Lou DiBella’s dog bit Diamond District developer on Flying Squirrels opening night, according to account from Thalhimer execs
Two of the top leaders behind Richmond’s Diamond District project gave their account of a confrontation with Richmond Flying Squirrels owner Lou DiBella, portraying the baseball team’s owner as “out of line” as he threatened to put the developers “out of business.”
The account was written in a memo sent to city officials the morning after opening night at the new CarMax Stadium.
DiBella, who owns the Flying Squirrels, filed a defamation lawsuit against the developers last week, laying out numerous gripes with the work done by Thalhimer on the Diamond District.
In the April 8 memo, Jason Guillot, who oversees the project, and Maritza Pechin, Thalhimer’s director of development, laid out their version of events.
The two were invited to a suite on the second level of the stadium. The suite belonged to the Richmond Economic Development Authority.
Late in the game, an “unleashed and unaccompanied dog came bursting into the room,” according to the account. As Pechin attempted to corral the dog, it “attacked Maritza’s hand and then defecated on the carpet, on her hand and on Jason’s right shoe.”
The account continues that DiBella then comes into the suite, finds his dog, and begins laughing.
The memo says: “Lou chortled, ‘Haha! My dog s--- in the Thalhimer suite!’
“He went on to say that he thought it was hilarious and that he didn’t train his dog to do this, but that he thought it was appropriate given how much he hates us.”
The dog encounter was referenced in a text message included with DiBella’s lawsuit, where Richmond EDA Director Angie Rogers is attempting to reach out to DiBella two days after the event, and a day after the memo.
Rodgers writes that she would rather talk by phone than an email or text, which is subject to Freedom of Information Act laws, to which DiBella replies that “i thought you were calling me about the nonsense with my dog.”
Rodgers, however, was referring to a heated confrontation after the dog incident, which is also covered in the memo.
In DiBella’s version of events, Guillot, from Thalhimer, asks DiBella when he’s going to hit him, to which DiBella said he jokingly quoted a line from the movie “Diner,” saying he won’t hit Guillot but if he did he’d do so so hard he’d hurt his entire family.
Graham Moomaw
The two were arguing over a piece of land next to CarMax Park controlled by Thalhimer. While a small portion of the overall $2.4 billion Diamond District development, it sits directly next to the baseball stadium, and DiBella has indicated he believes Thalhimer is planning to put a sports bar there, which would eat into concession sales at baseball games. DiBella’s lawsuit claims the city and Thalhimer tried to use the incident at the stadium to strong-arm him in an ongoing dispute over whether VCU’s baseball team will also be allowed to play at CarMax Park.
In the memo, written by Guillot and Pechin, they lay out their version of the dispute.
They wrote: “Lou and Larry (Botel, one of DiBella’s associates) continued to corner Jason and told him that if he and Diamond District Partners (DDP) don’t relinquish control of a parcel of land outside the ballpark and sell it to them to develop, that Lou himself would do everything in his power to put DDP out of business, adding that if DDP tries to develop that parcel ourselves, that he (Lou) would come after Jason and his family with everything he has.
“Lou then went on to belittle Jason, telling him that he’s just a broker and has no experience developing property, and that he (Lou) could do a better job with the Diamond District himself. Jason countered this and told Lou he’s no developer himself, which incensed Lou.
“Lou then threatened to ‘bitch slap’ Jason twice in front of people in the hallway.”
The memo concludes by noting that a Flying Squirrels representative, Jamie Gordon, offered medical assistance to Pechin on her dog bite wound.
The following morning, Guillot said he received a text from Botel that said “Sorry about last night,” which he took as “confirmation that he knows Lou was out of line.”
The ongoing conflict, which was pulled out into the open on Thursday with DiBella’s lawsuit, has put a damper on an otherwise successful first two months at the stadium, which opened to generally strong reviews and ticket sales.
Richmond Mayor Danny Avula declined to take questions about the Diamond District at an unrelated event on Monday afternoon, and lawyers for DiBella did not immediately return a request for comment.
Contact Michael Phillips at mphillips@richmonder.org. Reporter Graham Moomaw contributed to this report.
