Letter: Squirrels’ plan for winter holiday event at risk over roadwork planned near ballpark entrance
Work to build a road near the entrance of Richmond’s new CarMax Park could jeopardize offseason events planned at the stadium, a lawyer for the Richmond Flying Squirrels ownership said in a recent letter to the city, including a holiday “WinterWorld” attraction.
In a June 22 letter to Richmond’s Economic Development Authority, a lawyer said Navigators Baseball, the ownership group behind the Squirrels, has plans in the works to spend more than $3 million on WinterWorld. The vision, according to the letter, includes an ice rink, ice slide and a “holiday lighting program.”
With little communication from city representatives about resolving the stadium access dispute, the letter says, those plans are “at risk” and the team’s ability to generate revenue during the offseason “is being undermined.”
“Let us be blunt: the Navigators are the only entity in this area currently generating revenue and economic activity,” ArentFox Schiff attorney Kelli Scheid Smith wrote on behalf of the Navigators. “It is remarkable that the EDA — whose stated mission is economic development — appears indifferent to the economic damage that will be inflicted on the one operational asset in the Diamond District.”
The Diamond District project was publicly funded with $130 million in city-backed bonds. Those bonds are expected to be paid off through new money generated from the revitalized area, which means the city has a financial interest in the ballpark getting as much use as possible.
The letter — which The Richmonder obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request — is the latest in a series of confrontational exchanges involving Squirrels owner Lou DiBella, the city and the private developers working on the bigger Diamond District redevelopment project anchored by the new ballpark. Thalhimer Realty Partners is the lead entity in Diamond District Partners, the LLC representing the private development side of the project.
In May, DiBella filed a defamation lawsuit against Thalhimer developer Jason Guillot over a heated encounter the two men had on the ballpark’s suite level on opening night. DiBella has not sued the city, but his lawyers have repeatedly raised the possibility in correspondence with Richmond officials.
Mayor Danny Avula and his administration have largely avoided getting into a tit-for-tat with DiBella, a New York native whose career as a boxing promoter landed him in the International Boxing Hall of Fame.
Michael Phillips
The city has routinely declined to comment on the letters from DiBella’s lawyers. The Avula administration has signaled the Diamond District is progressing as planned by issuing press releases about positive milestones being achieved, such as the EDA successfully purchasing Sports Backers Stadium from VCU. That freed up a parcel critical to development near CarMax Park and broader plans for a hotel, apartments, retail and restaurants.
Media outlets have reported on the more hostile aspects of the situation through publicly available court documents and FOIA requests for correspondence related to the project. The city has seemed reluctant to offer documents or information laying out its own stance, often taking the maximum amount of time the law allows to fulfill FOIA requests for specific letters that presumably wouldn’t involve extensive searches to locate.
When the City Council was asked earlier this year to approve a $14.7 million loan from the city’s emergency reserves to allow the Sports Backers Stadium purchase to move forward, the legislative body was assured the project was going well. In their correspondence with the city, the Navigators have pointed to that loan as an example of “the financial deterioration surrounding the project.”
Victoria A. Ifatusin
The city’s largely silent approach to the issues that have upset DiBella doesn't appear to be cooling off the situation.
“That the EDA and DDP continue to ignore this matter — or worse, to treat it as someone else’s problem or not a problem at all — is unacceptable,” the June 22 Navigators letter says.
A spokesperson for the EDA said the June 22 letter had been received, but declined to comment on its contents. Thalhimer also declined to comment.
DiBella has been feuding with Thalhimer over a small parcel of land near the ballpark’s entrance where Thalhimer wants to put a sports bar that DiBella claims will undercut the Squirrels’ concession business. DiBella has tried to buy the parcel from Thalhimer, without success.
The Squirrels owners have also signaled little desire to finish a planned deal with Virginia Commonwealth University to allow the school’s baseball team to play at the ballpark as long as VCU chips in its own rent money. Because VCU wanted to lock in the deal to play at CarMax Park before selling Sports Backers Stadium, the Squirrels’ inability to reach an agreement with VCU has contributed to the Diamond District delays.
The new ballpark was publicly financed, which means the city’s economic development arm owns the facility and leases it to the Squirrels for $3.2 million in yearly rent. The ownership group has accused the city, essentially the team’s landlord, of failing to deliver on its end of the deal and being unresponsive to concerns about the venue being disrupted by surrounding construction.
In a broader letter sent to the city on June 11 by a different law firm, the Navigators said a disorganized and shifting approach has thrown the 67-acre Diamond District project off track, resulting in the new ballpark being finished as surrounding development, including the road by the main entrance, is just beginning. The early-June letter, sent by the Quinn Emanuel law firm based in New York, asked for a meeting with the EDA and city officials to “discuss the status of the project, the obstacles preventing completion of the surrounding development and potential paths forward.”
“The Stadium is open, and the Flying Squirrels are playing baseball. But the broader district that justified the project remains substantially incomplete,” wrote Quinn Emanual partner Luke Nikas. “While the Navigators are confident in their ability to pursue legal claims and remedies arising from the conduct described in this letter, filing a lawsuit will not, standing alone, timely deliver the broader Diamond District.”
Ryan M. Kelly
The June 11 letter said the $3.2 million rent is “among the highest rent obligations in Minor League Baseball,” without asking or demanding that the rent be lowered to make amends for “the divergence between what was promised and what was ultimately delivered.”
DiBella’s defamation suit is related to an alleged threat DiBella directed at Guillot during the argument. DiBella claims Guillot falsely reported to city officials that DiBella had threatened to kill him and his family. Guillot and Thalhimer have rejected that allegation as false, contending DiBella did indeed threaten Guillot during the incident but Guillot never reported it as a death threat.
Though there appear to be multiple fronts opening up in the Diamond District dispute, it’s unclear how the parties will resolve the immediate impasse over how the ballpark can host non-baseball events after the Squirrels season ends in September.
The annual “Squirrel-O-Ween” event scheduled for late October could also face disruption from the roadwork planned for the area, the letter says. The letter also mentions the possibility of a 13,000-person concert being planned for the ballpark around mid-October.
The EDA offered a brief response to the team owners’ first letter in May raising concerns about entrance obstructions.
On June 5, EDA Director Angie Rodgers sent an email indicating Diamond District Partners could start the roadwork on Oct. 19. Rodgers said it was her understanding that would be “after the largest fall event planned for the venue.”
“They will complete that work before the park’s opening day in 2027,” Rodgers wrote. “Between October 19, 2026 and opening day, the VIP entrance will be available. Based on the planned events/attendance, please confirm that this works.”
In their follow-up letter a few weeks later, the Navigators said it did not work, alleging the city and Diamond District Partners had “failed to provide any substantive resolution despite repeated requests.”
The Navigators proposed their own solution.
They said the team “must” be able to keep at least half of the main entrance open between Oct. 26 and Nov. 1 for the Halloween-themed event.
Construction could resume on Nov. 2, the Navigators letter said, but the roadwork must be “completed in its entirety” by Nov. 11.
“The Navigators require 100% use of the main entrance beginning November 11, 2026, in order to prepare for the opening of WinterWorld on November 18, 2026,” the letter says. “For the avoidance of doubt, DDP shall not be permitted to resume or restart road construction at any point following the conclusion of WinterWorld but the Navigators agree to discuss in good faith.”
The letter said the team is willing to “forego” the concert planned for mid-October and “other events for a period of six weeks.” The correspondence raised the possibility the team owners could seek a court injunction to “maintain the status quo.”
“Given your non-response to our previous correspondence related to this matter, and taking into account what has already been invested in these upcoming events, the Navigators are moving forward as outlined in this letter,” the attorney for the Navigators wrote.
Contact Reporter Graham Moomaw at gmoomaw@richmonder.org
