$108M overhaul of Jupiter's Roger Dean Chevrolet Stadium to start in earnest after spring training

JUPITER — Work on the first major overhaul of Roger Dean Chevrolet Stadium since it opened 26 years ago got the OK to move forward.

The Jupiter town council on Aug. 15 gave unanimous approval to site-plan changes that will allow work on the $108 million stadium.

“Play ball. We’re ready to go,” ​​George Gentile with 2GHO, the planner and agent for the renovation, said at the beginning of his presentation to the council.

“It’s an icon here in Jupiter and also one of the major event areas for the entire county, which is great to have here,” he said.

Roger Dean, in the town's Abacoa Town Center neighborhood, is one of two spring training facilities in Palm Beach County, along with the Ballpark of the Palm Beaches in West Palm Beach.

During spring training, Roger Dean is home to the Miami Marlins and St. Louis Cardinals. The stadium also is home to two Florida State League teams, the Jupiter Hammerheads and Palm Beach Cardinals, which are playing temporarily at the Ballpark of the Palm Beaches.

With the council’s approval last week, the stadium can move forward with obtaining building permits from the town, stadium manager Mike Bauer said. Then crews will start working on utilities, moving some trees and doing a few other projects before spring training begins, he said.

Most of the work will start in April, right after spring training, Bauer said.

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What's included in the Roger Dean stadium project?

While there have been a few changes over the years, the upcoming renovation is the first comprehensive round of improvements made at the stadium and surrounding grounds and facilities since Roger Dean opened in 1997.

The work includes new clubhouses for the Marlins and Cardinals, updates to seating areas and technological upgrades to security and sound systems, along with some changes to plazas outside the stadium.

The current aluminum bleachers at the end of the third-base line will be removed and replaced with what planners said will be a higher-end experience for fans, with shaded seating and counters for drinks and food. There also will be a bar with a gathering area for fans to socialize.

That change will cut the number of seats by about 437, Gentile said, bringing the total to about 6,400.

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Both of the team clubhouses will nearly double in size, said Kirk Bauer, director of sports for Fawley Bryant Architecture of Sarasota and the architect on the renovation. Elements of architecture from elsewhere on the grounds, including red split-face block, will be incorporated into the new designs, he said.

While the designs will be more modern, they also will fit in better with the surrounding community’s architecture in Abacoa, said Kirk Bauer, who is no relation to Mike Bauer.

The batting tunnels, which are prefabricated metal structures, will also be nearly doubled in size, with facades that will match the surrounding buildings.

The team store will be expanded, with new access from outside the stadium. Another smaller team store will be added at the ground level on the third-base line, Kirk Bauer said.

The stadium is working on an "art in public places" feature for the plaza outside the stadium at the third-base line entrance. That is a county requirement, and there is a five-person team reviewing artists’ submissions, Kirk Bauer said.

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The town’s planning and zoning commission — which reviewed the project on Aug. 8 and unanimously recommended approval — asked the project team if any local artists were included in the search. While the team was not able to say at that meeting if any of the artists were from Jupiter or Palm Beach County, they did say they were looking for a Florida artist who understands baseball.

While the third-base line plaza is part of the stadium’s agreement with Palm Beach County, Kirk Bauer said the Abacoa Property Owners Association asked the development team to include the first-base plaza as well, and Roger Dean is moving forward with that.

More work within the stadium includes two new high-resolution scoreboards, an updated sound system, a new security system, press-box improvements and new drink rails on the concourse.

A parking area will not delay the project

A condition of approval that raised concerns during the planning and zoning commission review will not hold up work on the project, council members said.

The condition of approval — something typically included by local government planning staff members when presenting development applications for review by officials — would have required the stadium to establish a stabilized grass parking area off Central Boulevard, near fields that are commonly used for amateur games and that are not related to spring-training activity, town staff said.

Gentile had told the planning and zoning commission that the project’s engineers were concerned about the condition because the site designated for parking serves as a water-retention area, part of the stadium property’s overall drainage plan.

In voting to approve the site-plan changes, the council said it will look at the parking issue at a later date. Mayor Jim Kuretski suggested that because the parking site sits off a county-owned and maintained road that the county engineer should review the plan.

Palm Beach County covering much of the cost

Both Jupiter and the county have agreements with the stadium to keep spring training and minor-league baseball at Roger Dean. The county commission voted in May of last year to approve a plan that keeps the teams there until at least 2049.

That agreement included a county-issued bond to help cover the cost of repairs, with the bond to be repaid over the next 25 years. Palm Beach County will cover about 34% of the cost of the bond through bed taxes. The state will cover another 28%, and the teams will cover 38%.

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Jupiter’s proposed budget for the coming fiscal year, which begins Oct. 1, includes $2.2 million for the renovations. That includes $1.45 million for fieldhouse upgrades and lighting on the north quad fields and $750,000 for stadium entry-plaza upgrades on Main Street.

The town’s contract with the teams runs through 2027, town attorney Thomas Baird said at the planning and zoning commission meeting.

The town coordinated 25 acres of land to facilitate the stadium’s development when it was founded, Kuretski said. He requested that two “whereas” clauses be added to the resolution approving the site plan, with one clause outlining the town’s contribution of 25 acres to the overall property, and another saying that as a result of that contribution, the northern quad fields were established.

In budgeting money to upgrade the quad fields, the town expects its contract with the teams to be extended, Kuretski said.

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Mike Bauer, the stadium’s general manager, said Roger Dean’s team has been talking with the town, and he expects an updated agreement soon.

“We feel like we can work together and get there,” he told the council.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Roger Dean Chevrolet Stadium in Jupiter gets OK for $108M overhaul