High Point Enterprise reports the economic development group Forward High Point has purchased two tracts of land on Main Street that will be part of the mixed-use development surrounding the proposed $30 million downtown baseball stadium:
“Whatever we’re doing with Main Street Station is a result of the stadium,” said Forward High Point Chairman Doyle Early. “It is an example of private development that would not happen without the catalyst project.”
Forward High Point, a public-private redevelopment nonprofit formed last year with the intent of revitalizing downtown High Point, plans to bank the N. Main Street land for future use, Early said.
“We believe that is a prime area to develop,” Early said. “We’ve had a lot of interest by folks who are impressed by what we might be able to do there.”
The two recent purchases comprise adjacent buildings that have been vacant for years — one a former law office and the other a commercial garage.
I’m a big baseball fan, and so is JLF’s Julie Tisdale. But she’s not happy that taxpayers are going to be on the hook for half the stadium’s cost.