The city of Winston-Salem could own the new downtown baseball stadium outright if the Winston-Salem City Council approves a revised contract with the developer at the council's meeting Monday night.
Under the proposed new agreement, the city would get the title to the stadium at closing and would lease the stadium to Brookstown Development Partners and Sports Menagerie Stadium for 25 years. Brookstown is the company developing the stadium. Sports Menagerie Stadium would operate the stadium and would be required to pay property taxes to the city.
Brookstown is owned by Billy Prim, the local entrepreneur who owns the Winston-Salem Dash, the minor-league team that would play in the stadium.
City Manager Lee Garrity said that city officials negotiated to own the stadium outright to protect the city's investment.
"For all intents and purposes -- for tax purposes and everything else -- the developer will run the stadium," Garrity said. "But legally, the city will own the stadium…. The team will still pay property taxes because of the lease, but if something went wrong, it strengthens the city's position."
Construction work on the ballpark, which is being built at First Street and Peters Creek Parkway, has been stopped for months as Prim negotiated a buyout with his former partner and brother-in-law, dot-com entrepreneur Andrew "Flip" Filipowski.
Prim has said that, in part because of Filipowski's exit from the partnership, banks would not lend additional money to finish the stadium. He came to the council and asked for additional financial help, which the council approved last month.
The city intends to borrow $12.7 million from First Tennessee Bank. Of that money, $8 million will pay for land for parking. The remaining money will pay for construction costs to finish the stadium.
City officials originally intended to borrow the money from BB&T, but, according to city documents, negotiated a more favorable interest rate with First Tennessee Bank.
Stewart Holmes, the chairman of the Winston-Salem Police Officers' Retirement Commission, is a senior vice president for First Tennessee. City officials say the city attorney's office found no conflict of interest between Holmes' position with the bank and his position with the police retirement commission.
The council meeting is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. Monday at City Hall.
â– Laura Graff can be reached at 727-7279 or at lgraff@wsjournal.com.
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