High Point Assistant City Manager Randy Hemann told the City Council on Monday that land acquisition for the proposed $30 million downtown baseball stadium should be completed by fall so that the city can turn its focus toward funding construction of the stadium.
Such a financing plan has not definitively been determined, nor has what kind of development will surround the stadium as evidenced by this three-way exchange between Hemann, council member Jim Davis and Forward High Point executive director Ray Gibbs:
The city’s financing plan projects $99 million in new tax revenue from development around the stadium over 20 years, part of which would be used to retire construction debt.
“No announcements have been made. Nobody has committed to anything. I was told a hotel is pretty definite. When is that going to be announced?” Councilman Jim Davis asked Hemann.
He and Forward High Point Executive Director Ray Gibbs responded that a developer is unlikely to commit to anything until a master developer has been selected and a development agreement in place.
“You’re not going to get a commitment from a developer to build until he knows where he can build,” Gibbs said. “I have personally sat down with two hotel developers and several multifamily developers who are very interested in this and other sites.”
Davis also asked about the Guilford County Board of Commissioners’ role in the financing plan, which calls for the county to allow the city to have its portion of new tax revenue generated by development around the stadium for a set amount of time.
“The conversation I’m hearing is we’ve got some pretty good support from the county,” said Hemann.
The city is looking at other options to move the financing forward if commissioners don’t support the plan, Hemann said in response to another question from Davis.
As of now, the plan is to seek N.C. Local Government Commission financing approval in October.
Guilford County’s support is nowhere near a given, given the (albeit slim) Republican majority on the Board of Commissioners.
