Richmond makes progress on Diamond District agreements, amid lawsuit

City of Richmond officials have made progress on three key agreements that will let work continue on the $2.4 billion Diamond District development, including site preparation and first steps toward Virginia Commonwealth University‘s leasing the new CarMax Park.

However, a defamation lawsuit brought by Richmond Flying Squirrels President and Managing Partner Lou DiBella in federal court last week against Richmond developer Thalhimer Realty Partners and Jason Guillot, a Thalhimer principal and lead Diamond District developer, revealed a dispute over a 0.8-acre parcel next to the baseball stadium.

Richmond Mayor Danny Avula and the Richmond Economic Development Authority announced last week that the EDA has agreed to purchase Sports Backers Stadium under a purchase-and-sale agreement, now executed. An EDA official confirmed the stadium’s price tag will be $25 million, as previously announced.

Also, Diamond District Partners, the development team led by Thalhimer Realty Partners, has executed an access agreement with Richmond EDA and VCU for the 6.6-acre Sports Backers property, set to be redeveloped.

Finally, VCU’s baseball team is closer to playing its home season next year at CarMax Park after a lease with the EDA was executed, although the university must first reach an operating agreement with Navigators Baseball, the Richmond Flying Squirrels‘ ownership group led by DiBella.

Originally the deals were expected to be wrapped up by the end of 2025, following an October ceremony featuring Avula signing documents alongside DiBella, VCU Athletics Director Ed McLaughlin and Richmond EDA Director Angie Rodgers.

And despite the city’s announcement, the purchase-and-sale transaction of the Sports Backers Stadium has not yet closed. In an email Monday, Richmond EDA Marketing Manager Bryonna Head said the transfer of title and funds remains pending.

“City Council approved additional financing necessary to support the acquisition in February, and the EDA has all the funds needed to complete the transaction,” she said. “Additionally, the access agreement executed alongside the purchase-and-sale agreement allows site and infrastructure work to begin before the Sports Backers Stadium property is formally conveyed.”

Head said the EDA is working with VCU and the settlement team to establish a closing date. VCU’s baseball team continued playing at The Diamond this spring even as the Squirrels had played their final game at the old stadium in September 2025. Ultimately, Sports Backers Stadium is set to be torn down in the next 12 months, according to Head. That will make way for work to start on other parts of the 67-acre Diamond District development, announced in 2022.

The larger development is set to include residences, retail space, a hotel and green space. Originally, city officials hoped to build a new home for the Double-A baseball team by March 2025, replacing The Diamond, but CarMax Park’s completion and opening was delayed until April after the team took charge in getting the stadium built.

Dispute over sports bar, land ownership

Meanwhile, there have been occasional public tensions between the team’s ownership group, the city and Thalhimer, ramping up to last week’s legal action.

DiBella’s lawsuit filed May 28 in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia claims Guillot falsely told Rodgers in April that DiBella threatened to kill Guillot and his family if the city didn’t sell DiBella an 0.8-acre parcel of land next to the stadium.

In response to a request for comment, Thalhimer issued a statement: “Many of the allegations in the lawsuit are inaccurate. We look forward to setting the record straight.” As of Tuesday, Guillot and Thalhimer’s attorneys had not yet formally responded to the lawsuit. 

Aside from the defamation allegations, the lawsuit notes that DiBella and his business partner, Larry Botel, “have been locked in contentious business dealings with Defendants, the City of Richmond, and the EDA for years over the Squirrels’ new stadium.” The complaint alleges the defendants defamed DiBella “to gain the upper hand in their business dealings.”

The complaint alleges that the city and EDA kept the 0.8-acre parcel when giving the Squirrels land for the stadium after DiBella proposed that the Squirrels’ ownership group build the stadium themselves. The city and EDA allegedly said the parcel was “earmarked for an ‘African American-owned food court’” that wouldn’t be a competitor to the Squirrels’ concessions and was needed to satisfy the requirement that 40% of the district be reserved for minority businesses.

However, the suit says that former Squirrels executive Todd “Parney” Parnell told DiBella and Botel that he’d learned from a Thalhimer-affiliated broker that Thalhimer planned to put a sports bar named after him on the 0.8-acre parcel, which would directly compete with the Squirrels. A Thalhimer broker confirmed to the Squirrels’ broker that the firm was close to finalizing a deal for a 15,000-square-foot sports bar, according to the suit.

According to a May 21 email from Cushman & Wakefield | Thalhimer, EAT Restaurant Partners leased 5,215 square feet of retail space in the Gateway Retail building at 3001 N. Arthur Ashe Blvd. The lawsuit cited a May 22 article from the Richmond Times-Dispatch that reported the restaurant group planned to put a sports bar on the property — a venue reportedly to be named after Parnell, the Squirrels’ former CEO.

However, EAT Restaurant Partners President Chris Tsui said Tuesday in a phone interview that although he plans to open a sports bar and restaurant on the land by late 2028 or the first half of 2029, his company never planned to name its bar after Parnell and never discussed such a concept with him.

“I think that might have been a previous potential tenant, but that is not us,” Tsui said. He said EAT, which owns multiple restaurant concepts around Richmond, signed a 10-year lease in mid-May with Thalhimer and has yet to determine specifics for the restaurant and sports bar.

“I think it’s going to be an exciting development,” Tsui said. “We just want to be complementary to the whole development and the baseball stadium.”

The Squirrels declined to comment Tuesday.

Plans for Sports Backers land

According to the city, the Sports Backers acquisition clears the way for development of the Diamond District’s full street grid and supporting infrastructure, two public parks and additional vertical development, including an affordable multifamily apartment building.

The access agreement among Diamond District Partners, the Richmond EDA and Virginia Commonwealth University gives DDP immediate access to the Sports Backers Stadium 6.6-acre plot to begin site and infrastructure work.

The EDA said demolition of Sports Backers Stadium is anticipated within the next 12 months, a year later than expected when officials discussed expectations in late 2025.

Meanwhile, under the lease executed between VCU and the EDA last week, the university will pay $410,000 annually under an initial 10-year lease term with two renewal options.

The lease became effective upon execution, according to the EDA.

Its commencement date is tied to either the start of VCU’s 2026 fall baseball activities or the execution of a separate use agreement between VCU and the Richmond Flying Squirrels/Navigators Baseball organization, but no later than Sept. 1.

The lease structure differs from a framework discussed publicly in 2025, a 30-year lease under which VCU would pay approximately $400,000 annually.

Head said the long-term plan remains for VCU baseball to begin playing at CarMax Park by January 2027.