Sounds Like a Plan
The ballpark deal is reaching its final stages—and things look good for the Sounds
by John Spragens
This minor league ballpark proposal has turned into a major league headache. But after more than two years of wrangling over plans to build the Nashville Sounds a new home downtown, the team and the mayor's office are inching closer to an agreement. Several parties involved say a deal is nearing completion.
That's because last week First Tennessee Bank's Nashville region president Mike Edwards, who is spearheading the Sounds' financing efforts, told city officials that the team had made real progress developing a viable package of private financing for the ballpark proposal. "He said it looked like it might be doable," Deputy Mayor Bill Phillips told the Scene Monday. "We haven't changed our position, and they have come up with a plan that looks like it might work.... Everybody seemed to be comfortably optimistic."
Tuesday morning, in a conference room at First Tennessee's downtown office, Edwards presented the financing package to a group of 15 to 20 local commercial bankers. While everyone present had to sign a confidentiality agreement, one bank official in attendance tells the Scene that the city's optimism isn't unwarranted. In other words, the financing package is attractive enough that local banks may well get on board.
But what are they signing up for? The Sounds' ballpark plan essentially calls for an $80 million mixed-use redevelopment on the west bank of the Cumberland River, on the former site of the Nashville Thermal Transfer Plant. Roughly half of that cost would go toward the construction of an 11,000-seat stadium; the other half would be spent on the development of 225 residential units and 80,000 square feet of retail space. First Avenue South would be transformed from an urban eyesore to a vibrant downtown living space and tourist destination. (And pimped-ride Saturday-night cruisers would have a few extra blocks of space to circle.)
Though the Sounds produced a final version of this plan a year ago, Mayor Bill Purcell balked at the idea of guaranteeing $40 million worth of bonds and instructed the Sounds to come back with private backing that would ensure the city wouldn't have to cover the investment if the Sounds ever defaulted. In the intervening 12 months, the club has negotiated with Metro—although finance director David Manning didn't really budge on the guarantor requirement—and had its proposal endorsed by a Metro Council-appointed thermal site task force. Finally and at long last, it looks like those Metro bonds will be secure, appeasing the notoriously risk-averse Mayor Bill Purcell.
It's about time. Three months ago, Sounds general manager Glenn Yaeger was publicly complaining about the molasses-like speed at which the project was moving. Interest rates were rising. Out-of-town developers were checking their watches. "This is getting frustrating," he told the Scene. "Not many businesses or people would have been this patient. We certainly have."
One of the Sounds' two major out-of-town partners on the project, Baltimore's Struever Bros., Eccles and Rouse Inc. (Yankees have such funny names), is expecting word any day now about the fate of the proposal. Struever Bros. is known for undertaking large-scale urban redevelopment projects, including the mixed-use neighborhoods around Boston's Fenway Park and Baltimore's Camden Yards. An official with Struever Bros. tells the Scene that the mayor's office expected to send word to them by mid-November. "Today is the date that they're trying to make some of those final decisions," he says.
The brothers may be in luck. A source familiar with the negotiations says city officials have offered Struever Bros. the development rights to a 5-acre property near the thermal site, which could help the Sounds' partner secure more revenues to finance the ballpark project. This deal-sweetener was part of what was discussed at the First Tennessee meeting Tuesday. (The development deal could be in addition to any role Struever may have in the Rolling Mill Hill redevelopment project, an MDHA-led effort to convert 34 acres downtown into a mixed-use residential and commercial neighborhood. Those proposals are currently being reviewed.) Struever Bros. would no doubt be happy to make a dramatic entrance into a new market by revitalizing a major downtown swath of land. And it looks like the firm's patience may pay off.
Of course, if the ballpark deal gets inked in the next couple of weeks, it may have consequences for another major project—the potential new convention center. That's a situation that's been quietly festering out of the public eye for a while now, but Friday the firms that prepared a cost-benefit study for the city will present their findings to interested parties and the public. The mayor won't attend. "With the convention center, we're sort of at the beginning of the conversation," says Purcell advisor Patrick Willard. "What we'll know Friday is the cost involved, the various options for the sites.... It's the beginning of that conversation." In other words, Purcell's still isn't buying into the need for a new convention center.
Not so for baseball. The mayor's office is on board—reportedly wheeling and dealing to get things done—and a handful of other folks are optimistic about the situation. Only Mike Edwards, the First Tennessee executive whose business skills may make or break the deal, sounds a note of caution. "It's a very sensitive time," he says, adding that it would be "awkward at best" to comment on the financial proposal. "I'm more optimistic than I was, but there's still a lot of work to be done."
At least somewhere downtown, in corner offices and high-rise conference rooms, people are playing ball.
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