RICHMOND, Va. (WRIC) — Five development teams are vying to lead Richmond’s plan to replace the shuttered Coliseum with a mixed-use “urban innovation district destination” that includes a hotel to support the city’s convention center.

The five teams submitted proposals in response to the city’s requests for interest for Richmond’s City Center project by the Dec. 20 deadline.

The developer chosen by the city will have to redevelop a 9-acre site downtown that includes the Richmond Coliseum and the historic Blues Armory building. The teams hoping to run the project, announced by the city Wednesday, include:

  • Capstone Development, LLC
  • City Center Gateway Partners
  • Lincoln Property Company
  • Richmond Community Development Partners
  • Sterling Bilder, LLC

The project will require the development team to demolish the Coliseum and complete any needed environmental remediation, the city’s plan states. It also includes a “creative adaptive reuse” of the nearby Blues Armory building, infrastructure upgrades, housing with affordable options for lower-income households, retail stores and office space.

According to the city, the City Center district project will be anchored by a 500-room headquarter hotel to support the Greater Richmond Convention Center.

“We are thrilled to see the high level of enthusiasm and interest from development teams for the City Center Innovation District Project,” Leonard Sledge, executive director of the Economic Development Authority of the City of Richmond, said in a statement Wednesday.

Richmond’s City Center Evaluation panel will assess each team’s qualifications, experience with urban mixed-use projects, potential equitable development benefits, project understanding and financing approach before inviting certain developers to respond to a request for offers.

The development teams invited to respond to the request, which will require more information on specific proposals, will be shared with the public in winter 2023, according to the city.

“We are confident that amongst the number of outstanding development teams interested in this project, we have the right partner to bring this project to fruition,” Brandon Hinton, chair of the Greater Richmond Convention Center Authority finance committee, said in a statement.

The City Center project comes after a failed effort to replace the Richmond Coliseum and redevelop the area.

In February 2020, the council voted down an effort to replace the Coliseum and redevelop the area around it. The Navy Hill project proposed a 17,500-seat area to replace the Richmond Coliseum, along with apartments, a hotel, restaurants and more commercial space.

8News has reached out to Mr. Sledge regarding the teams that shared interest but has yet to hear back. Here is some background on the firms vying for the project:

Capstone Development LLC: Capstone Development is a real estate development and investment firm based in Maryland. Its portfolio includes hotels, apartments and mixed-use projects. Capstone is also the hotel developer for Richmond’s Diamond District project.

Lincoln Property Company: Lincoln Property Company is an international real estate firm based in Dallas that has developed several commercial and residential projects. Some of these include the Colorado Center in Denver, 1030 15th Street in D.C. and Legacy Union in Charlotte.

Sterling Bilder LLC: Sterling Bilder is a firm based in the city of Richmond and led by Joshua Bilder.

Richmond Community Development Partners: Richmond Community Development Partners is the same development team that was named a finalist for the Diamond District project but was ultimately not selected. For that proposal, the team had JMA Ventures, the Machete Group and Tryline Capital as master developers.

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