Laurel Street neighbor Charles Pool has a letter to the editor in this week’s Richmond Free Press. For some people, it will clarify how this SHAMEFUL VCU/Dominion sponsored scam is distracting from truly public priorities like fixing our schools.
VCU, and not Richmond residents, stands to gain from Navy Hill project
The main beneficiary of the proposed Navy Hill project is Virginia Commonwealth University, not Richmond’s residents.
Dominion Energy Chief Executive Officer Tom Farrell II, who also heads the Navy Hill Development Corp., sat on VCU’s Board of Visitors, and his son, Peter Farrell, recently was appointed to the VCU board by Gov. Ralph S. Northam.
The newly approved VCU Master Plan quietly includes plans to partner in the Navy Hill development: “VCU and VCU Health System support the project and are exploring potential partnerships.”
There exists a tremendous pent-up demand for housing and office space near VCU’s land-locked medical campus. However, the Navy Hill Development Corp. would have us believe that the city-owned land adjacent to the VCU campus is of depressed value and won’t be developed without their help. The city-owned land adjacent to VCU is worth many times the value stated in the Navy Hill proposal.
It is unseemly that the city accepted only one bid for the $1.5 billion Navy Hill project from Mr. Farrell’s group. Then, after the bids were closed, the Tax Increment Financing (TIF) zone morphed by 800 percent from 10 blocks to 80 blocks to include Mr. Farrell’s new Dominion tower south of Broad Street.
Richmond should not be duped into thinking that the proposed dorm-like studio apartments will help our low-income residents. The project’s ballyhooed 480 new affordable housing units would be occupied largely by students at VCU’s medical campus, which has a large shortage of dorm rooms.
Likewise, VCU needs the office and research space that would be built by the growing university, regardless of the Navy Hill project.
A new Richmond Coliseum would be a venue for VCU commencements, sporting events and concerts. So why is VCU, which pays no city real estate taxes, putting no “skin in the game” toward building the new Coliseum?
It is worth noting that the much-heralded John Paul Jones Arena in Charlottesville was built by the University of Virginia and not by the City of Charlottesville.
The unintended consequence of the Navy Hill District proposal would be to starve city schools of funding while subsidizing a development bonanza for VCU. It would be reckless for Richmond to mortgage all new revenue from 80 prime blocks of its Downtown for the next 30 years for this project.
Let’s hope that Richmond City Council votes down this Navy Hill boondoggle.
CHARLES POOL
Richmond
A couple of quick notes-
Don’t forget VCU President Rao’s disgraceful letter from last year.
There’s already talk that this ‘much-studied’ scheme will morph yet again, from an 80-block TIFF back to a 10-block TIFF. It has intentionally become a moving target.
Beyond state delegate Bourne’s bill, there is other possible boondoggle support coming from the General Assembly- as political activist Paul Goldman notes-
Is Speaker Filler-Corn’s Bill HB1414 creating new all powerful transportation agency a way to help Coliseum proponents bypass opponents to the development project, indeed city officials should the boondoggle get passed? Read lines 569-571. This would have been very helpful, if applicable, for Mayor Jones and his Council cronies in pushing through Shockoe Bottom Baseball Stadium despite overwhelming public opposition.
Which bring us to a longstanding question- Is it ‘unintended’ that that these proposals distract from properly funding Richmond schools? The ongoing record suggests otherwise. (See previous editorial, ‘Broken Promises: Richmond’s Leaders Don’t Want To Put Schools First’.)
