A conceptual map of the city blocks and properties involved in the city’s new City Center plan and their potential uses. (Images courtesy of the City of Richmond)
A plan for Richmond’s City Center – sans the Richmond Coliseum – is officially on the books, laying the groundwork for redevelopment of the shuttered arena and other city-owned property in that part of downtown.
At its meeting last week, the Richmond City Council formally approved the adoption of what’s now called the City Center Innovation District Small Area Plan, an amendment to the Richmond 300 master plan that’s aimed at guiding growth over a roughly 20-block area anchored by the to-be-demolished Coliseum.
The Planning Commission adopted the plan in December, and the council’s approval last week makes the amendment official. It sets the stage for next steps that include demolition of the 50-year-old arena, an area-wide rezoning, and solicitations for the sale and redevelopment of the city-owned properties, which make up the bulk of the 26-acre area.
A timeline included in the plan calls for those solicitations, or requests for offers, to go out early this year. Sharon Ebert, Richmond’s deputy chief administrative officer for economic and community development, said Monday that the city is aiming for those to go out this spring.
Initially called the Coliseum Framework Plan, the document was requested by council members amid the defeat of the Navy Hill project in early 2020, and has since evolved from being centered on a potential new arena to what’s now envisioned as a so-called innovation district. The concept is aimed at encouraging development that would feed off and enhance existing anchors such as the VA Bio+Tech Park, Greater Richmond Convention Center, Reynolds Community College and VCU Health.
With a new regional arena now proposed in Henrico as part of the $2.3 billion GreenCity project, city leaders decided against a competing arena in Richmond and the plan was shifted to a new vision for downtown — one that planners acknowledged is a change-in-course for the city.
At the Planning Commission’s meeting in December, Chairman Rodney Poole said, “It was not just a small shift; it was a tectonic shift to go from the Coliseum to the City Center concept. I think it’s a far better use of that property, and I’m very happy with the plan.”
A map shows city-owned properties in the plan area.
The plan defines innovation districts as consisting of startups and business incubators and accelerators, as well as transit-oriented development that mixes office, retail and residential uses. For City Center, the plan also calls for green space, a plaza and open spaces, a hotel and entertainment uses, and additional transportation.
With the biotech park, convention center and other existing anchors in place, the area has an advantage over other innovation districts that took years to fully form, said Kevin Vonck, the city’s planning director.
“We have the core tenants there, which is the really hard thing to do. If you look at Silicon Valley, Research Triangle Park — it took a while to grow those core institutions,” Vonck said.
“We have an advantage in that we have demographics and a workforce that seek urban amenities, and those two (places) are not urban,” Vonck said. “You have an urban fabric here in which to build, and I think that makes the potential that much more exciting for what we have to do here.”
The plan calls for a phased approach to development over the next 10 to 15 years, with the first order of business being the Coliseum demolition. Preparation for the demolition is currently underway with an effort to salvage arena inventory, some of which is to be auctioned off for additional revenue for the city.
While she said phasing would be subject to change over the course of the plan’s implementation, Maritza Pechin, a deputy planning director who led the plan’s development, said the Coliseum needs to be addressed first for the rest of the puzzle pieces to fall into place.
“We think doing something with the Coliseum is the most important thing to get out of the gate, because it is such an eyesore, and who’s going to want to put a lot of money into something next to that eyesore or next to a hole in the ground?” Pechin said during the meeting. “We think that’s the first one, and we’ll see how it goes as we do the solicitation (in 2022).”
Ebert said Monday that the city will be seeking a developer to pay for the Coliseum demolition. City estimates at the time that Navy Hill was being considered put the cost of demolition between $8 million and $12 million.
A rendering of how development could look facing north from Clay Street between Eighth and Ninth streets under the city’s City Center plan.
Along with the Coliseum site, first priorities in the plan include the Marshall Street parking garage between Sixth and Seventh streets, also to be demolished, and the Blues Armory building, which would be restored through an adaptive reuse project.
Another initial step that’s already underway is the Public Safety Building site at 500 N. 10th St., where work has started on a planned 20-story, VCU Health-anchored tower and mixed-use office complex. Crews are in the midst of remediation work to prepare the building for demolition, which is slated for this spring, said developer Michael Hallmark with Capital City Partners. Hallmark said construction on that $325 million development is scheduled to start this year.
Related to that project, work is also underway to relocate the GRTC transfer station from beside that building to the parking lot across Ninth Street, where bus bays will be located along Ninth, Eighth and Clay streets. GRTC has said the new bays could be in place this month.
One aspect of the plan that received scrutiny from commissioners is a recommendation to retain the below-grade stretch of Leigh Street beside the Coliseum. Past proposals have called for bringing that stretch back up to grade and realigning it with the surrounding street grid, but the plan calls for preserving it with enhancements to the streetscape.
Pechin said doing so would preserve access to the Altria building across the street from the Coliseum, as well as to new development that would replace the Coliseum and could involve underground parking.
“The Altria building has a bunch of loading dock and access there, and the Coliseum, if we use that hole to do parking, it sort of makes sense,” Pechin said, adding, “I don’t think this plan precludes that as an option.”
The approved plan can be viewed on the city’s website here.
The City Center plan’s adoption came as the city is currently soliciting requests for offers for development of the Diamond District site, including a replacement of its namesake baseball stadium. Meanwhile, a similar planning effort for Shockoe Bottom, called the Shockoe Small Area Plan, is slated to be presented in coming weeks after several years of development.
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