Chamber of Commerce gives support to PawSox ballpark plan

PAWTUCKET – The Northern Rhode Island Chamber of Commerce board of directors has voted unanimously in favor of supporting the proposed $83 million ballpark near Slater Mill to replace the PawSox’s McCoy Stadium.

“The Chamber’s board reviewed the proposal and saw this as excellent economic development for Pawtucket, Northern Rhode Island and the entire state,” said Ernest Almonte, chairman of the board. “We believe it is important for us to promote a strong publicprivate partnership that includes a $45 million investment by the PawSox ownership.”

John Gregory, the president and CEO of the chamber, called the PawSox’s envisioned contribution to the new stadium “the largest private investment ever made in Pawtucket.”

“The ownership model is the same, with the city of Pawtucket owning the stadium,” Gregory said. “The city will lease the stadium to the state and the state will then sublease it to the Pawtucket Red Sox.”

The city proposes a parallel, mixed-use development to piggyback on ballpark traffic that could include retail, restaurant, recreational, hospitality and professional office components.

“The ancillary development will help to revitalize downtown and become an attractive gateway to Rhode Island,” Gregory said.

The chamber said all public-private partnerships carry some risk, but in this case the board believes “the risk is minimal,” according to the directors. For example, they said, the payment for the bonds the Pawtucket Redevelopment Agency intends to issue to finance the project will come from taxes generated by the ballpark.

But the state’s average annual payment will be $1.4 million, which is “well below the existing revenues currently being sent to the state,” according to Almonte. “There is also the safeguard that the Pawtucket Red Sox will pay for any construction cost overruns.”

After the General Assembly failed to take up legislation to set the PawSox deal in motion earlier this year, state lawmakers are expected to do so after a series of public hearings hosted by the Senate Finance Committee – starting this week. The first of these is scheduled to take place on Thursday in Room 313 at the State House, 92 Smith St., Providence, at 6 p.m.

There will be six public hearings in all, but the second is the only one that will be held in Pawtucket. It takes place on Sept. 26 at William E. Tolman High School Auditorium, 150 Exchange St., also at 6 p.m.

Additional public hearings will be held at University of Rhode Island’s Swan Hall Auditorium, 60 Upper College Road, Oct. 3; New England Institute of Technology, Media Presentation Theatre, 1 New England Tech Blvd., East Greenwich, Oct. 11; Roger Williams University School of Law, Room 283 10 Metacom Ave., Bristol, Oct. 12; and Bryant University, Bellow Center Grand Hall, 1150 Douglas Turnpike, Smithfield, Oct. 19. All are scheduled to begin at 6 p.m.

Though it’s hard to find a political figure in the city who isn’t in favor of a new stadium, At-Large City Councilor Albert J. Vitali Jr. last week opted to postpone a hearing on a resolution of support for the project until the public hearings are concluded.

“I feel very strongly that this project would be a positive for everybody in the Blackstone Valley and the state of Rhode Island as a whole,” Vitali said. “I’ve been living in the city for over 50 years, I have not yet seen a project of this magnitude ever take place in the city and downtown district. I think it would be a wonderful thing.”

Under the legislation before state lawmakers, the new stadium would be financed in a three-way split by the PawSox, the state and the city. The ball club proposes contributing $45 million, including a $12 million, upfront equity contribution from the owners of the PawSox, plus $33 million in the form of a taxable lease revenue bond issued by the Pawtucket Redevelopment Agency.

The state would contribute another $22 million, also in the form of bonds issued by the Pawtucket Redevelopment Agency. This series of bonds would be financed through taxes generated by ballpark users, visitors, the PawSox, revenues from private spinoff development as well as a premium ticket surcharge.

The final piece of the financing puzzle would come from the city, which proposes contributing $15 million from the Pawtucket Redevelopment Agency, to be covered by an assortment of traditional revenue sources, including taxes on real estate, tangible property, food and beverage sales, hotel use and other city revenues, including normal state aid.

The state and city revenues to be generated by the proposed ballpark “are projected by industry experts to be more than sufficient to cover the State’s and City’s respective costs of financing the Ballpark, infrastructure and land acquisition costs, which shall include all related expenses and acquisition by purchase or through eminent domain…” the Senate version of the bill to authorize the deal says.

McCoy Stadium is 75 years old and no longer meets the standards required for AAA baseball teams. Private studies commissioned by the city say it would cost almost as much to bring McCoy up to par as it would to build a new one.

The city proposes building the replacement park at the site of the old Apex store, overlooking the Blackstone River from the western fringe of downtown. With a new commuter rail depot in the works and the burgeoning Isle Brewers Guild promising a new era of craft-beer tourism – all in the same locus – city officials argue the new stadi- um would create a critical mass of economic development that could be a gamechanger for its traditional urban core.

For a time, the PawSox had an agreement with the city that provided Pawtucket with exclusive rights to bargain for a stadium deal. That pact expired several months ago, however, and the team has since opened talks with at least one other community – Worcester. The Worcester City Council recently passed a resolution expressing support for doing everything necessary to bring the PawSox to that central Massachusetts hub. Follow Russ Olivo on Twitter @russolivo