This latest deal with Winston-Salem’s downtown baseball stadium has is complicated stuff that has indeed been sprung on the public with very little notice. I think I’ve finally hashed a good bit of it out after taking a look at the city’s action request form.
What’s confusing is you keep seeing the $15 million figure in different places, and it’s hard to figure out if it’s the same figure or two different figures. Part of the deal —-interesting that the city has a hand in this — is a $15 million bank loan secured by Brookstown Properties. The city then loans Prim another $12.7 million, plus $2 million in anticipation of a federal grant (for —guess what — transportation) plus another $980,000 for more land, and —-voila —- you’ve got the other $15 million —- $15.7 million to be exact. Add that to the $12 million the city’s already given Prim and you have a total of $27.7 million.
Eight million of the funding will go toward getting the land for the stadium out from under a lien held by Regions Bank. Nice. Another thing to remember, Winston-Salem taxpayers, is you will be the outright owner of the stadium in 25 years.
