The City of Richmond is continuing work behind the scenes to advance its seemingly stagnant City Center project that would replace the shuttered Richmond Coliseum with a mixed-use development and convention center hotel.

Officials are considering expanding the project area for City Center to include more city-owned properties that could provide additional tax revenue for its planned tax increment financing structure. They’re also weighing different approaches to phasing the project, according to emails obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request.

Emails show Richmond is working with The Robert Bobb Group, a D.C.-based consultancy, to reevaluate City Center and help move it forward. It also remains in discussions with Capstone Development, which is said to be the last of four prospective development teams to remain in active negotiations with the city on the project.

Proposed to consist of a 9-acre assemblage, City Center would replace the Coliseum with a 500-room convention center hotel and a mix of office, retail and housing development. It also would involve rehabbing the neighboring Blues Armory building and include infrastructure improvements, parking and transit facilities, bicycle and pedestrian improvements, and public open space.

The city has yet to officially select or announce a City Center developer, more than three years after it issued a joint solicitation with the Greater Richmond Convention Center Authority in late 2022.

The duration of the selection process has been attributed to complexities involved in financing for City Center. The city transferred the properties in 2022 to the Richmond Economic Development Authority, which would maintain ownership through the ground leases with potential developers, similar to its agreements for the new Diamond District ballpark.

Robert Bobb Group, which is also currently assisting the city’s search for a new chief administrative officer , was hired to help get City Center across the finish line in terms of a finalized program and project agreements. The firm is working with CWJ Advisors, a subsidiary of McLean-based Clark Construction Group, to review the project’s scope and assist with pre-development and project management work.

Robert Bobb Group also will advise on developer negotiations, project financing and finalizing agreements, among other tasks outlined in its scope of work. The firm started working on City Center in February after Richmond hired it last fall through a contract that’s set to not exceed roughly $359,000.

A cover letter from CEO Robert Bobb states that the work would lead to a project award within four months.

Robert Bobb Group also provided consulting work to an earlier version of the development team that’s leading the mixed-use portion of the Diamond District project. Capstone is the hotel developer on that team.

The emails, which date from mid-December through early March, show that the parties are considering potential adjustments to City Center’s scope and project area, which currently includes the shuttered Coliseum property, the Blues Armory and adjoining properties beside and behind it that once made up the old Sixth Street Marketplace and Festival Park.

Among Robert Bobb Group’s tasks are to analyze City Center’s phasing and, according to an email from Richmond official Sharon Ebert, “provide recommendations on how to maximize new tax revenues prior to the start of the hotel construction.”

Ebert, the city’s deputy chief administrative officer for economic and community development, added in her email that the firm would review the project’s scope and whether more properties should be added to it, “to ensure sufficient tax revenues will be generated to adequately cover the debt service payments.”

If more city-owned properties are added to the project, they could enlarge a tax increment financing district that is planned to help fund parts of City Center through a community development authority. Tax revenue generated from the development over time would be used to pay for bonds that would help fund the project and would be issued by the CDA.

Specifics on how the CDA would work and how large the TIF district would be are not detailed in the emails. The city’s request for offers for City Center states that the project would utilize financing approaches “that minimize public investment and risk and maximize private investment.”

Matt Welch, acting director of the EDA, said Tuesday: “The details of a financing plan are still being negotiated, as we explore the best possible path to enabling a transformational project while also protecting the City’s financial resources.”

Properties that could be under consideration include an adjacent city-owned parking deck at Fifth and Marshall streets; a city parking deck on Seventh Street across from the Coliseum; and the parking lot across Clay Street from the John Marshall Courts Building currently used as GRTC’s temporary bus transfer station. A permanent station is slated to be part of a larger development that GRTC is eyeing across the street at the city’s old Public Safety Building site.

Other City Center add-ons could include two city-owned sites south of Broad Street: a parking lot at 401 E. Broad St. and the bulk of the city block at 609 E. Grace St. Those sites were once part of the TIF district floated for the unsuccessful Navy Hill redevelopment plan and were among several city-owned properties that were declared surplus after Navy Hill was voted down .

According to the emails, in February, consultants toured the Coliseum, Blues Armory and Sixth Street Marketplace properties, as well as the adjacent Doorways lodging building that was not included in the City Center project area.

An email from Darren Linnartz, Capstone’s managing partner, reported to Ebert that he and Capstone President Norman Jenkins met with Ellen Robertson, whose City Council district includes the project site.

“The conversation was positive, and our takeaway is that Councilwoman Robertson is a strong proponent of the City Center redevelopment project,” Linnartz said in the email, adding that he and Jenkins “have been working on several scope and sequencing alternatives for City Center, with a goal of coming up with a plan that is less expensive from a public infrastructure standpoint.”

In addition to Robert Bobb Group and CWJ Advisors, the city also is working with engineering firm Timmons Group and investment bank Stifel on the CDA for City Center.

In his budget presentation to City Council last month, Mayor Danny Avula mentioned City Center among economic development projects that he said are needed to broaden Richmond’s tax base. Tourism officials have said for years that a convention center hotel is needed in particular because existing downtown hotels do not have the capacity to serve the convention center to its fullest potential.

The behind-the-scenes work on City Center is continuing as Henrico’s arena-anchored GreenCity project has stalled. The county is in the process of taking back the former Best Products headquarters site after finding the project’s developer in default of agreements. A request for interest from other developers is planned to be issued later this month .