RI Commerce, City of Pawtucket to Review 6 Proposals for Reuse of McCoy and Downtown Development
GoLocalProv News Team
RI Commerce, City of Pawtucket to Review 6 Proposals for Reuse of McCoy and Downtown Development
“We are very pleased with the number and apparent quality of the proposals we’ve received. We look forward to working with Mayor Grebien and his team to review these proposals, narrow them down, and pursue next steps,” said Rhode Island Commerce Secretary Stefan Pryor.
All proposals will be reviewed and evaluated by the Rhode Island Commerce Corporation and the City of Pawtucket.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLAST“The City appreciates the initiative and leadership role Commerce RI has taken with the Request for Proposal process. The number of responses continue to show that Pawtucket is a desirable location for development and that there is a clear interest for investors to come to the city. We look forward to working with Commerce to review and evaluate the six proposals,” said Mayor Donald Grebien.
Proposals will be reviewed and evaluated based upon information contained in the respective submission packages and their responsiveness to the submission criteria.
The Proposals
AJAX Advisors, LLC is proposing to bring professional sports to Pawtucket with independent professional soccer in a new stadium in Downtown Pawtucket and the conversion of McCoy into a light industrial use.
Brett Johnson, Fortuitous Partners is proposing to bring a professional sports team – a United Soccer League franchise – to downtown Pawtucket and envisions construction of a multi-sport stadium and ancillary and sport-related development. The proposal includes a renewed use for the existing McCoy baseball stadium site. A new recreational park is proposed with six new multipurpose fields that can be used for soccer, lacrosse, or football.
Frank Boulton is proposing to bring Atlantic League professional baseball to McCoy Stadium.
Level Exchange is proposing the creation of a hub centered around the music industry in Pawtucket, seeing this as an opportunity to foster the growth of the multifaceted creative community. In addition to infrastructure to support the entertainment industry, this approach would include all other aspects needed to sustain such a live-work-play area.
Minor League Baseball for Pawtucket: Minor League Baseball for Pawtucket, a group of local Rhode Island business leaders and community members, want to explore with the City of Pawtucket and the State of Rhode Island the possibility of continuing the rich tradition of affiliated, Minor League Baseball in Pawtucket. Preserving community involvement and providing, affordable, family entertainment in the State of Rhode Island are the groups’ priorities.
Native Waters Investment, LLC: is proposing to construct a Family Entertainment Center and Riverfront Park in Pawtucket. The Family Entertainment Center and Riverfront Park will be located on approximately twenty-five acres of land in the I-95 corridor. Some features of the Entertainment Center could include an indoor mega coaster, children’s play park, rock climbing wall, overhead zip-line course, bowling alleys, a 7D theater, a variety of restaurants and retail outlets and a riverboat hotel.
Who Lost the PawSox? August 2018
Owners' Error
Starting from nearly day one, the new ownership group of the Pawtucket Red Sox -- a collection of some of America’s most wealthy businessmen -- saw their investment in the team as a “gift” to Rhode Islanders and that their vision of a mega-stadium in Providence was a windfall.
The ownership group’s early strategy was to demand more than $140 million in subsidies and tax breaks and that led to strong public backlash.
The ownership group -- with a collective net worth of $6 to $8 billion, later blamed the late Jim Skeffington for the misstep, but the collection of owners all thought that for a small investment in the PawSox -- $2 million to $3 million per owner, reportedly, the windfall potential was tremendous -- and all financed by taxpayers.
Raimondo’s Flip Flop
As the Providence proposal took on water Governor Gina Raimondo reversed field and went from supporter to opponent on the financing structure.
Raimondo, who had once chided critics about complaining about the move from Pawtucket to Providence, flipped on the ownership group and ultimately opposed the Providence financing deal. The implications were two-fold.
First, it raised questions with owners about who to negotiate with and how to negotiate with Rhode Island’s government in good faith. Second, it did tremendous damage to her already strained relationship with Speaker of the House Nick Mattiello. Her change left him the last official holding the political hot potato.
Lucchino’s Demands
After Jim Skeffington’s death, former Boston Red Sox top executive Larry Lucchino took over the ownership effort to site a new stadium.
Lucchino, who had built stadiums in Baltimore and San Diego for major league franchises, had a formula. While his ownership group in Boston had failed to build a new Fenway Park in Boston due to public opposition, Lucchino put forth a series of demands and, more so than any factor, lead to the team’s stadium efforts failure.
First, he would not wait until after the 2018 election. Second, he refused to have the owners take on the final financial backstop. Third, he refused to acknowledge that times had changed — that minor league baseball’s popularity which peaked in the 1990s was long past.
Public Support — No Millions for Billionaires
At the end of the day, Rhode Islanders, by an overwhelming majority did not want to invest taxpayer dollars in a public stadium.
According to two GoLocal polls conducted by Harvard’s John Della Volpe which asked, “The Rhode Island General Assembly is in the process of negotiating a $40 million public financing deal with the Pawtucket Red Sox for a new stadium, hoping to bring a vote before the House and Senate this summer.
In general, do you favor or oppose the use of public funds to help finance a new stadium for the Pawtucket Red Sox?”
Net: Favor 33%
Strongly favor 13%
Somewhat favor 21%
Net: Oppose 59%
Somewhat oppose 21%
Strongly oppose 38%
Don't know 8%
Lack of Functional Leadership
In the end, the dysfunctional relationship between Raimondo, Mattiello, and Ruggerio doomed a viable solution — maybe from the beginning.
Instead of a united front by the three top political leaders, the owners got greedy and tried to manipulate the division of the state’s Democratic leaders.
Democrats Raimondo, Mattiello and Ruggerio are as aligned as Iraqi ethnic groups Kurds, Sunnis and Shias. Yes, they are all Democrats, but their trust and ability to co-govern often fails.
“Trust and reliability are the key ingredients in any public-private deal. Polls show about 60% of Rhode Islanders opposed the project which reflected in part a lack of trust in elected officials. The owners grew not to trust Rhode Island pols because of the way the process and negation unfolded at the State House,” Gary Sasse of the Hassenfeld Institute tells GoLocalProv.
