Richmond wanted a new ballpark and a new neighborhood. Instead, it created a deal with too many moving parts, too many unfinished pieces and no obvious person responsible for making sure everything worked together.
The Diamond District was supposed to be simple.
Build a new stadium for the Flying Squirrels.
Use the stadium to help attract private development.
Build housing, affordable housing, restaurants, offices, a hotel, parks and new infrastructure around it.
Turn underused public land into a new Richmond neighborhood.
Instead, Richmond created one of the most complicated development deals in the city.
The stadium got built.
But other pieces moved more slowly. Important agreements were still being completed in 2026. Disputes developed among parties. And litigation followed.
So what went wrong?
The simplest answer may be the best one:
Richmond made the deal too complicated.
Too Many Moving Parts
Look at everyone involved.
The City.
The Economic Development Authority.
City Council.
Diamond District Partners.
The Flying Squirrels.
VCU.
Sports Backers.
A Community Development Authority.
Bondholders.
Lenders.
Lawyers.
Consultants.
And multiple agreements connecting them.
Large developments naturally involve many parties.
But every additional party creates another relationship that has to work.
And in the Diamond District, many pieces depended upon other pieces being completed first.
Infrastructure depended upon land.
Development depended upon infrastructure.
Some land transactions required additional agreements.
VCU needed an agreement to use the stadium.
The Squirrels had their own contractual rights.
The developer had development obligations.
The EDA had financing and contractual responsibilities.
The City had financial responsibilities.
It became a domino line.
If one piece moved slowly, other pieces could move slowly too.
Then the Financing Changed
The deal became even more complicated when the financing changed.
Richmond initially contemplated one financing approach.
Then it changed course.
In 2024, City Council unanimously approved a revised Diamond District package.
Council authorized up to $170 million in general-obligation bonds for the stadium.
It also approved an infrastructure-financing structure involving up to $40 million in EDA revenue bonds, supported by a City cooperation agreement subject to annual appropriation.
Those were maximum authorizations, not necessarily the amounts ultimately borrowed.
But forget the financial jargon for a moment.
The important point is this:
Richmond was changing how it planned to pay for the project while the project was moving forward.
That should have been a flashing yellow light.
If the financing changed, Richmond should have stopped and asked whether the risks had changed too.
Then the Development Team Changed
The development team changed too.
The original proposal involved a group that included Thalhimer Realty Partners, Republic Properties and Loop Capital.
That relationship later fractured.
Republic sued Thalhimer and Loop Capital. The allegations were disputed and are not findings of wrongdoing.
But taxpayers don't need to become experts in that litigation to understand the basic issue.
Richmond selected a development proposal from a particular team.
Then the team changed.
That should produce a simple question:
Are we still getting the deal we originally selected?
Government should be able to answer that question clearly.
Too Much Was Left for Later
This may have been Richmond's biggest mistake.
Too many important pieces were still being worked out after the larger project was already moving.
Sports Backers controlled property needed for later development.
VCU needed its own arrangements.
Infrastructure depended upon property access.
Private development depended upon infrastructure.
Different agreements had different parties and different deadlines.
And while all of that was being sorted out, Richmond was building the stadium.
By May 2026, the Avula administration was still announcing major agreements involving VCU, Sports Backers, the EDA and Diamond District Partners.
Those agreements represented progress.
But they also raise an obvious question.
Why were important pieces of the Diamond District still being resolved after the stadium had already opened?
That gets to the heart of the problem.
Richmond built the centerpiece before every piece surrounding it was locked into place.
The Stadium Was Supposed to Be the Beginning
The Diamond District was never supposed to be just a baseball stadium.
That is important.
The stadium was supposed to anchor something much bigger.
Housing.
Affordable housing.
Restaurants.
Retail.
Offices.
A hotel.
Parks.
Infrastructure.
Private investment.
A new neighborhood.
That larger development helped justify the public investment.
So Richmond cannot measure success simply by pointing toward the stadium and saying:
We built it.
Of course Richmond built it.
The question is whether Richmond gets everything that was supposed to come with it.
Then Came the Lawsuit
The Flying Squirrels' ownership entity eventually sued the City, the EDA and others.
The lawsuit includes allegations concerning obligations associated with the broader mixed-use development around the stadium.
Those allegations are disputed and have not been decided by a court.
But the lawsuit matters for another reason.
It exposed the weakness in the structure.
The stadium could move forward while the development surrounding it moved at a different speed.
That should concern Richmond because the two were supposed to work together.
The stadium was the anchor.
The neighborhood was the economic-development promise.
Richmond needed both.
Where Was the EDA?
The Economic Development Authority appears throughout the Diamond District paperwork.
The EDA was involved with financing.
Development agreements.
The stadium structure.
Infrastructure.
Land transactions.
Sports Backers.
Other negotiations.
That makes the EDA one of the most important players in the entire deal.
But it also raises a very basic question:
Who was watching the whole project?
Not just the EDA's piece.
Not just the stadium.
Not just infrastructure.
Not just the developer.
Everything.
Because someone needed to be looking at the entire board.
If everybody was responsible for one square, who was responsible for the chessboard?
And Where Was City Council?
City Council cannot escape that question either.
Council did not negotiate every contract.
But Council approved the deal.
Unanimously.
Council approved the revised development structure.
Council authorized the stadium financing.
Council approved the infrastructure-financing structure.
Council created the Community Development Authority.
Council approved the City's cooperation arrangement with the EDA.
Voting yes wasn't the end of Council's job.
It should have been the beginning of oversight.
Council should have kept asking simple questions:
Are we on schedule?
Is the private development happening?
Have costs changed?
Have agreements changed?
Are taxpayers taking on more risk?
Is the developer meeting its obligations?
Who is responsible for delays?
And what happens if something doesn't work?
Those questions don't require hundreds of pages of legal documents.
They require oversight.
Keep It Simple
Strip away the bonds.
Strip away the acronyms.
Strip away the development agreements.
Strip away the organizational charts.
The Diamond District problem becomes much easier to understand.
Richmond wanted to accomplish two things:
Build a stadium.
Build a neighborhood around it.
The stadium got built.
The neighborhood is still developing.
And the road between those two outcomes became filled with financing changes, property transactions, additional agreements, disputes and lawsuits.
That does not mean the Diamond District will ultimately fail.
It does mean Richmond should study how it became so complicated.
Because the lesson may be remarkably simple.
Don't create a public project so complicated that nobody can easily explain who is responsible when something goes wrong.
One Simple Question
Richmond doesn't need another 300-page document to explain the Diamond District.
It needs clear answers.
What was promised?
What has been delivered?
What remains unfinished?
How much public money is involved?
Who is responsible for each unfinished piece?
And when will it be completed?
That's it.
The Diamond District may still become the neighborhood Richmond was promised.
But taxpayers should not need lawyers, accountants and a stack of EDA meeting packets to understand whether the deal is working.
The stadium is standing.
The larger development is still unfolding.
And before Richmond takes on another project this complicated, City Hall should answer one very simple question:
Who was actually in charge?
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