charlesrsamuels.com

A plan for baseball in Shockoe Bottom is dead.

Developers of the proposed Shockoe Center ballpark announced this afternoon that they're walking away from the project as well as a proposal for development along the Boulevard.

"We have carried these projects as far as our collaborative team can under the present circumstances," the development team led by Highwoods Properties said in a statement released to the Richmond Times-Dispatch.

The developers said their efforts aimed at revitalizing Shockoe Bottom and the Boulevard have been overshadowed by debate over the ballpark.

They also said the "good faith" but ultimately unsuccessful effort by a group of local investors to buy a baseball team had "fundamentally altered the way minor-league baseball will now return to Richmond.

"The city will need to negotiate directly with any new team owner on such issues as location, timing and financing of a new ballpark."

A statement from Mayor Dwight C. Jones is forthcoming, according to his press secretary, Tammy D. Hawley.

For more details on why the plan was dropped, see tomorrow's Times-Dispatch.

-- Will Jones