RICHMOND, Va. — Baseball games are returning to the Diamond District and the new CarMax Park in Richmond, but construction and projects around the stadium are just getting started.
Located at the crossroads of Interstates 64, 95, and 195, crews will begin working on retail and office space plus a hotel in phase one of the new district through a public-private partnership.
The district will also house 161 middle-income housing units at 60 percent area median and 730 market-rate housing units. Those are projects Richmond’s director of economic development Angie Rodgers called important to include in the design plans.
"These days, no one's building just a stadium. Jurisdictions are seeking to have stadium districts, and that means people are living, working and playing in the same area and feeding the economy of that area 24 hours a day,” Rodgers told CBS 6 inside CarMax Park. “We want an opportunity for people of across the income spectrum to live all over the city.”
Watch: Richmond Flying Squirrels open new CarMax Park
Jeremy Hoffman, president of Greater Scott’s Addition Association, said the group shared input with the design teams and pushed for more green space and road infrastructure.
“We’ve learned that if you don’t plan properly for the growth that a neighborhood like ours can see for things like pedestrian and bike infrastructure, it quickly comes into conflict with other community needs like parking,” Hoffman said.
A public park is scheduled to be built which fills a long-desired need in the booming neighborhood.
Watch: New trees, sidewalks and benches in ‘hot’ Scott’s Addition
“The Greater Scott's Addition Association has brought on three or four small pocket park areas over the last five years, but nothing to the degree that is planned for the Diamond District — a very long linear park that kind of serves as some sort of public area backbone to the development,” Hoffman said.
Hoffman hoped planned retail spaces could be used by local business owners to potentially add a second location.
Jay Bayer intentionally looked for a growing neighborhood like Scott’s Addition when he founded Bingo Beer Co. in a former bingo hall about eight years ago.
He said they are excited about the potential economic benefits and new neighbors, including the potential impact of the new Arthur Ashe Boulevard Bridge that connects his neighborhood to the Diamond District.
“I think it's hard not to recognize that there's so much opportunity in the Diamond District for a lot more tax -based revenue for the city to improve schools, improve roads — just improve daily life for so many Richmonders through more development,” Bayer said.
Rodgers said the city sold about $130 million in bonds to fund the construction of CarMax Park in addition to $30 million in city dollars and $10 million of state funding for infrastructure about the stadium.
“That is a public investment that's going to net us many times over. So, the stadium alone, over 20 years, is expected to net us $430 million in revenue, and that's after we pay off the bonds,” she said.
CarMax Park is slated to be open year-round and offer concerts and private events that the Diamond couldn’t provide. Phase one is scheduled to be completed in about five years.
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