Worcester Ballpark & Redev

kmp1284 said:
It’s $1 for six months. You probably just spent more than a dollar’s worth of your time clicking that link to find you couldn’t read it and then typing that complaint.
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I'm not complaining about spending a dollar. I pay more than that a month for some other local paper subcriptions. I am complaing now about the fact that I have to go through the effort of making yet another account just so I can read that lol
 
Keep in mind that the Boston Globe is owned by John Henry who is the principal owner of the Boston Red Sox which in turn have an ownership stake in the WooSox.
 
God damn that article sent me down a worcester rabbit hole. Glad to see canal st is doing a lot better these days.
 
Still, as in Boston, new development has stalled lately. Higher interest rates and materials costs, as well as post-pandemic shakeouts in commercial real estate, have slowed development. When those apartment buildings — including an overhaul of the old Table Talk office on Green Street into condos — are finished, the clang of hammers and rumble of cement trucks will fade again, for the first time in years.
Looking across Madison Street from the big windows in Steinberg’s office in Polar Park, you can see several empty lots where many hoped buildings would be rising by now.
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That’s the real piece of news in the article. Lots of progess has been made, but the majority of proposed development in the Canal District and the rest of the city has completely stalled.
 
Worcester taxpayers will have to fill a $792,000 shortfall in paying the loans for Polar Park this fiscal year, despite assurances from city leaders just three years ago that the project would "pay for itself" over the next 30 years.
Reason given was a shortfall in tax revenue around the ballpark that anticipated much more new construction and businesses at this point. However:

- The five story Left Field building in the ballpark has been scrapped by the developer
- The original developer of the next phase of the Table Talk properties has pulled out, causing delays
- Madison properties is years behind developing the hotel, lab space, and additional residential buildings that were supposed to be completed next year. It's all still wilderness

www.wbjournal.com

For first time, Worcester needs general fund to make Polar Park payments, as key development deal is terminated

Ballpark district is short $792,000. Meanwhile, the tax deal for Left Field Building, once slated for a bioscience development, has been terminated by the developer.
www.wbjournal.com www.wbjournal.com
 
cubalibre said:
Worcester taxpayers will have to fill a $792,000 shortfall in paying the loans for Polar Park this fiscal year, despite assurances from city leaders just three years ago that the project would "pay for itself" over the next 30 years.
Reason given was a shortfall in tax revenue around the ballpark that anticipated much more new construction and businesses at this point. However:

- The five story Left Field building in the ballpark has been scrapped by the developer
- The original developer of the next phase of the Table Talk properties has pulled out, causing delays
- Madison properties is years behind developing the hotel, lab space, and additional residential buildings that were supposed to be completed next year. It's all still wilderness

www.wbjournal.com

For first time, Worcester needs general fund to make Polar Park payments, as key development deal is terminated

Ballpark district is short $792,000. Meanwhile, the tax deal for Left Field Building, once slated for a bioscience development, has been terminated by the developer.
www.wbjournal.com www.wbjournal.com
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The left field building lost their TIF but it's not scrapped as far as I know. They submitted a building permit for it recently in fact and they cleared the Polar park fan deck off of it and moved the fenceline
 
Polar Park attendance also appears to be in decline. It reached a total high (532,152) in 2022 and an average high (7,424) in 2023. This season saw a significant drop off of near 8% from the prior year. The team fell to 10th place in total minor league attendance after having finished sixth the previous two seasons. This relative position (when compared to the others) is not especially good given the team is new to the city and the park is just a few years old.

WooSox Home Attendance at Polar Park
2022 | 532,152 | Avg 7,290
2023 | 519,661 | Avg 7,424
2024 | 479,636 | Avg 6,852

Inaugural 2021 season not included as it had Covid restrictions
 
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cubalibre said:
Worcester taxpayers will have to fill a $792,000 shortfall in paying the loans for Polar Park this fiscal year, despite assurances from city leaders just three years ago that the project would "pay for itself" over the next 30 years.
Reason given was a shortfall in tax revenue around the ballpark that anticipated much more new construction and businesses at this point. However:

- The five story Left Field building in the ballpark has been scrapped by the developer
- The original developer of the next phase of the Table Talk properties has pulled out, causing delays
- Madison properties is years behind developing the hotel, lab space, and additional residential buildings that were supposed to be completed next year. It's all still wilderness

www.wbjournal.com

For first time, Worcester needs general fund to make Polar Park payments, as key development deal is terminated

Ballpark district is short $792,000. Meanwhile, the tax deal for Left Field Building, once slated for a bioscience development, has been terminated by the developer.
www.wbjournal.com www.wbjournal.com
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The Polar Park bond repayment schedule was designed to gradually increase each year to coincide with projected increased tax revenues as construction projects within the district were completed. How will terminated/delayed/downsized projects impact this? Doesn't the potential shortfall for the near term future years stand to get worse as the bond payments increase?
 
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New England Born & Raised said:
The Polar Park bond repayment schedule was designed to gradually increase each season to coincide with projected increased tax revenues as construction projects within the district were completed. How will terminated/delayed/downsized projects impact this? Doesn't the potential shortfall for the near term future years stand to get worse as the bond payments increase?
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unless these developments pick up the pace, yes, it will only get worse
 
The telegram article is actually a bit more nuanced. Still feels like city leaders make their tax revenue forecast based on the "happy path" and don't take into account economic downturns. In 2019, they get a pass to not predict a worldwide pandemic.
 
cubalibre said:
The telegram article is actually a bit more nuanced. Still feels like city leaders make their tax revenue forecast based on the "happy path" and don't take into account economic downturns. In 2019, they get a pass to not predict a worldwide pandemic.
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it wasn't on my 2020 bingo card, thats for sure
 
MLB has sucked the soul out of the product, so I’m less interested in spending the money to go to a game.
 
RandomWalk said:
MLB has sucked the soul out of the product, so I’m less interested in spending the money to go to a game.
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MLB ticket prices, concessions, parking is insanely high. Having said that, the minor league games, which are affordable for a family and the Cape Cod league games, which are free, can be quite enjoyable.
 
The only reason I don't go to more WooSox games is that Polar Park is not that convenient to where I live. Fenway, on the other hand, is very convenient. When you consider location and relative quality of product, I don't mind paying more for Fenway than Polar. However, AAA baseball is still quite good, and a very good deal if you have reasonable access to the venue.
 
RandomWalk said:
MLB ruined MiLB too. The Spinners were a more enjoyable product, and LeLacheur park was nice.
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Have you actually been to Polar? I was really impressed the time I did go. Baseball isn't really the point of going to a AAA game tho. It's a family experience. The product is good.

There's a lot of problems here. Projections but around pre-pandemic assumptions is the least of them.. even a very unhappy path assessment of the project probably would never have included that.

On top of that you've got people tightening spending as basically everything is way more expensive than projected five years ago. Families going out less, friend groups going out less. Everyone is searching for cheaper fun.

Then you've got the macroeconomic problems on money flow, capital, labor. None of that is getting fixed for the foreseeable future.

I don't think the ballpark was a bad idea but Worcester is going to need to come up with a path to getting back on track. What is holding up development? It's not like nothing is being built in the city.. it's just not getting built around the park.

Finally, Worcester really needs to reexamine it's commercial real estate problem. It's not done a good job in my entire lifetime of attracting businesses to locate jobs here. I get the office market is beyond fucked at the moment but the city cannot thrive by only being a commuter spoke for people going to work in Boston.
 
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