A Room With A (Ballpark) View

Stadium wave (PDF)
Baseball complex heats up West End development

From the article:

"A month before opening day, the stadium environs is bustling with development and redevelopment. New buildings are being built and old ones renovated. Office space is filling up.
Retailers are moving in.
Local real estate brokers say out-of-town investors and developers are eyeing -- and buying -- property."

""It's really picked up steam since the stadium was announced," he said. "I think development would have occurred anyway, but not as rapidly as it's occurring now. I think the stadium has been a catalyst.""

"Croxton, co-owner of Croxton Gray Commercial Properties, said out-of-town investors have cited the stadium as a reason for their interest in the West End"

And the Beer's Better (PDF)

From the article:

"The concept may catch on. The city of Nashville is planning ballpark-view condos around a new 10,000-seat stadium for its AAA minor-league team, the Sounds. And in Minneapolis, many of the same development firms that worked on the San Diego project are considering a similar plan there. But it's not always easy getting municipalities to agree. The biggest complication is fan and homeowner traffic getting in the way of each other during games."

Thousands want a Stadium Lofts unit (PDF)
Demand for condos is high as thousands have contacted the builder of 390 units in the Platinum Triangle

From the article:

"The banner and Web site clearly advertised that the Stadium Lofts apartments would be leased.

But more than half the people who contacted the builder wanted to buy one of the 390 units in the first Platinum Triangle complex.

So the developer switched to "for sale" condominiums about a month ago. And the move seems to be paying off:

About 4,000 people are on the interest list – 10 people for every condo.

About 2,500 of those surfaced in the past few months."

"Conchi and Carlos Sanford, who share a rental house with two couples in Fullerton, want to buy a Stadium Lofts condo – prices range from $300,000 to $700,000 – so they can walk to restaurants and Angel Stadium, where they hold baseball season tickets."

""We love the idea of urban living. We love the idea of being in something more modern. We love the idea of living around people our own ages," said Conchi Sanford, 34."

""There's a magic that takes place when there's that density," said Maldonado, of Town & Condo Real Estate."

National Association of Realtors Economic Development Case Studies (PDF)
Project: Ballpark District, Memphis, Tennessee

""The ballpark, business, and entertainment districts are all interconnected and work hand in hand to increase the value of the housing units nearby. The ballpark is a class A facility and it is one of the most enjoyable amenities in town. It fits in well with the neighborhood and has added value to the neighborhood." "

"In 1996, Dean and Kristi Jernigan decided to build a park for their recently-purchased AAA baseball franchise, the Memphis Redbirds, and to put it downtown instead of in the suburbs. Baltimore's Camden Yards particularly inspired them. After establishing a nonprofit organization to run the new team, the Jernigans began getting options on land downtown and then approached the City and County. Although the project up to this point was still solely concerned with baseball, it quickly turned into an urban revitalization project."

"Today, the ballpark district is famous for the revitalization that it spearheaded in Memphis's urban core. The ballpark succeeded not only in introducing a successful new development into the downtown area, but it changed residents' perceptions. People began to react much more positively toward mixed-use development. It changed people's attitudes about downtown and brought people back into Memphis's core that had not visited for twenty years. There was a generation that had grown up outside of the urban core, who had never planned on returning to the downtown area, who were now visiting it for the first time to attend a baseball game. In addition, the ballpark has become a social core of downtown even for people who have no interest in baseball. "

"What once was an area inhabited solely by adult theaters, surface parking lots, and empty buildings is now a teeming mixed-use neighborhood, community gathering place, and home to a myriad of new businesses, including the headquarters of Storage USA and the Memphis Redbirds."

"The challenges to this project were numerous. One of the most significant factors was the public's skepticism about the project "