Diamond Area / Hermitage Rd Corridor / Ownby District

[vaceltic]

I think Goldman will be successful to push the referendum. The referendum will pass. And MLB will just have to wait it out longer along with the rest of us. 

[Downtowner]

Paul Goldman is the biggest thorn in this city. The man stalls and delays everything. Also with supply of housing so low this just makes housing worse in the city. I’m so over this dude he will end up making this whole thing way more expensive than it already is and will make mlb have very little patience if any at all left, mlb needs to bring someone down and shut this clown up. 

[I miss RVA]

2 hours ago, vaceltic said:

 And MLB will just have to wait it out longer along with the rest of us. 

There's a shelf-life to MLB's patience. There are other baseball-worthy markets and MLB's patience will run out at some point if we don't get off the stick. Even if the referendum passes (and you're a lot more confident about that than I am, tbh) we don't need to unduly introduce an additional six-month delay into the process. If the referendum DOESN'T pass... then what? Just sit tight, rework the process and expect MLB to continue simply smile and say - "Oh, no problem. Do what you need to do. Maybe you can get a ballpark built by 2027... or 2028... or later... or never. That's fine. No worries... You can still play at the Diamond until the 57th of Nevuary..."  ??  Really?? Methinks not.

[I miss RVA]

And... right on cue... RBS's reporting on the situation:

Goldman's saying the ballpark's opening can/should be pushed off until 2027. WTF has he been smoking? MLB agreeing to a one-year extension to their deadline is one thing. Asking them for yet ANOTHER year's extension beyond that? I'm sorry but this is utter BS - period. Complete and total BS.

"Give us time" he says. Delay, delay, delay. That's been the hallmark of why SO many developments in RVA have never - EVER - gotten off the ground over the decades. Too much faffing around and delaying and being utterly stupid. RVA's track record speaks for itself: the longer projects get delayed, the greater the chance they have of being scuttled because they become too bloody expensive. This referendum BS is only going to ADD to the cost of this development. How much will the residential side need to be scaled back down the road because it will have become too damn expensive to build?

And while there's a school of thought that says: "Oh, don't worry... the Squirrels aren't going anywhere. We can wait this out" ... I ask this: what happens IF they DO leave? What happens IF MLB says - "okay - enough's enough. Y'all aren't serious about this. We're moving on. Sorry..."  THEN what? Y'all okay with that? Or will it just be a shrug of the shoulders and a "Well, I guess we were wrong..." ?? YA THINK??

Someone nailed it in the RBS comments section, saying: "This is why we can't have nice things".  Exactly!!!

Okay... stepping down from the soapbox.

From today's Richmond BizSense:

https://richmondbizsense.com/2024/05/10/diamond-district-financing-pivot-prompts-lawsuit-seeking-referendum/

Edited May 10 by I miss RVA

[BigBobbyG]

Quote

“Give us some time,” Goldman said. “There’s plenty of fiscally responsible ways to do this. There is a way to do it and get it done by 2027.”

I'm sorry but this made me laugh. There is nothing this man thinks would be "fiscally responsible",  he just doesn't want to be known as the man who wants to send the squirrels packing as this all up in the air.

[I miss RVA]

Welp - like they used to say in the old Ronco commercials: "But wait, there's more!!"

Here's WRIC TV8 News' reporting on this, including their imbedded video of two of the stories from their newscast. Worth taking a few minutes to watch them.

https://www.wric.com/news/local-news/richmond/this-is-going-to-go-down-bigger-than-the-casino-attorney-sues-richmond-petitions-for-diamond-district-funding-referendum/

[BigBobbyG]

I’m still confused as to whether he’s done anything that can actually slow this down. Everything I read said that the only thing he could request or petition would be an “optional referendum” and whether he likes it or not the city is allowed to issue bonds without referendum since it’s an independent city. If it’s optional why would they even bother given they’ve already passed the ordinances. 
 

Wouldn't a judge see that the duly elected representatives acted within their power and say that there’s no reason to place an injunction? 
 

I know I’m just speculating here and the real answer is that we have to wait and see, but is there anything I’m missing in my analysis? 

[123fakestreet]

31 minutes ago, BigBobbyG said:

I’m still confused as to whether he’s done anything that can actually slow this down. Everything I read said that the only thing he could request or petition would be an “optional referendum” and whether he likes it or not the city is allowed to issue bonds without referendum since it’s an independent city. If it’s optional why would they even bother given they’ve already passed the ordinances. 
 

Wouldn't a judge see that the duly elected representatives acted within their power and say that there’s no reason to place an injunction? 
 

I know I’m just speculating here and the real answer is that we have to wait and see, but is there anything I’m missing in my analysis? 

He doesn't need to actively kill it, just delay the process.   If he can get a court to agree he needs enough time to get the signatures to at least present the referendum petition to the city, the city can say they don't want the referendum but he's already delayed everything. Then file something else after that to delay again.  Constantly delaying through spurious legal maneuvers is how corrupt people bend the system to their will. 

[Child2021]

Mike Dodson has an interesting point to all this, and he should know as a former city planner, but all of this will interesting to see play out.

[I miss RVA]

18 minutes ago, 123fakestreet said:

He doesn't need to actively kill it, just delay the process.   If he can get a court to agree he needs enough time to get the signatures to at least present the referendum petition to the city, the city can say they don't want the referendum but he's already delayed everything. Then file something else after that to delay again.  Constantly delaying through spurious legal maneuvers is how corrupt people bend the system to their will. 

Right - the bigger immediate worry is the filing for an injunction preventing the city from issuing the bonds. Even without a referendum, that hamstrings the city in being able to move forward on the project - and it's a delay tactic. I question whether he has standing and, if so, exactly how so/what is it? I pray the judge throws this out - but I don't think that will happen. I've been wrong before, though - so we'll see.

But you're right, @123fakestreet - Goldman's whole shtick is to delay this as much as possible and make the whole project untenable. I don't completely understand his motive - or how, looking at the bigger picture, he (or ANYONE) could think that having a basically 67-acre parking lot with a soccer field (that's going to go away when VCU builds out their new facilities) and a ballpark that's going to crumble to the ground from lack of use for the next God-knows-how-many decades is better than the risks associated with the financing of the Diamond District redevelopment. He talks about residents being on the hook if the project "fails" - well, the surest way to absolutely ENSURE that it fails is to delay it and stand in the way of it even getting off the ground.

I'm just at a loss on this - and if I keep scratching my head, I'm going to start losing layers of scalp. Ugh...

[Child2021]

Charter - Richmond (virginia.gov)

 

[I miss RVA]

7 minutes ago, Child2021 said:

Mike Dodson has an interesting point to all this, and he should know as a former city planner, but all of this will interesting to see play out.

Interesting!

Good find, @Child2021 - and I didn't realize Mike Dodson is a former city planning. For Richmond?

Okay - then my next question would be: even if the court rules in favor of the city, couldn't Goldman appeal and keep this tied up in the courts, thereby STILL further delaying the process?

[Child2021]

1 minute ago, I miss RVA said:

Interesting!

Good find, @Child2021 - and I didn't realize Mike Dodson is a former city planning. For Richmond?

Okay - then my next question would be: even if the court rules in favor of the city, couldn't Goldman appeal and keep this tied up in the courts, thereby STILL further delaying the process?

I imagine he probably could, though I'm not sure. 

Edited May 12 by Child2021
EDIT

[BigBobbyG]

I see, thanks for the info y’all. Everything y'all described doesn’t sound great in terms of getting the bonds issued . With regards to the charters language, I don’t understand the optional-ness of it . That didn’t sound all that optional to me.  

I think this is a little bit of cope but I hope you that the cities dismissive attitude towards this is based on something and not just bluster. I still feel like the cities attorneys had to have expected this from him? 

[I miss RVA]

1 hour ago, BigBobbyG said:

I still feel like the cities attorneys had to have expected this from him? 

I might be wrong on this, but I believe he's been public-facing about not just opposing this but taking action from the first hint that the city was changing the financial structure of this redevelopment how-ever-many weeks ago. So yeah - they were anticipating it.

[KJHburg]

Saw this crane up seems to be near The Diamond up Arthur Ashe towards I-95.   What is that for mid rise apartments?

 

[wrldcoupe4]

Correct 

[Child2021]

Court case for the Diamond District proposal to be heard Thursday. 

Date set for judge to hear Diamond District lawsuit (msn.com)

[eandslee]

3 hours ago, KJHburg said:

Saw this crane up seems to be near The Diamond up Arthur Ashe towards I-95.   What is that for mid rise apartments?

 

This will become The Ace:

https://sjgproperties.com/portfolio/1117-1209-n-arthur-ashe/

[I miss RVA]

51 minutes ago, Child2021 said:

Court case for the Diamond District proposal to be heard Thursday. 

Date set for judge to hear Diamond District lawsuit (msn.com)

Praying it gets tossed out.

[BigBobbyG]

20 minutes ago, I miss RVA said:

Praying it gets tossed out.

Amen, as much as I want him shot down I’m legitimately curious on how what standing he thinks he has. The state says that independent cities have the right to raise bonds without referendum. How do you get around that? 
 

I understand the optional one and how lack of info about it could gum up things, but it’s optional right? 

[I miss RVA]

2 minutes ago, BigBobbyG said:

Amen, as much as I want him shot down I’m legitimately curious on how what standing he thinks he has. The state says that independent cities have the right to raise bonds without referendum. How do you get around that? 
 

I understand the optional one and how lack of info about it could gum up things, but it’s optional right? 

Your guess is as good as mine. Not sure if we have some legal eagles who are expert in Virginia jurisdictional law in our community who could weigh in on this.

[BigBobbyG]

Ignore my previous message, I realized that I was essentially just restating my questions from the other day. My apologies on that, Bamboo Cafe's drinks were a bit stronger than I anticipated. I did however see this point raised on the bizsense article that I found interesting. Again, just speculation and we will find out tomorrow but I figured id share this here in case anyone else is interested.

[BigBobbyG]

Just saw this, I'm not exactly sure what it means though? Goldman says it's good for him but unless i'm interpreting this wrong the judge's statement sounds fairly harsh towards him?

[BigBobbyG]

Sorry for the double post but this is way more positive than the screenshot I sent:

https://www.12onyourside.com/2024/05/16/judge-hears-arguments-over-diamond-district-stadium-finance-lawsuit/

So it looks like the second court date is when the bonds actually become effective meaning it’d be a fait accompli? Like it’d be possible some of those bonds would be bought up by the time the judge rules on it that day right?  Regardless of whether that's true or not it does seem like the judge not placing the temporary injunction and setting the court date to when the bonds are effective is a decent sign of how he is feeling about this.

Edited May 17 by BigBobbyG