'Multiple' bidders submit proposals for arena, mixed-use development at former GreenCity site in Henrico

Henrico County has received “multiple” submissions from prospective partners interested in building an arena and/or a mixed-use development on the site once targeted for the GreenCity ecodistrict development, at the interchange of Parham Road, I-95 and I-295, Henrico County Manager John Vithoulkas said Tuesday.

County officials are eager to identify a new developer, or multiple developers, for the site, which they believe is still just as attractive and valuable as it was when the initial plans for GreenCity were revealed in December 2020.

The deadline for interested developers to respond to the county’s May 27 “request for interest” solicitation was July 28. In that RFI issuance, county officials made it clear that they are still bullish about the potential for the 93-acre Northern Henrico site – and that they still view the presence of a 17,000-capacity arena there as a key component of its future.

When plans for GreenCity were announced in 2020, the timeline for the project suggested that the arena could be completed sometime this year.

In a set of requirements included in their RFI solicitation, county officials asked interested groups to commit to a series of “absolute conditions” – including adhering to an ambitious development schedule that would include the arena being operational by late 2028.

The GreenCity project formally collapsed in March, after the developers missed a deadline to make a $5.2-million payment to the county to finalize their purchase of the site.

"Henrico County is pleased with the response and looks forward to reviewing the 'statements of interest' that were submitted by prospective partners for an arena-anchored, mixed-use development on the former Best Products property,” Vithoulkas said Tuesday in a statement. “The submissions include ones by entities with world-class experience and credentials.”

Henrico officials are withholding the proposals they received and not making public any information about the companies that submitted them, county spokesperson Ben Sheppard told the Citizen, citing a Virginia Freedom of Information Act exemption in the state code.

“We will not be sharing the number of submissions received from prospective partners or further details about the submissions in order to maintain fairness throughout the review and negotiation processes,” Sheppard said.

During the coming weeks, a committee of officials from the county, the Henrico Economic Development Authority and the Henrico Sports and Entertainment Authority will review the proposals, Vithoulkas said, and consider the qualifications of each applicant.

“We believe this process will allow us to identify a partner or partners with the vision, experience and capacity to deliver a development that will provide entertainment and other quality-of-life benefits to our community while leveraging the extraordinary interstate access and other unique attributes of the property,” he said. “We are hopeful this process will allow a proposal to be advanced for consideration by the board of supervisors in late 2025."

County officials have dubbed the site “Best Products Reimagined,” a nod to the now-defunct retailer whose headquarters once were located there and the future possibilities for its use.

The RFI indicated that developers were permitted to propose developing only the arena portion of the site, only a general mixed-use portion of the site, or both. It was unclear how many of the proposals included both options and how many included only one or the other.

In their RFI solicitation, officials suggested that the full build-out of the overall site “is anticipated to be a 10- to 15-year project” but that the arena must be completed by 2028.

The document also required that proposals for the site must be “consistent with the character and quality of the [additional] northern 110 acres of the district,” land that the Henrico EDA ($18 million) and developer Markel | Eagle ($17 million) combined to purchase, with Markel | Eagle planning to build 880 for-sale homes there in the next decade.

The document, however, also noted that the county is under no obligation to develop the 93-acre Best Products site.

“For instance, if during the SOI [statement of interest] review and negotiation process it is determined that sufficient funding cannot be generated to support the development, operation, and long-term maintenance of the project, the parties reserve the right to advance the development of the site as a mixed-use project without the arena,” according to the RFI.