Style Weekly brings forward another idea for the parking lots of Shockoe Bottom, this time from former mayoral candidate Lawrence Williams.

Williams envisions a four-square-block complex in the Bottom bounded by Main Street Station and 18th streets, running from the end of the 17th Street Farmers’ Market north to Broad. It would be a smaller-scale park on the “same footprint as the Coliseum in Rome,” Williams says. Unlike the Highwoods proposal, he’s shifted the orientation of the baseball stadium and added removable bleachers behind the outfield. This would accommodate an overlapping regulation football and soccer field, and, who knows, maybe a seasonal ice rink, in the same facility allowing for year round use, he says.

Highwoods Properties annouced today that they are dropping the Shockoe Center project which also included a development along Boulevard, blaming the major Boulevard vs Shockoe stadium debate and a lack of a team. [via]

Former city councilman Sa’ad El-Amin has come out adamantly against any form of the Shockoe Center project, arguing that the area should be used entirely to commemorate the Slave Trail and black heritage in Richmond. He has started a nonprofit aimed at preserving sites significant to Richmond’s black history. [via]

Silver Persinger’s Richmond City Council Reporter & Telegraph has the raw video from Davenport and Company presentation at Councilperson Ellen Robertson’s monthly 6th District meeting held yesterday at the downtown Bank of America building.

Mayor Jones plans to release the executive summary of a study on the proposed Shockoe Stadium today. The group performing the study hasalready indicated support for a ballpark in Shockoe, but this report is supposed to be a more in depth look into its financial viability. A press release from the City on Friday suggests that the study favors a stadium in Shockoe, and Mayor Jones will begin looking into opportunities to bring baseball back to Richmond. [via]

UPDATE: Executive Summary of Shockoe Report

Tonight at 7 p.m. a debate and public comment period regarding baseball in the Bottom vs. baseball on the Boulevard will be held at the Richmond Times Dispatch headquarters

To catch up on the latest back and forth, RichmondBizSense is reporting problems in purchasing a baseball team, Club Velvet’s controversial anti-stadium sign can stay for now, and some people are wondering where that report is…

Despite many community meetings presenting Highwoods Properties’ plan for Shockoe Center, an official website promoting the project has been noticeably absent. Coinciding with the beginning of the 2009 baseball season, the official Shockoe Center website is finally up. Check it out at http://shockoecenter.com.

As we wait for the latest economic study on the Shockoe Center and stadium proposal, the debate keeps on in our neighborhood. The RTD published a column from a Shockoe Bottom business owner who strongly supports the stadium. Josh Dare from the Hodges Partnership focuses his argument on why Shockoe Bottom is the best location and how the Shockoe Center proposal could be the missing link in revitalizing downtown. [via]

Not only was Shockoe Bottom the premier locale for a downtown ballpark in Richmond, it is the best site anywhere in the country… why has this Boulevard versus the Bottom debate been languishing for all these years?

A Shockoe Center Minority Participation Briefing/Reception to provide briefing on potential minority participation in the Shockoe Center development by contractors, subcontractors and design professionals will be hosted on April 21 by Donald McEachin, Highwoods Properties and Central Virginia Business and Construction Association in Senate Room 3 at State Capitol.

Read more >

The RTD is reporting that the City is spending $100 k to study to the financial feasibility of the stadium proposal. A spokesperson for Highwood Properties calls the independent assessment “greatly encouraging”. [via]

UPDATE: The firms that will perform the independent assessment already endorsed the project in a study they performed 6 months ago. The study will focus specifically on Highwoods Proposal, whereas the initial study focused on where the best location for the stadium is. [via]

Style Weekly has the story on an interesting idea for Shockoe Bottom: restore a creek that used to run through the neighborhood. ACORN, citing the need for more water features and restoring nature, believes that the creek would be a better alternative to the Shockoe Center project.

Stadium representatives have released the following points regarding Shockoe Center. The points highlight what was discussed at the Community Support Meetings held last week. “Supporters of Baseball in the Bottom” encourage fellow supporters to contact their local representatives to voice their support for the proposal.

• Development Conforms to Downtown Master Plan: walkable, street retail, human scale, mixed use, expands Farmers Market;
• Development has been revised to and will accommodate, respect and enhance Lumpkins Jail site and Slave Trail;
• Flood Plain – Ballpark key to solution – concourse around Ball Park provides FEMA-required emergency access to buildings within the flood plain development provides almost 4 acres of green space – 4 more acres than exists now;
• Site right now: 22 Acres of undeveloped land that generates $95K in tax revenue; What site could be: $318MM in investment that generates $3.7MM annually in City revenues on top of bond debt service; after bonds paid, all revenue goes to City and State;

Read more >

For those keeping score,  Style Weekly’s cleverly-named cover story this week strongly criticizes the downtown stadium proposal. With the residents of Richmond divided on the issue, Style has clearly sided with those opposed to the stadium.

It requires a deep-seated, religious-like faith to believe that a new ballpark for a team that doesn’t exist can save downtown and become an economic catalyst for retail development, condos and new office buildings. You must turn a blind eye to decades of Richmond history and contrarian evidence, the almost-universal dismissal by academics that sports stadiums are economic generators.

The first community support meeting for Shockoe Center was held tonight at GlobeHopper. With approximately 30-40 people in attendance for the meeting, a clear majority seemed to be in support of the project. More information on the details of the meeting are coming tomorrow.

If you are interested in attending tomorrow night’s meeting, it will begin at 5:30 at GlobeHopper, 2100 East Main Street in Shockoe Bottom. 804-523-8083.

Two lively discussions are currently taking place over at the Church Hill People’s News.

A recent snapshot poll on this site, taken across the end of the 1st week of February, has 75% of the respondents are in favor of development that includes baseball in Shockoe Bottom.

Where do you stand on the proposed stadium?