A potential roadblock for the projected $2.4 billion Diamond District development appears to have been cleared, the Free Press has learned, though questions remain on other aspects.

The cleared roadblock involves the aging Arthur Ashe Jr. Athletic Center, the Richmond Public School’s aging sports and convocation building that sits on a key 4-acre piece of Diamond District real estate at the corner of Arthur Ashe Boulevard and Robin Hood Road.

City Hall and the Richmond School Board have reached a tentative agreement, the Free Press has been told, that will end a year-long dispute over ownership, allowing the center to eventually be bulldozed and permit the land to be incorporated into the giant development.

While most details remain unavailable and a formal agreement remains to be signed, the tentative deal includes City Hall acknowledging that RPS is the current owner and that a city ordinance would require the school system to receive compensation that could run into the millions of dollars for ceding the title to the city.

For nearly two years, the City Attorney’s Office had advised Mayor Levar M. Stoney’s administration that the city owned the property and could ignore a city ordinance requiring the proceeds from the sale of school property go to the school system.

Based on that opinion, Leonard Sledge, city director of economic development, repeatedly told City Council and would-be developers that the city could do what it wanted with the Ashe Center property and did not have to recognize an RPS interest.

The School Board didn’t buy that argument and gained the support of veteran corporate attorney Thomas M. Wolf, husband of a former School Board member. Mr. Wolf agreed to represent RPS without charge and issued a memo disputing the city’s claim to ownership with citations of state law and legal cases to back his view.

Meanwhile, some key ingredients of the Diamond District deal appear to remain unsettled.

For example, Mayor Stoney’s administration has not introduced legislation to create the community development authority that is to issue bonds to provide the bulk of the construction money for the stadium.

According to a schedule the city has issued, the stadium is now being designed.

Major League Baseball officials told the city that it wants a new stadium in place for the start of the 2025 minor league season. RVA Diamond Partners, the developer the city has chosen to undertake the redevelopment of the 67 acres, has projected that it would take 18 months to build the stadium.

Every month that there is no CDA approved with members appointed and in place means the bonds remain unissued and unsold, leaving less time for construction to meet the deadline.

MBL could possibly grant an extension. There also has been no announcement of lease agreements between the development team and the Flying Squirrels and Virginia Commonwealth University, whose baseball team is to use the new facility as well.

Lease payments are one piece of the revenue that will be used to repay the stadium-building money that will be raised by selling the bonds, the city previously disclosed.

At this point, the working assumption is that the development is moving ahead as planned.