RICHMOND, Va. -- Richmond Monopoly has arrived in the River City. While other versions of the game have been made in the past, the Hasbro-licensed version of the game was unveiled Monday at the Virginia War Memorial.
"The Richmond board felt like my baby," said John Marano with Top Trumps USA, the company Hasbro partnered with to make the game. "It's just a very proud moment -- for me and, I hope, for the city as well. Because without them, this project wouldn't have happened."
Marano announced the planned game back in March and asked for people to send in submissions for which landmarks should be featured. He said by the end of the day, they had 1,000 submissions.
"Richmonders are passionate about Richmond and that's really what we look for when we come and we do these editions."
Marano said they whittled the list down to 24 places around the city plus others getting mentioned in the Chance and Community Chest cards (like the Richmond Marathon and Francine the Lowe's Cat).
"This is huge," said Jack Berry, CEO of Richmond Region Tourism which helped promote the initiative. "Because in Central Virginia, we have over 80 world-class attractions. And, of course, this features about 20 of those. So, it was a very difficult child for them to narrow it down to 20…But, actually, we could have four versions of this game to make up for all the attractions we have in the area."
Marano said some traditional features of Monopoly are still in the game (like not renaming the utility properties or free parking spot). As for what landmark went where he said they grouped them into categories -- but added there was no doubt as to what would take the coveted Boardwalk spot.
"I remember being told that I might get run out of Richmond if I didn't put James River on there," he said.
Below are the 24 landmarks that made the board (with their original Monopoly property names in parentheses):
Brown Properties
- Forest Hill Park (Mediterranean Avenue)
- Virginia Washington Monument (Baltic Avenue)
Light Blue Properties
- Children's Museum of Richmond (Oriental Avenue)
- Historic St. John's Church (Vermont Avenue)
- Virginia War Memorial (Connecticut Avenue)
Pink Properties
- Old City Hall (St. Charles Place)
- Capitol Building (States Avenue)
- Belle's Isle (Virginia Avenue). Note: The correct spelling of this should be "Belle Isle". The team behind the game acknowledged the typo in an email to CBS 6 and said it would be corrected in future versions of the game.
Orange Properties
- Joe's Inn (St. James Place)
- ZZQ (Tennessee Avenue)
- Carytown (New York Avenue)
Red Properties
- Libby Hill Park (Kentucky Avenue)
- Main Street Station (Indiana Avenue)
- Brown's Island (Illinois Avenue)
Yellow Properties
- Virginia Lottery (Atlantic Avenue)
- Richmond Raceway (Ventnor Avenue)
- Maymont Foundation (Marvin Gardens)
Green Properties
- University of Richmond (Pacific Avenue)
- Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden (North Carolina Avenue)
- Richmond Kickers (Pennsylvania Avenue)
Dark Blue Properties
- Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (Park Place)
- James River (Boardwalk)
The four railroad stations are now Bike, Car, Bus, and Train.
The two utilities, Electric Company and Water Works, remain.
Two groups are featured on two of the Community Chest spots: Richmond Animal Care and Control (RACC) and Daily Planet Health Services.
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