Rhode Island taxpayers "would be asked to contribute up to" $120M over 30 years to support an $85M ballpark and parking garage that the new Triple-A Int’l League Pawtucket Red Sox owners "want to build on 9 1/2 acres" in Providence, according to a front-page piece by Kate Bramson of the PROVIDENCE JOURNAL. The team is asking the city "to waive all city real-estate taxes for 30 years and change city zoning so a ballpark is a permitted use on the site." PawSox President James Skeffington yesterday said that the owners "will ask state legislators to authorize state payments" of $5M a year for 30 years "to lease the ballpark from the team owners." But the owners "would then pay the state" $1M to "sublease the stadium back." That would "require taxpayers to pay up to" $4M a year over 30 years, totaling up to $120M. Skeffington said that the team would pay $70M "to build the stadium," $5M to relocate Narragansett Bay Commission and National Grid utilities and $10M to "cover its share of a 750-car parking garage." The team would "co-own that garage -- and share its revenue -- with the developer of the nearby South Street Landing project." Team owners said that they "want the ballpark to reflect the architectural character of the surrounding neighborhood." Artists' renderings "show brick exterior walls, exposed structural steel, high arched openings and a lighthouse." The design includes "an elevated walkway around the entire concourse, with views of the Providence River, a kids' wiffle-ball corner and three acres of landscaped public open space." Skeffington expects that the ballpark "would be used about 100 days a year -- at least 72 home baseball games, 12-14 college football games" for Brown Univ. and the Univ. of Rhode Island, and "high school and college hockey and lacrosse games" (PROVIDENCE JOURNAL, 4/16). Populous is the architect of record. The firm’s David Bower and Mike Sabatini are leading the project in tandem with DAIQ, the designer of Fenway Park upgrades (Don Muret, Staff Writer).
WHAT CAN BROWN DO FOR YOU? In Boston, Callum Borchers notes the team "would own the stadium, but not the ground on which it would be built." Skeffington "proposed paying Brown and the state $1 apiece annually for use of the land." Brown Univ. President Christina Paxson "has endorsed the project, but feedback from government officials wasn’t as positive" (BOSTON GLOBE, 4/16).
