Flying Squirrels owner sues Thalhimer exec for defamation

In a defamation lawsuit seeking “tens of millions of dollars,” Richmond Flying Squirrels President and Managing Partner Lou DiBella is suing Thalhimer Realty Partners Principal Jason Guillot and the real estate firm, alleging Guillot told Richmond Economic Development Authority Director Angie Rodgers in early April that DiBella had threatened to kill Guillot and his family if Guillot did not sell DiBella a certain parcel of land.

The suit, filed Thursday in U.S. District Court, alleges that Guillot knew the statement was false when he made it.

“Many of the allegations in the lawsuit are inaccurate,” Guillot said in an email. “We look forward to setting the record straight.”  

According to the lawsuit, Guillot allegedly claimed that DiBella — who is managing partner of the limited partnership that owns the Squirrels Double-A minor league team, Navigators Baseball — threatened him during a conversation with DiBella’s business partner, Larry Botel, on April 7, the opening night of the Flying Squirrels’ new stadium, CarMax Park.

A long-awaited replacement for The Diamond, the team’s aging previous stadium, the new CarMax Park stadium is the centerpiece of the city’s $2.4 billion Diamond District redevelopment project headed up by Thalhimer.

The suit states that DiBella, Botel and the Squirrels “have been locked in contentious business dealings with Defendants, the City of Richmond, and the EDA for years over the Squirrels’ new stadium.” The complaint alleges the defendants defamed DiBella “to gain the upper hand in their business dealings.”

During a conversation with Botel, Guillot and DiBella present, DiBella brought up his concerns regarding a 0.8-acre parcel near the stadium and other concerns, according to the lawsuit. The lawsuit claims that Guillot “responded with petty insults” and “continued in a diatribe against DiBella.”

As DiBella was leaving the conversation, according to the lawsuit, Guillot allegedly asked, “What, are you going to hit me?” DiBella says in the lawsuit that he responded, “Of course not, I would never do that. But if I did hit you, I’d hit you so hard, I’d hurt your whole family.”

DiBella’s suit says the last sentence was “an approximate quote from one of his favorite movies,” the 1982 comedy-drama “Diner,” and that DiBella “intended this as a joke.” (The direct quote from the movie is “I’ll hit you so hard, I’ll kill your whole family.”)

On April 9, the lawsuit claims, Rodgers called DiBella and said Guillot had told her he “threatened to kill Guillot and his family if Guillot did not sell DiBella the 0.8-acre parcel.”

Parcel at lawsuit’s center

The parcel in question is part of the 67-acre Diamond District. The lawsuit states that the city and EDA kept the parcel when giving the Squirrels land for the stadium after DiBella proposed the Squirrels’ ownership build the stadium themselves. The city and EDA allegedly said the parcel was “earmarked for an ‘African American-owned food court’” that wouldn’t be a competitor to the Squirrels’ concessions and was needed to satisfy the requirement that 40% of the district be reserved for minority businesses.

According to the lawsuit, former Squirrels executive Todd Parnell told DiBella and Botel that he’d learned from a Thalhimer-affiliated broker that Thalhimer planned to put a sports bar named after him on the 0.8-acre parcel, which would directly compete with the Squirrels. A Thalhimer broker confirmed to the Squirrels’ broker that the firm was close to finalizing a deal for a 15,000-square-foot sports bar, according to the suit.

According to a May 21 email from Cushman & Wakefield | Thalhimer, EAT Restaurant Partners leased 5,215 square feet of retail space in the Gateway Retail building at 3001 N. Arthur Ashe Blvd. The lawsuit cited a May 22 article from the Richmond Times-Dispatch that reported the restaurant group planned to put a sports bar on the property.

Diamond District 

The Diamond District project has been mired in delays.

In 2022, the city awarded the development contract to RVA Diamond Partners, a limited liability company that included Connecticut-based developer Republic Projects, Thalhimer Realty Partners of Loop Capital Holdings. In May 2023, Richmond City Council originally approved a development agreement with RVA Diamond Partners.

However, Republic Projects filed a lawsuit in July 2024 claiming that Thalhimer Realty Partners and Loop Capital cut Republic out of the development deal sometime between June 2023 and December 2023. Loop Capital said it had never signed any partnership agreement that was the subject of the suit. By November 2024, Thalhimer was the sole principal of Diamond District Partners.

The lawsuit alleges RVA Diamond Partners “lied when it represented … it had formed a development group with Thalhimer, Republic and Loop Capital capable of financing” the $627.6 million minimum investment for the Diamond District’s first phase.

The lawsuit claims Guillot’s motive for allegedly making a false statement about DiBella was to “create leverage for Thalhimer and the EDA in their business dealings with DiBella and the Squirrels” and that Guillot “sought to retaliate” for DiBella threatening to expose material misrepresentations that Guillot, Thalhimer and RVA Diamond Partners made to win the contract and in a meeting with Major League Baseball representatives in September 2023.

The city, EDA, Thalhimer Realty Partners and Diamond District Partners held a groundbreaking for the infrastructure of the Diamond District’s Phase 1A in April 2025. Construction on a nearby apartment complex with retail space and a parking garage is set to start in June.

DiBella requests a jury trial and is seeking “actual, presumed, and punitive damages of tens of millions of dollars in amounts to be specifically determined at trial,”; expenses such as attorneys’ fees; pre- and post-judgment interest; and a “narrowly tailored injunction” prohibiting Guillot and Thalhimer from repeating the alleged claim that DiBella threatened to kill Guillot and his family if Guillot did not sell DiBella the 0.8-acre parcel.

DiBella declined to comment through his attorney.

DiBella has won a defamation suit before. In December 2001, he sued Bernard Hopkins, then a professional boxer, in the Southern District of New York, and a jury in November 2002 returned a verdict in his favor on one of four libel claims, awarding DiBella $610,000.