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Stadium delays stir frustration on city council
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Published: September 10, 2009
Updated: 09/10/2009 12:30 am
Three months after the Winston-Salem City Council voted to contribute another $15.7 million in financial help to the embattled downtown baseball stadium, the financing deals haven't yet closed and construction has not resumed.
And with election season under way -- and most of the council members facing challengers -- they are unhappy with the delay.
"I think we're extremely frustrated that after taking what I would call a very controversial vote, that it has now been three months," said Robert Clark, who represents the city's West Ward and who is running unopposed in the November election. "Every time we jump one hurdle, there always seems to be one more, and that's what's frustrating."
That frustration was one of the factors behind two votes taken Tuesday night -- one in which the council approved changes in the financing deal between the city and stadium developer Billy Prim and a second in which the council set a Sept. 21 deadline for the loans to close and construction to resume.
Council members said they wanted Prim and other private investors involved in building the stadium and surrounding development to know that it is time to get construction moving again.
Clark said he again has been told that there is just one more hurdle to jump for the private loans to come to closing.
"But I would not say it's a small hurdle," he said.
The contractors have said they would need 165 to 180 days to finish construction on the stadium, which is being built at Peters Creek Parkway and First Street.
That means that if the Class A Winston-Salem Dash are to play there at the start of the 2010 season, construction must resume in the beginning of October.
David "Gibby'' Gibson, the senior superintendent for Samet Corp., the project's general contractor, said that there is "no hard and fast date" by which construction must resume. But he said that winter weather could cause problems.
"I believe there's time yet," to get the stadium built by opening day, Gibson said.
"But we're pushing the envelope."
The ballpark -- which will cost, with land, an estimated $48.7 million -- is being built with a combination of city loans, federal grants and bank loans taken out by Prim's development companies and private financing. The city's portion is almost $28 million.
Council members said yesterday that the city's piece of the deal is complete and that the holdup is on the private-financing side.
"Everybody involved, I think, is absolutely tired of dealing with this issue," said Council Member Dan Besse, a Democrat who represents the city's Southwest Ward and who has been criticized for his support of the stadium.
City Manager Lee Garrity said Tuesday that the council's approval to the changes in the deal means that the loans could go to closing this week.
Construction, which has been delayed for months, cannot resume until after closing.
Clark said he did not know what the council would do if Prim were to come to the council on Sept. 21 and say that the financing deal still couldn't close.
■ Laura Graff can be reached at 727-7279 or at lgraff@wsjournal.com.
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