Spartanburg to spend $425 million on baseball park stadium, apartments, hotel, parking

Spartanburg is making a large investment by spending $425 million on the much-anticipated minor league baseball park project in downtown.

City Council entered into an agreement with Johnson Development Associates on a project to bring the stadium and multi-use complex to town during Monday's meeting.

Preliminary approval was given on Monday and the second reading will come in the next few weeks.

The project, announced in May and nicknamed Project Core, includes a 3,500-seat baseball stadium, more than 375 apartments, a 150-room hotel, and 200,000 square feet of office space. The space also has parking for at least 1,500 vehicles and a public plaza.

Council also approved the sale of several city-owned properties on Henry Street to the developers to expand the project site. Both votes were approved unanimously. City Councilman Rob Rain, an employee of Johnson Development, was recused from voting.

"I'm truly excited about this," Mayor Jerome Rice said. "I know we have some concerns, and we do have some questions, but I can tell you that, as far as the mayor goes, I'm truly excited about this possibility and where this takes us."

Project Core will bring the team currently playing as the Down East Wood Ducks in Kinston, North Carolina, to Spartanburg as soon as 2025.

Robins & Morton contractors from Birmingham Alabama, will build the stadium. The contractor's local projects include the AC Hotel, Wofford College's Jerry Richardson Indoor Stadium and the Rosalind Sallenger Richardson Center for the Arts and Chandler Center for Environmental Studies.

Spartanburg's new baseball team: What should Spartanburg's new baseball team be named? We have some ideas. What are yours?

Minor League Baseball Update: What you need to know about stadium project in Spartanburg

Here are five things to know about the project from Monday's Spartanburg City Council meeting:

Project is largest in Spartanburg's history

It's the biggest project in the city's history, both in scale and in the amount of capital behind it, according to City Manager Chris Story.

"What we're talking about today is a $425 million undertaking, $305 million of private investment in about a four-block area. We believe it will transition Spartanburg to a whole new (level) of economic activity and opportunity," Story said during the meeting. "It is really a once-in-a-generation opportunity."

Here is a breakdown of the main funding sources:

➤ The state Legislature provided $54 million.

➤ Spartanburg County will provide $1,873,000.

➤The Downtown Partnership Committee will provide $3,610,319.

➤ City of Spartanburg will be providing a funding source to cover the estimated $58.6 million cost of the stadium and associated public infrastructure, which will include revenue from the city's local accommodations tax and Downtown Development District fund and revenue from the baseball stadium itself, once it is open.

Stadium will be centerpiece of the west side

The 3,500-seat stadium will be state-of-the-art and bring in more than just spectators.

"We anticipate that the ball team owner will have upward of 30 employees full-time, and, of course, on game days, many dozens more," Story said.

The goal is to complete the stadium in time for the 2025 minor league baseball season. It will feature 12 corporate boxes, a large club lounge that will double as an indoor event space, a children's area, a grass seating berm, and concession facilities.

Baseball park is not just a stadium

The plan includes 200,000 square feet of new office space, 375 luxury apartments, a 150-room hotel, and a large public plaza.

Unlike other multi-unit housing projects, the city has approved in recent years, none of these apartment units are required to be workforce housing.

"In review of the financials of this particular situation, with the complexity of the construction and the rents necessary to make the project economically viable, we don’t see a way to make the math work,” said Story. “We think it is important, however, we continue to add housing supply in the heart of downtown that has benefits that relate to maintaining affordability elsewhere.”

Project will bring parking for all of West Main

As part of the development agreement, Johnson Development will provide 1,500 parking spaces in the form of three parking garages.

The hope is that this will not only provide parking for those attending the baseball games and events at the stadium but will also provide parking for those visiting the reimagined Morgan Square.

Hotel, and project as a whole, is getting significant incentives

The development agreement dictates that no other hotels in the Downtown Development District (roughly from Pine Street to the railroad tracks on West Main and from Henry Street to E. Daniel Morgan Avenue) will receive incentives for the three years following the hotel's opening.

Furthermore, council agreed that no private development in the city would receive greater incentives than this project for the next five years.

Both Councilwoman Erica Brown and Councilwoman Meghan Smith objected to the hotel moratorium, though they approved of the plan overall.

"We have no idea what five years will hold for our city, and we're, I think, in an upward trajectory, so I have heartburn in limiting future hotels," Smith said.

Samantha Swann covers city news, development and culture in Spartanburg. She is a University of South Carolina Upstate and Greenville Technical College alumna. Contact her at sswann@shj.com or on Instagram at @sam_on_spartanburg.

This article originally appeared on Herald-Journal: Spartanburg's downtown to get ballpark, hotel, apartments, parking