Shockoe Center backers need fans to spend

Paying for a ballpark in Shockoe Bottom will require free-spending fans, according to financial projections from the developers.

The developers are counting on a little less than $1.2 million a year from taxes on tickets, fans' food purchases and souvenir sales at the stadium to help finance a new facility, spokesman Peter Boisseau said yesterday.

That's a lot more than could come from the $5 to $7 developers expect to charge for most tickets for minor-league games. The Richmond Braves charged $5 for youth tickets and $7 for adult tickets before they moved to suburban Atlanta.

The Bowie (Md.) Baysox, the nearest team in the league most likely to include a Richmond team, charge $6 for general-admission youth tickets and $9 for general-admission adult tickets. Bowie also sells reserved seats for $11 to $14.

With a city ticket tax of 7 percent and the developers' earlier projections of 5,500 paid attendees per game, a typical Double-A team's schedule of about 55 home games would generate less than $150,000 in ticket taxes from about $2.1 million in revenue. The Braves averaged 4,455 fans at home games last year in their final season.

Boisseau said the developers expect to generate a total of $432,453 a year in ticket-tax revenue, from minor-league games as well as Virginia Commonwealth University and high school games and special events.

That means selling $4.1 million a year of tickets to the college and high school games as well as the special events.

In addition to ticket-tax revenue, developers expect food sales to generate about $366,000 in tax revenue. If that came only from minor-league games, that would translate to an average of $12.74 in food purchases per fan.

Tax revenue from sales of souvenirs and other items at the ballpark should amount to $351,892 a year, Boisseau said. If that came only from minor-league games, that would translate to an average of $33 in purchases per fan.

Taxes from the ballpark are only part of what would finance a $318 million Shockoe Center development that would include offices, stores, restaurants, condominiums, apartments and hotels, in addition to the ballpark.

The developers expect nearly $6.5 million a year could come from taxes generated from those nearby buildings.

They expect about $800,000 would come from parking fees and rents, including a $250,000-a-year lease payment from a minor-league team.

Paul W. Kreckman, vice president of Highwoods Properties, the leader of the developers, said the group still believes all the taxes and rent revenues still make a strong base to finance the project.

A report this week by the city of Richmond's financial consultant, Davenport & Co., said the developers' original financing proposal wasn't feasible but added that the deal might work with a city guarantee.

"The Davenport report confirms our concept that the new tax revenues would be sufficient to pay off the bonds without costing the city any existing tax dollars," Kreckman said.

The report said annual payments on city-guaranteed bonds would be at least $2.1 million less than tax revenues from the project. But though that means that a guarantee isn't likely to mean the city would end up paying taxpayer funds to back the project, it would limit the city's ability to borrow for its own projects, Davenport said.

Boisseau said developers aren't asking for a guarantee, though he said that would be the simplest way of financing the project.

He said the group is exploring other options, including using federal stimulus funds.

Some stimulus money already is headed for the Bottom -- the GRTC bus system plans to use much of the $13.8 million it is getting to help pay for a downtown transfer station in the train shed behind Main Street Station.

The shed is a historic building, and its renovation would generate tax credits from the state -- the same kind of credits the Shockoe Center developers once had considered as a source of funds for their project.

Boisseau said it might be time to re-examine using credits to help pay for the ballpark.

"We're looking at a lot of options," he said.

Contact David Ress at (804) 649-6051 or .