The Diamond District

Or

Arthur Ashe Village

by Charles McGuigan 1.2022

Richmond is on the cusp of creating a brand new neighborhood on a sizable city-owned tract that resembles a patchwork quilt, never quite completed. Throughout it there are gaps and holes, scraps of wasteland sprinkled with gravel, and stitched together by an uneven assortment of hurricane fences. In its new incarnation it will be known as The Diamond District, and though no merchants will be buying and selling that hardest and most precious of gems, the City is banking on significant financial returns.

The scope of this project is unprecedented in recent memory. The site encompasses a little over 67 acres bounded by Arthur Ashe Boulevard, Interstate-95, Hermitage Road and the railroad tracks that feed into Acca Yard. What’s more, this tract is adjacent to the intersection of two of Virginia’s most heavily travelled interstate highways, from north to south and from east to west, blankets of asphalt that conduct streams of commerce and revenue.

Unlike other proposals that the City has made in the past, there appears to be transparency with this project. (To learn much more about this proposed development visit  https://rvadiamond.com/ and download a fairly comprehensive Request For Interest document.)

“I think we have learned a lot of valuable lessons from other projects that didn’t go forward,” says 2nd District City Councilwoman Katherine Jordan.  “And we’re committed as a Council and as a City to getting this done right, to be a project that everyone should be excited about, a unifying project, and most of all a project that is financially positive for the City, and a job creator. It’s a chance to create a new neighborhood, a new district in your City, and this is a fantastic opportunity and we look forward to seeing it to fruition and hope everyone remains engaged.”

3rd District Councilwoman Ann Frances Lambert agrees. “Richmond needs a win and The Diamond District will bring this to us,” she says. “The casino didn’t go through, the Navy Hill project didn’t go through. We need a win. The city needs to stand ready to make sure that this does happen.”

Along with the Sports Backers Stadium, the other most notable structure on this tract is The Diamond, a baseball stadium that is well past its halcyon days. (Remember back in 2004 when a chunk of concrete fell from the roof of the structure onto the stands during a game?) The Diamond District project calls for the demolition of the current stadium, and the construction of a brand new one. And this can’t happen soon enough. The Richmond Flying Squirrels is the Double-A affiliate of the San Francisco Giants, and that major league team wants a new stadium.

“The Squirrels answer to major league baseball, and the major league baseball they answer to has said, “There has to be a new stadium by 2025 or we’ll yank the Squirrels,’” says Katherine. “We do not want to lose the Squirrels, they’re a tremendous pillar of our community. As much as I love older architecture, the Diamond is outdated. It’s been fabulous. It’s been an icon in the city. But it’s time to reset the Diamond and create a new stadium.”

The Arthur Ashe Center will also be demolished. “We’re looking at putting the Arthur Ashe Center in another location,” Ann-Frances says. “The Arthur Ashe family has been notified and will be included in this whole discussion. I’m hoping there will be an Arthur Ashe something in this whole complex. We’ll make sure Arthur Ashe is recognized within this project some kind of way.” 

The fine details about the project will be ironed out later, and citizen input is encouraged. “We’re at the beginning stage of this project and the Request For Interest is out there,” the 3rd District Councilwoman adds. “Once we start getting feedback in we can begin looking at what we want that area to look like.”

“I’m personally just so excited to finally be where we are right now and actually on the steps of executing the next phase not just for The Squirrels and VCU, but for our new neighborhood, and for our city,” says Katherine. “We’re talking about a redevelopment opportunity in the City on publicly owned property along I-95 that we want to see transformed into a mixed use, mixed income area, a real urban destination anchored by a regional baseball stadium. The opportunities are really exciting, and I’m thrilled to be working with Ann-Frances on this, but also with the entire City Council because this is a City project with regional implications.”

Ann-Frances’s enthusiasm is palpable.  “We are talking about hotels, restaurants, retail, residential, and really promoting our sports tourism concept here in the City,” she says. “We have a lot of athletes here that are very talented.”

Along with The Squirrels and The Sports Backers, VCU is also actively involved with the project.  On the parcel directly to west of The Diamond District along Hermitage Road, VCU is planning a very ambitious athletic complex that will serve not only their student athletes but also those from nearby colleges and universities as well. “VCU is putting their whole athletic complex where the ABC property was,” says Ann-Frances. “They have a substantial acreage and will be working in conjunction with Virginia Union and the other universities with sports, from tennis, to soccer, from baseball to track. We want to really encourage all types of sports initiatives that will bring revenue to the City.”

This proposed district will also include a significant number of housing units from condominiums to rowhomes; some for rent, others for purchase. A substantial number of these will meet the criteria of affordable housing. And scattered throughout the new neighborhood will be a number of large green spaces, and the entire area will be both pedestrian- and bicycle-friendly.

It’s an ambitious plan, and a costly one, but it will also generate income for the City. Along with property sold outright by the City, there will also be a continuous stream of tax revenue from real estate, retail sales, lodging, meals and admissions. As Ann-Frances puts it: “Sometimes you spend money to make money.”

The naming of a place is extremely important, and though The Diamond District says something about one portion of this area, it does not adequately pay tribute to the scope of this project, which includes, among other things, affordable housing and equitable job opportunities, social injustices that have gone unchecked in the City for far too long. 

It seems to me that the most fitting name would be Arthur Ashe Village. For one thing, the project is bordered by Arthur Ashe Boulevard. And of all the athletes ever born, bred and buttered in Richmond, Arthur Ashe stands out as the brightest star in this constellation. His life story spans a Richmond history that began with the horrors of Jim Crow, and the separate but utterly unequal South. The young Arthur Ashe lived with his father and brother in the caretaker’s cottage on the grounds of Brook Field Park, a segregation-era sports complex which was unceremoniously razed in 1970 to make way for the Richmond Main Post Office. It was on tennis courts there that Arthur, at the age of seven, began learning how to play tennis. 

His athletic career is unparalleled, but he was so much more than an athlete. He was a skilled writer, a civil rights activist, a humanitarian of the first order who was recognized internationally for the selfless work he did even after his diagnosis of HIV, contracted through a blood transfusion he received during heart surgery.

As a country, a state, and a city, we’ve been talking a lot lately about memorials and monuments to men, many of whom are grotesquely flawed and unworthy of any sort of recognition. 

Arthur Ashe Village offers a perfect way for Richmond to memorialize one of her greatest native sons, a man who lived his entire life with courage, honesty, hard work, and grace; a man whose legacy deserves a lasting tribute on a massive scale.