Okay, so I haven't blogged in forever. And I am still digging out from the work pile-up from attending the VCU Real Estate Trends Conference yesterday. But I am fired up enough about the newspaper coverage and the post-conference scuttlebutt that I am taking 20 minutes out to blog on the topic.
So, one of the three break out sessions was titled "Economic Impact of Sports and Entertainment." Of course, being weeks away from the national election, none of the three sessions dealt with the potential implications of the national election on the housing and commercial real estate market. Sports and entertainment is clearly more pressing. This is a real shocker when you consider the private market forces + Venture Richmond are pushing for a baseball stadium in Shockoe Bottom. Again. And of course, don't forget that VCU has its eyes on the former University of Richmond/City Stadium property, a choice urban core 19-acre developable parcel of real estate, for the as-yet-t0-be-announced VCU football program. Of course the ** positive** impacts of sports and entertainment development are more important than who is President.
But my sarcasm is showing, and I digress.
Based on the newspaper coverage I read today, the reporters attended a different conference than I did. Here is the Richmond Times-Dispatch's coverage, "Richmond Urged to Build a Stadium Downtown." According to the reporter, and consistent with the remarks of both the introducer and the panel moderator, "Downtown" equals Shockoe Bottom. What the intended conclusion is, I believe, and not-too-subtly advanced one at that - Richmond really needs, four years after the SAME battle over location, a new Double A baseball stadium in Shockoe Bottom.
Huh?
I've heard Tom Murphy, the former Mayor of Pittsburgh, speak multiple times now. He is a dynamic speaker and clearly a visionary thinker. His relevance to Richmond: During his tenure as Mayor of Pittsburgh, he spearheaded the development of new professional football and baseball stadiums, and the re-genesis of a downtown area into a "cultural arts district," in a similarly sized town, all at the same time, and with no money.
Here's what I don't get. Every time I've heard Mayor Murphy speak, he talks about the mistake that was made with Three Rivers Stadium, because it did not take advantage of Pittsburgh's greatest asset, the rivers. He talks about the mistake of allowing surface parking to take over prime riverfront real estate. He describes incorporating the river as the backdrop and creating parks and green space between the facilities and the river, to allow, and indeed encourage, the public to take advantage of the river. Mayor Murphy speaks passionately about how the sports and arts facility development succeeded in Pittsburgh because the DESIGN was intentional.
If you listen to Mayor Murphy speak, I have no idea how anyone could conclude that a successful Richmond baseball stadium should be located in....Shockoe Bottom. If you track the story of Pittsburgh's success, and try to copy the formula as best you can here, the baseball stadium should be....in Manchester.
I know, I know, I've talked about baseball in Manchester before. But it makes a hell of a lot more sense to me there than Shockoe Bottom. The former Reynolds Metals South Plant property, anyone?
More tomorrow, when I'm less fired up, about why Shockoe Bottom is a terrible idea, why Manchester could really work, and how I interpret the model of the "urban dumbells" of sports and entertainment development, applied to Richmond's current landscape. Let's just say in no model that I come up with does a baseball stadium in Shockoe Bottom make sense. Ever.
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