Construction on the $22.6 million baseball stadium in downtown Winston-Salem is being slowed but that should not affect the scheduled April 2009 opening, officials said yesterday.
Mayor Allen Joines said in an interview after the city's economic forum last night that the delay was caused by negotiations between two of the Winston-Salem baseball team's owners, Billy Prim and Andrew "Flip" Filipowski.
Joines said that Prim, who is also the chairman and chief executive of Primo Water Corp., could buy out Filipowski, who is also the chairman and chief executive of SilkRoad Technologies Inc. Earlier this month, Filipowski's company laid off at least 12 employees.
The team formerly known as the Warthogs has not yet been renamed.
Neither Prim nor Filipowski could be reached last night, but a spokesman for the team said that the stadium at Peters Creek Parkway and First Street should still open on time.
"There have been some delays in the stadium's construction while we work on restructuring of ownership of the team and stadium," said the spokesman, Kevin Mortesen. "We anticipate finalizing that in the near future and that everything will proceed to enable the team to play in the new stadium for the '09 season."
Mortesen said in an e-mail that construction would continue during the delay. He said that crews were at the stadium yesterday and will be there today.
Joines said he had been told that the delays should last no more than 10 days.
The city contributed $12 million up front for the project. If the stadium is not complete by March of 2010, the stadium owners will be forced to pay that money back.
Subcontractors said yesterday that their work was on pace.
"Everything's been all good with us the whole time, no problems at all," said Dwayne Pitts, a co-owner of Piedmont Pressure Seal Inc., which is waterproofing the stadium. "Construction is still on schedule."
■ Laura Graff can be reached at 727-7279 or at lgraff@wsjournal.com.
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