FOUGHT to keep a convention hotel from being built on the Marshall Plaza (social services) building site so it would not take business away from the Marriott (that was city subsidized at the time). City paid MILLIONS to the developer/landlord for years on that legal settlement over that site. Now he is back to fix the convention hotel problem his administration caused?
Back then, “creative solutions’ usually meant failed white elephants — I can give you a list of examples all over the USA, but one you might be familiar with is on the far left side of that picture of the Armory. Look at how long he was city manager — that is a long time for such a precarious job. Richmond was facing problems much bigger than Bobb and the entire city govt at the time. Some of the biggest problems were bigger than Richmond or even VA. Bobb is hired to get the job done when the elected officials… Read more »
I’m no fan; but you can’t blame Levar Stoney on this one. Not a good decision here.
Stoney’s plate became full with the Diamond District. Additional debacles would fall to the floor.
Less we not forget almost all of same lots were not only a part of the rejected Navy Hill, but also part of the disastrous, never achieved 10% of its goals, and cost taxpayers millions because the TIF district failed, publicly Funded 2004 Broad Street CDA project.
The city has almost zero bonding capacity and there’s no way taxpayers are gonna support $150 million public bond that has a moral obligation that requires them to reimburse another group of private investors.
This scares the hell out of me. Why can’t the city maser plan this and then give it to developers? Why does the city need to finance this? If there’s demand for a convention center hotel, for example, why can’t a hotel operator build one? Same with housing, etc. They city could lease or sell the land. There doesn’t seem to be an major public amenity at play here (maybe a park and some street work), no colosseum.
Totally agree. The city doesn’t need to be in the development business. They should never have gotten involved in the Diamond District cluster*k, as well.
YES — I have been saying for YEARS that the city should just SELL THE LAND and let the developers build whatever they think the market needs — city gets a big slug of money up front and then recurring revenue — but they try to micromanage and pick winners and it just makes them look like the worst kind of incompetent — the people who are both bossy and ineffective.
From a practical perspective, having just attended a conference at the convention center, the lack of walkable hotels is a definite disadvantage relative to other city’s event spaces. Usually I’m the one from out of town and walking a block or two to my hotel, but here I was able to make it home on the other side of the river faster than most attendees could ride a shuttle bus to the Omni. Whether or not it’s a good strategic fit for the convention center to draw events that require greater hotel capacity is a whole other question in and… Read more »
I still think a new arena in the Richmond area is best for the city. Turn the armory building into a hotel if possible and build the housing and retail along with city owned buildings as well. The area is big enough to incorporate all those things and a new arena downtown provides a better commute and the start of bringing life back into downtown Richmond! Many may not agree but we are the capital city and deserve a vibrant area for entertainment, housing, retail and tourism.
Many of the comments remind me of the movie “Ground Hog Day.” For example, replacing the Coliseum is a non-starter. There needs to be a primary tenant foe an arena, and there isn’t one, as Henrico County has also found out. Remember it took the city almost 20 years to replace the Diamond. Thery could have renovated it in 2002 for $19.5 million, but everyone got in the way, now we’re talking about $150 million, all in! My suggestion is for the city to demolish the Coliseum, which will be expensive, but makes the underlying land more valuable from a… Read more »
Reading about Richmond’s downtown revitalization plans is kinda like watching Groundhog Day.
Many, many moons ago, I was part of a group that put together a proposal to take over the old Mulligans at the back of the Sixth Street Marketplace – the restaurant that faced the Coliseum. We had an operator for a cafe/sandwich shop on the ground floor, a bar/restaurant on the 2nd floor that would convert into a nightclub/bar, and an agreement with VCU to create a gallery around the 3rd floor mezzanine that looked over the 2nd floor. After presenting our proposal and prospectus, he sat silent for a moment, and said, “It sounds great, but I really… Read more »
What a view from the Altria building.the giant urinal.Richmond should be ashamed.
It’s primarily the convention center hotel and associated parking garage that requires the city subsidy. No private developer would touch this without that, because it isn’t economically viable.
The city will tell us the hotel is needed because the convention center can’t compete without it (reading between the lines meaning that the center is currently bleeding lots of taxpayer money). Maybe, like the coliseum before it, we should be talking about moving on from another albatross instead of sticking to 1980s-era economic development ideas?
Bit of a chicken/egg situation with the conference center and an additional hotel. In order to book larger conventions/events, there needs to additional walkable hotel space. The Marriott and Hilton are not sufficient for some of these larger events, which in turn means the conference centers doesn’t win bids, or cannot bid
An exciting time for the former All-American City.
I think I’ve seen this play before and remember how it ends.
Robert Bob started his stint at city manager with a big splash. Then – nothing of any real consequence.
It’s VERY hard to get real change done as a city manager when you are hired by a City Hall that values Politics over Progress — Richmond was in a slump that it was not going to get out of, sorta like Detroit, but it is hard to be positively judged by how much worse things WOULD’VE been if you weren’t there. The whole reason Wilder pushed for the Strong Mayor form of government in Richmond was the idea that Richmond could be trusted with such a system at this point and that MAYBE, just MAYBE, the voters would vote… Read more »