Government

“I’m quite confident it will be in litigation very shortly,” said Bill Leighty, recently dismissed from the VCU Wilder School, of the dispute between VCU Health and Richmond over the payments stemming from a failed development project.

Mayor Danny Avula presented his administration’s $3 billion spending plan, which would maintain the current real estate tax rate and increase general fund spending by 5.5% over the current budget.

The price hikes will help finance two new parking decks the airport is planning: a 5,500-spot deck for the general public that would be built at the current Economy A lot, and an additional two-story deck for rental cars. 

Gov. Youngkin said Monday he is vetoing language that legislators put into the state budget to allow Henrico to hold a referendum on the controversial project, which is already underway.

The airport’s governing body is considering building two new parking decks that are estimated to cost $228 million combined and would be funded in part by increases to daily parking rates and other fees. 

The $5.2 million payment was officially due Feb. 28, but a purchase agreement for the massive arena-anchored development allowed a 10-day cure period that expired Thursday at midnight.

“Our budget is an austere approach, where our pace is a straight-line progression, slow and steady with no finish line,” County Manager Joe Casey said of the proposed $2.4 billion FY26 budget.

Saunders joins Shockoe Bottom-based Capital Results, which worked with Saunders on opposite sides of the table while representing companies involved in such projects as the Diamond District and Allianz Amphitheater.

The county’s proposed budget features funds to stand up a new tourism office and create small-area plans, alongside allocations for capital projects as well as school division and public safety spending.

The default notices followed a nonperformance notice that the county sent the developers in December, as well as a missed payment of over $5 million that was due last Friday to secure the site of the project’s planned anchor arena.