Ballpark Village is not home free yet
By Jake Wagman
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
05/23/2007
May 22, 2007--The International Bowling Hall of Fame stands on the northwest corner of the proposed Ball Park Village site.
( Laurie Skrivan/P-D)
ST. LOUIS — The Cardinals insist their ambitious Ballpark Village is still on track to break ground later this year, but some potential obstacles are looming.
— The state still must sign off on millions of dollars in public subsidies.
— Other downtown projects could emerge as competition.
— And then there's the question of where to put 5,000 years of bowling history. Advertisement
The vision for the $387 million entertainment district calls for most of it to be built on the crater that was the old Busch Stadium — property owned by the team. The rest of the site is held by the International Bowling Museum and Hall of Fame, a tenpins shrine that traces the sport as far back as ancient Egypt.
Obtaining the museum property is a key step for Ballpark Village, a long-awaited project that, despite millions in pledged public financing and years of discussion, has yet to show any physical signs of progress.
Even so, Bill DeWitt III, the team's senior vice president for business development, said construction will begin as planned — in late summer or early fall.
And the 2009 opening, in time for the stadium's first Major League All-Star Game, is on target, DeWitt said.
He said the team and its development partner, Baltimore-based Cordish Co., are "full steam ahead" on design, financing and negotiating with potential tenants, whom he declined to identify.
DeWitt acknowledged that until backhoes hit the soil, it might be hard for the public to picture Ballpark Village rising up from the rumble of a demolished stadium. RELATED LINK
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"We understand," DeWitt said, "people are going to be wondering if this is for real."
Sewing up the money
Earlier this year, the city's Board of Aldermen approved up to $115 million in public incentives for the project. The money would come from a variety of sources: $59 million in city tax incentives, $27 million in state tax breaks, $25 million from two special taxing districts and $5 million in public bonds bought by the Cardinals and Cordish.
But some of that money must be approved by the state Department of Economic Development, which still is reviewing the project. After that, the project goes to the Missouri Development Finance Board, headed by Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder.
Spence Jackson, a spokesman for the Department of Economic Development, said there is no timetable for staff there to move on Ballpark Village's application. The Cardinals are hoping to have the bonds needed to raise money for the project in place by early August.
Cordish has a good track record of getting funding on similar projects. The Development Finance Board previously approved more than $100 million for Cordish's project on the other side of the state, the Kansas City Power and Light District.
But timing on the deal is critical. If the finance board does not issue its endorsement in the next three months, it could jeopardize the project from breaking ground by the fall. City officials, though, are not worried.
"From what we can see," said Jeff Rainford, Mayor Francis Slay's chief of staff, "the project is moving forward as planned."
Rising competition
Ballpark Village is emerging as several other downtown projects are in the works. Pinnacle Entertainment is building a casino and 19-story hotel tower on the riverfront. South of the stadium, another nightlife spot, the Icehouse District, is in the works.
Plans at the Bottle District, targeted for a site next to the Edward Jones Dome, include a bowling alley and a Cabo Wabo Cantina nightclub.
All those projects promise to offer some of the same attractions as Ballpark Village: restaurants, retail shops and recreation.
Signs of the competition already may be showing. Last week, Clayco, one of the area's largest builders, withdrew its proposal to be general contractor for Ballpark Village to focus instead on the Bottle District.
Some question whether downtown can attract enough people and dollars to sustain all of the proposed destinations.
"That is exactly the essence — crowded out," said Don Woehle, a first vice president at the realty firm CB Richard Ellis who has been working downtown for over 20 years. "Unless this becomes the Six Flags or Disney World Mecca of the Midwest, this doesn't make sense."
While Woehle predicts Ballpark Village has a better shot of success than the other developments, even something as fickle as the Cardinals' place in the standings could affect whether people patronize shops and restaurants next to the stadium.
"People stay downtown when they win," Woehle said. "They don't stay downtown when they lose."
Patrick J. Welch, an economics professor at St. Louis University, said that although the growing population of downtown could help Ballpark Village, staying afloat in any market with renewed competition is difficult.
"The fact of the matter is, with any new business, a lot of them don't survive," Welch said.
Bowling hall's future
For the bowling museum, it's also a question of survival — sell and relocate, or be pushed out by the Cardinals, their longtime neighbor.
The museum has long enjoyed a mutually beneficial relationship with the Cardinals since opening next to the old stadium in 1984. For about the past 10 years, the Cardinals have rented space in the museum for the team's own Hall of Fame.
The Cardinals, though, don't plan on using that space for much longer. A spiffy new Redbird Hall of Fame, with a restaurant that overlooks the outfield, is a key part of Ballpark Village aspirations.
What the Cardinals do covet, however, is the land beneath the bowling museum, which sits on the northwest corner of the Ballpark Village site.
The development agreement signed earlier this year with Mayor Slay's office lays out a process in which the city would "initiate eminent domain proceedings" on behalf of the Cardinals if "good faith efforts" to buy the property are unsuccessful.
"I guess we are waiting for those good faith negotiations to begin," said Bill Scheid, chairman of the Bowling Hall of Fame's Board of Trustees and president of the bowling ball manufacturer Ebonite Inc. "We've only heard discussion through intermediaries. Everything we know to this date is secondhand."
DeWitt offered a different description of the negotiations, saying the vice president of Cordish has been in touch with Scheid on a "fairly regular basis."
Either way, the museum's trustees will discuss the future of the hall at their annual meeting next month in Las Vegas. At least one already has firm views on the possibility of eminent domain.
"I think it stinks," said John Sommer, head of Don Carter Lanes Inc. in Rockford, Ill.
Eminent domain, Sommer said, "is wrong for just about everything I can think of. Everything I know about it is totally wrong."
Even if the Cardinals acquired the land by eminent domain, it would be far from a victory. If the sale price is set by the courts, the land might cost more than if the team bought it outright. The long legal process also could jeopardize the team's hopes of opening on time.
Ideally, DeWitt said, the team would arrange for the bowling hall to relocate to Ballpark Village.
"It's no secret that folding the bowling museum into the village and rebranding them and souping it up is part of our vision," DeWitt said. "That's what we are focused on."