From that time, taxes on the land had not been paid and the property was at risk of being sold at auction by the city of Fredericksburg. According to a news report in mid-August 2011, the museum property has an assessed value of $7.6 million, and delinquent property taxes for the years 2009, 2010, and 2011 amount to just over $215,000. Virginia tax authorities said the property became eligible to be sold as a tax sale on December 31, 2010. Official notification of the commonwealth's intent to sell the property was planned for late August 2011, but a tax official said it was unlikely "anything would really happen" for six months (until early 2012), and the planned tax sale would be dropped if taxes were paid. But then the organization filed for Chapter 11 protection in September, although it remains unclear if the purpose was reorganization or liquidation. On October 21, 2013, the Hagerstown Suns and Diamond Nation finalized an agreement to purchase the land of the proposed museum property. Under the deal, the city of Fredericksburg will receive $450,000 in back taxes owed from the US National Slavery Museum's failure to pay its taxes. Richmond plan The former Governor of Virginia, Bob McDonnell, committed 11 million dollars in state funds toward the 30-plus million needed to build a National Museum of Slavery in the Shockoe Bottom, in Richmond, Virginia. The proposed development project would include the museum, new business and residential properties, a Kroger grocery store, and a baseball stadium, intended to help improve a generally depressed area. The National Museum of Slavery would be built next to a slave graveyard and what is considered (after New Orleans) the second-largest slave trading station in U.S. history. In a February 10, 2014, Richmond City Council meeting, the council voted unanimously to commit $5 million to honor slave-history sites. This complemented the $11 million proposed by McDonnell. This deal did not include funding for a planned ballpark. However, according to columnist Michael Paul Williams, writing in the Richmond Times-Dispatch in June, 2015, "the idea went nowhere." See also National Slave Memorial Slavery in the United States List of museums focused on African Americans References External links Douglas Wilder website Failed museum proposals in the United States Slavery in the United States Museums in Fredericksburg, Virginia African-American museums in Virginia Washington metropolitan area Slavery museums