Shockoe Center planners lack deal for parking deck

The backers of a proposed ballpark in Richmond's Shockoe Bottom have not locked up access to a state parking deck on game days, despite a public claim that an agreement is in place.

Bryan Bostic, who is working to buy a minor-league baseball team to relocate to Richmond, was asked during a debate last week about the proposed Shockoe Center development whether his group had secured use of the state's parking deck at 14th and East Main streets.

"Yes, ma'am. Would you like to see it?" Bostic told debate opponent Jean Wight at the Public Square, hosted May 12 by the Richmond Times-Dispatch.

Wight, a Church Hill resident, responded that she simply was asking a question and wasn't requiring proof. But a day later, she contacted state officials and learned there's no such agreement, only discussions.

Pete Boisseau, a spokesman for Shockoe Center, said the developers have an "agreement in principle" for use of the state's 1,500-space parking deck. The agreement would be formalized as the Shockoe Center project progresses, Boisseau said.

He released an April 2 e-mail exchange between a representative of Bostic's group, Richmond Baseball Club, and Richard Sliwoski, director of the Virginia Department of General Services.

In his e-mail, Stan Joynes, an attorney with RBC, advised that Sliwoski likely would be contacted about after-hours use of the deck for Shockoe Center. Joynes added that it was his understanding that "parking would be made available consistent with the commonwealth's bond counsel's advice." Sliwoski responded, "exactly."

Sliwoski said this week that bond advisers would need to make sure that any outside use of the deck would not jeopardize the tax-exempt status of the bonds that were used for financing. That issue won't be studied, he said, until a formal proposal is submitted.

Wight said Bostic's statement was particularly disturbing because it came during a debate attended by Mayor Dwight C. Jones and City Council members.

Now, "I question their integrity on every other matter," she said of Shockoe Center's backers.

The ballpark is expected to attract, at most, 2,000 vehicles per game, according to the developers of Shockoe Center, which would include residences, hotels, restaurants and other uses.

Officials say the demand would be met by 4,100 existing spaces in decks and surface lots within a few blocks of the ballpark, as well as 820 new spaces that are part of the development's first phase.

In last week's debate, Bostic brought up the area's existing parking spaces in response to a comment from an audience member. Bostic's point was that many of the spaces are publicly owned and unused at night, when most games would be played.

"Let's leverage those investments" by making the deck available to baseball patrons, he said.

In 2000, when the city bought Main Street Station from the state, the city also agreed to a 30-year lease of 350 spaces in the deck at 14th and Main. The deal called for the city to pay $4.1 million when the deck opened in 2005, but city officials ultimately decided the spaces weren't needed, Sliwoski said.

"We mutually agreed that the state would let them out of their obligation," he said.

Contact Will Jones at (804) 649-6911 or .