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City releases some stadium documents
Revenue projections are among financial details that are kept private
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Published: October 7, 2009
Updated: 10/07/2009 01:45 am
The city of Winston-Salem has released hundreds of pages of documents signed during the closing of its complicated finance package with the developers of the downtown baseball stadium, though it did not release documents that offer revenue projections or that officials say are protected by state public-records laws.
More than 50 documents were made public this week, including deeds, financing statements and leases. The leases show some of the inner workings of a deal that involves the city, multiple banks and at least four companies managed or owned by stadium developer Billy Prim.
The documents don't contain any business projections on the ballpark's operations.
The city has denied a public-records request from the Winston-Salem Journal for those estimates.
City Manager Lee Garrity said in an e-mail response that the city will not make the documents public because they could put private businesses that supplied information for the estimates at a competitive disadvantage.
Garrity said yesterday that the financial health of the stadium, once it starts operating, would be obvious to Winston-Salem residents.
"The way we'll all know (that the stadium is succeeding) is as long as Mr. Prim's companies are able to make the lease payments -- if they're able to cover their financial obligations to the city," he said.
The projections, which were estimated for each of the first five years of the stadium's operations, were reviewed in a closed session last week by the members of the Citizens Baseball Stadium Review Committee, which was created to provide citizen oversight to the project.
Under the closing agreements, the city owns the stadium and is leasing both the stadium and land to two of Prim's companies, which in turn are subleasing to other companies run by Prim.
In some cases, the closing documents show Prim signing sublease documents as both landlord and tenant.
Prim owns the Winston-Salem Dash, the minor-league team that will play in the stadium.
City Attorney Angela Carmon, who negotiated for the city throughout the closing, said that Prim acted as a manager or president for his companies. She said that the companies each have different investors.
Garrity said that the city has asked Prim for authorization to publicly disclose the names of those investors.
But so far, Garrity said, Prim "has told us that his investors will not agree to have their names released."
Carmon said that the city is interested in how much Prim's companies make through the stadium only inasmuch as those earnings affect the companies' abilities to pay rent to the city. The first rent payment is due to the city on June 1, 2010.
"Our concern is that they meet their lease obligations to the city," Carmon said. "What they do with anything extra is certainly within their discretion."
Under the final agreement, Prim's companies must first pay their operating expenses, then pay their bank loans, then pay rent to the city. The companies do not collect profits until the other payments have been made.
The minor-league baseball stadium, which is being built at Peters Creek Parkway and First Street, is to cost $48.7 million, including land. The city of Winston-Salem contributed $12 million in 2007 to help pay for construction. Earlier this year, Prim came to city officials and asked for additional financial help from the city.
Construction on the ballpark had been stalled for months because Prim's development companies fell behind in their payments to banks and construction workers. The Winston-Salem City Council approved an additional $15.7 million for the ballpark in June. Construction resumed last week after the deal closed.
The city borrowed most of that money and used it to purchase the stadium and the land on which it sits from Prim's companies. One of Prim's companies also borrowed $15 million to help finish the stadium. City money went to pay back outstanding debts on the ballpark and land and to help pay construction workers.
lgraff@wsjournal.com
727-7279
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