If you’re not sick to death of hearing about the city of St. Paul’s plans for a $54 million Lowertown ballpark, then read this.
What you’ll find therein is St. Paul’s application to the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development for $27 million in ballpark funding.
It’s 504 pages of details behind the ballpark proposal, including estimates of how many jobs will be created at the Lowertown site and at Midway Stadium, the current home of the St. Paul Saints off Energy Park Drive.
“This publicly owned and privately supported ballpark will host over 180 events, entertain 400,000 visitors, and produce $10M of direct economic activity each year,” reads the document.
Midway Stadium, which was constructed in 1982, would be handed over to the St. Paul Port Authority under a land swap for the old Gillette / Diamond Products site in Lowertown. The warehouse would become a ballpark, and the existing stadium would be redeveloped into a “business park,” according to the grant proposal.
The application faces stiff competition. DEED has $47.5 million to bestow on worthy economic development projects, and St. Paul is asking for more than half of it.
The Metropolitan Council wants $14 million for the Southwest Light Rail Transit line from Minneapolis to Eden Prairie, and groups pushing for new or expanded civic centers in Mankato and Rochester are no less eager to plead their case.
At last glance, 37 projects had applied for money as of late last week, and more were expected to roll in by the deadline today, Monday, July 9.