A historical marker recognizes the former Navy Hill neighborhood. (Photo by Jay Paul)
Richmond City Council will decide whether to reopen a swath of city-owned land tied to the failed $1.5 billion Navy Hill project to redevelopment proposals next month.
The measure is set to be considered on June 8 and would designate 10 city-owned downtown parcels, including the shuttered Richmond Coliseum, the Public Safety Building, the Theater Row building on East Broad Street, and three downtown parking lots and garages, as “surplus.” This move would restart the process to open the sites to bids from interested developers.
The paper was originally scheduled to be considered at City Council’s Tuesday meeting but was postponed at the request of Mayor Levar Stoney’s administration, who will seek to amend the resolution. When it returns, it could kick-start the Stoney administration’s efforts to sell downtown properties for the first time since the council shot down the Navy Hill deal in February.
The proposed Navy Hill project would have redeveloped a 10-block downtown zone north of East Broad Street, but was criticized for the public financing model proposed for its planned 17,500-seat arena and a lack of transparency in the Stoney administration’s negotiations with NH District Corp., the entity backed by Dominion Energy CEO Thomas Farrell that brought the proposal forward.
In addition to scrapping the proposal, the council petitioned Stoney’s administration to conduct a downtown small area plan, appraise city-owned land in the development zone and solicit public feedback before restarting its efforts to sell its downtown land to developers. At meetings over the past two weeks, Richmond Economic Development Director Leonard Sledge said city staff are "moving forward" with developing the small area plan downtown and that land appraisals are underway and will be ready early next month.
Prior to the meeting, 2nd District City Councilwoman Kim Gray — who was among the majority of council members who voted against the Navy Hill deal — questioned in a statement whether all 10 city-owned parcels should be surplussed at once.
“It stands to reason that simultaneously placing 10 downtown parcels on the market during the COVID-19 emergency crisis could easily result in a glut of commercial properties and lower prices,” she wrote.
Though the city will need to officially designate the downtown land as surplus before it can request a new round of proposals, two developers have already shown interest in land previously tied to the Navy Hill deal.
In February, Washington, D.C.-based firm Douglas Development Corporation submitted an unsolicited offer to buy approximately 14 acres of downtown land including the Richmond Coliseum for $15 million. In his offer, firm President Douglas Jemal said he would rehab the coliseum without public financing, but city officials said at the time that Jemal’s offer was incomplete.
Earlier this month, Capital City Partners, a developer who worked alongside NH District Corp. to craft the Navy Hill proposal, submitted an unsolicited offer to purchase the city-owned Public Safety Building along North 10th Street in downtown Richmond for $3.17 million.
In its offer, the developer outlines its plans to construct a 545,000-square-foot building on the site, which would house the VCU Health System, local nonprofit The Doorways, Ronald McDonald House Charities, a VCU child care center and 150,000 square feet of additional commercial office space. Those entities also planned to occupy a mixed-use building that was part of the Navy Hill plan before City Council denied it.
