Deal to restructure stadium debt approved
- Details
- Published on Wednesday, 01 May 2013 11:18
- Written by Paul Gordon
A plan to refinance Peoria's professional baseball stadium was approved Tuesday by the Peoria City Council.
With only at-large Councilman Gary Sandberg dissenting because of his disapproval of using taxpayer money to bail out private business, the council voted 9-1 to forgive the remaining $1.2 million the stadium owners owe for bonds the city issued 12 years ago to pay for infrastructure around the downtown ballpark. The city will end up pay off the remainder of the bonds out of its general fund.
With the council's approval, the Peoria Chiefs ballclub, the Class A affiliate of the St. Louis Cardinals, also will receive a reduction in outstanding bank debt, new investment income from its group of owners and $2 million over 10 years from Caterpillar Inc. for the naming rights to the stadium, once known as O'Brien Field.
The agreement is worth a total of $7.35 million to the ballcub.
Mayor Jim Ardis pushed for approval of the agreement, which was announced last week, sayind he believed the council would see the importance of approving this agreement and keeping professional baseball in Peoria."
Without the council's approval the entire deal would have fallen through. That would include a $1.2 million reduction in bank loans that would occur when Morton Community Bank would take over the loan from a consortium of seven banks that made the original loan a dozen years ago.
Also out would be $2.7 million in new investment from the group of 50 owners, most of them local.
The city's bond was issued for $1.675 million at 4.25 percent interest, to be repaid over 20 years at about $150,000 a year.
Part of the agreement with the city would include allowing others to use the stadium for other events, such as concerts, when the Chiefs or Bradley University teams are not using it. Bradley, as per the agreement, will pay $250,000 over the next 10 years to rent the stadium for its games.
Ardis said he pushed for approval of the agreement because the Chiefs are important to the entire region, even beyond the $180,000 in annual property taxes the stadium generates. "This ballpark is an amenity to this city and it fits well with the new construction downtown and the Warehouse District," which surrounds the stadium, he added.
Ardis said he has heard from others, including officials at the University of Illinois College of Medicine at Peoria, that having professional baseball in a city this size is an important tool in recruiting teaching and research talent to Peoria.
Baumgartner said the same is true for Caterpillar. "It goes to the issue of quality of life. Having activities for young professionals is important in our recruiting efforts," he said.
