BizSense Beat is a weekly collaboration between VPM News and Richmond BizSense that brings you the top business stories during NPR's Morning Edition on Fridays.
Here’s a recap of the top stories for the week of June 28, 2024:
City won’t meet Diamond District incentive deadline, plans to lobby G.A. for missed $24M
Reported by Richmond Bizsense’s Jonathan Spiers
The City of Richmond says it will miss its chance at $24 million in expiring state sales tax incentives that it planned to use to help finance the Diamond District development – and it’s placing blame for losing out on the money squarely on a recent lawsuit.
But Chief Administrative Officer Lincoln Saunders said he’s optimistic that the funds could be recaptured through lobbying of state legislators to reinstate the incentive program in next year’s General Assembly session.
Saunders said this week that the city’s hands are tied from being able to advertise and sell the bonds for a new baseball stadium in time for the program’s June 30 deadline. That’s due to the still-lingering appeal period stemming from the lawsuit filed by Paul Goldman that challenged the city’s ballpark financing pivot.
Carytown’s Zorch Pizza expanding to Forest Hill
Reported by Richmond Bizsense’s Mike Platania
A Carytown pizzeria is looking to grab a slice of the Southside for its second location.
Zorch Pizza next month plans to open a new full-service restaurant at 7524 Forest Hill Ave.
The new spot will be called Zorch Pizza Parlor, and owner and namesake Rob Zorch said it will have a larger menu than his Carytown spot, which he opened in 2020 and will continue to operate.
Zorch Pizza Parlor is taking over a 2,000-square-foot freestanding building that’s been vacant since 2021, when taqueria Don’t Look Back closed that location after three years.
Zorch’s business started as a food truck in 2018. He said he’s hoping the Southside spot will harken to the types of sit-down pizza restaurants of the ’90s.
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