Shockoe Center project appealing, but needs city credit support

I agree with the majority here, this is a total WASTE of taxpayers money.  First of all baseball is a ‘seasonal sport’, which we knew when the Braves were here and Richmond still could not fill up the stadium.  Second (as mentioned previously) Richmond is a baseball city?? Since when?  We couldn’t keep the Braves here and now all of a sudden we are going keep another team here.  If anything build something that would have multiple purposes, make it a dome (for concerts) otherwise this will fail.  Lets look at the small things that Richmond has managed to let go, for example Richmond had a Jazz FM station, this was attempted twice and Richmond just did not get it, it died.
Furthermore, the location really sucks, who really goes to the bottom?  It’s basically a dump and has the potential of flooding again!  This is a very, very stupid idea!!!

You don’t have to look too many places to see how baseball stadiums in a downtown have helped to improve the neighborhood.  Look at Oklahoma City, Memphis, etc.  That being said, the urban sprawl in those areas is still willing to travel to the downtown area.  The quickest way to kill anything in Richmond, move it downtown.  The folks out in Short Pump can’t parallel park their big SUV.  The folks in South Side don’t want to pay another set of tolls for the day.  The parking areas are poorly signed and thrive on ripping people off.
I would love to see baseball in the Bottom.  I think it would bring a great deal to the city.  Prime to host the CAA baseball tourney and possibly ACC and A-10. This is pretty common for minor league parks and generate a great deal of revenue. 
Even if all of this occurs, a large majority of people just won’t venture downtown based upon crime reports from 10 years ago.  Sad.  But really in Richmond, a city steeped in tradition, where you can’t be “from” Richmond unless you can trace it at least 7 generations, change doesn’t happen very quickly.

What is being cooked up here is a real-estate boondoggle emulating the
exploits of various river-side developments that have had so so results. Wait until the real economic collapse occurs in two years—see whether many of those rooms are filled ?? At this rate there will be very little left of historic Shockoe Valley—the future site of a slavery museum. The View made famous by Mathew
Brady’s photo will be wrecked more than It is—.The view from Libby
Hill is about to go the way of the West VA mountains being ripped apart for
coal. And all of this is based on the hype myth that was created back in
the real-estate boom that all these great monied people were going to rush
in a buy up big condos in the City—because Richmond is such a great place
to walk your dog.  Think again. An investor buying a condo in Rocketts landing
or Riverside is not the same as gobs of people moving here to relocate and
do business in town. When the Queen came two years ago—thousands turned
out to see her—got their look and left. Restaurants thinking people would
spend their money lost big time—Richmond has its perks—but it is not a
lesser known paradise—and definitely not a baseball city. It will never
be a Boston or NYC—not even a Baltimore. It does not cater to a long term
urban market. That takes over a century to develop—and Richmond doesn’t
even come close. Its got its little downtown and that’s it.

This is major disaster in the making—About 20 years ago the City spent a
bunch of money to have consultants come in and tell them what they had
already been told—promote your history and bring in the tourist dollars—
20 years later some sites have improved but a little-
The Valentine Riverside experiment was a bloated disaster—and the
American Civil War Center from what I understand is a boring bust
now the purview of lectures and seminars…The consultants did not say
build a roman amphitheatre in the bottom. 6th Street Market Place
a totally worthless and dumb idea—was well thought out…by people who
listen to consultants—study charts and graphs—and blow the dough. Here
we go again.

Please read the downloadable PDF attached in this article. 
1st Issue - it must generate $67.3 million annually in retail and food sales tax…OH REALLY?  That 2.1% increase sounds HUGE

The project cost DOES NOT reflect Phase’s II and III….great….more costs to generate supposedly more revenue…LOL….“the chicken or the egg”....

GRTC Transfer Station – The project is
incompatible with the GRTC Transfer Station as currently proposed. Modifications to both
projects would likely be needed for them to coexist

and finally:
 Drawbacks
 Payment Risk – If the project does not generate
adequate revenue to meet the debt service
payments, the City would be responsible for the
payments.
• Debt Capacity – By providing credit support, the City would use a portion of its debt capacity that would otherwise be available for other projects. At $56 million, the project would represent a 10.7% portion of the City’s $520 million draft capital spending plan from 2009 to 2016.

ARE YOU KIDDING ME?  Do you REALLY expect it to succeed?  How about the counties kick in about $ 150 million…and we will do it!

Mayor Jones, You’ve spent over $200,000 of city money with One consultant on two or three occasions now to justify what is surely your foregone conclusion that the Shockhoe Bottom will get the ballpark. Shame on you for wasting that taxpayer money. Why not cut your losses and spend $20 million redoing the Diamond, which has always been a feasible location for Richmond baseball? That way you DON’T spend 60 million unnecessarily (I use this figure, because, no matter what you budget, it will cost Waaaayyyy more). Everything this town has done to try to revitalize downtown has cost a lot of money and has failed. Let private developers put up ALL the money if that is their wish. But don’t ruin the city’s credit rating with this stupid wish. Oh well, I don’t really have a dog in this fight. I live in Henrico. And I’m particularly glad for that. I DID support Richmond baseball, though, and I WON’T be going to any games in the Bottom. And I am POSITIVE I won’t be the only one doing just that.