Steven Nesmith, chief executive officer of the Richmond Redevelopment and Housing Authority, apologized on Friday afternoon for suggesting that Mayor Danny Avula supported Nesmith’s proposal to transfer Gilpin Court to a private subsidiary of the RRHA .

“I apologize if I ever said anything in the press that Mayor Avula was a big fan of our plan,” Nesmith said during a news conference at the RRHA headquarters on East Broad Street. “He has never said that to me.”

Since earlier this year, Nesmith has been attempting to oversee the execution of a master development agreement that would see the land underneath Gilpin Court — Richmond's oldest and largest public housing project — leased to the Richmond Development Corporation, the nonprofit “development arm” of the RRHA.

The move would op

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