Groundbreaking for Polar Park Thursday caps 11-month 'to-do' list
By Nick KotsopoulosTelegram & Gazette Staff
WORCESTER - It has been almost 11 months since the Pawtucket Red Sox and the city announced the signing of an agreement to bring the Triple A team here and play in a ballpark that will be built on the north side of Madison Street near Kelley Square.
At that City Hall press conference, city and team officials said they were shooting to have a groundbreaking ceremony for the ballpark, to be known as Polar Park, sometime this month.
It was an ambitious schedule, involving a lot of moving parts and a rather lengthy and complicated to-do list for the city.
The list included land acquisitions for the project, finding new homes for some of the businesses that needed to be relocated, lining up a construction and design team, coming up with a financing plan and rezoning the area to facilitate the construction of the ballpark and associated $90 million private development.
Land takings were also necessary to facilitate the planned redesign of Kelley Square, a key component to the overall $240 million redevelopment of that part of the city, and changes have to be made to the street network near the ballpark.
Critics of the ballpark project were skeptical that the city government, known to move as slow as a turtle at times, would be able to get all that done in time for a groundbreaking this month.
There were concerns that a delay would jeopardize the city's ability to get the ballpark built and ready to open for the start of the 2021 baseball season. Such a delay would have financial repercussions for the city.
But over the past 11 months, the city tackled its "to-do" list in a methodical manner and has checked off all that needed to be done.
A groundbreaking ceremony will be held at 3:30 p.m. Thursday at Plymouth and Washington streets.
It is a blighted area that features various vacant lots and parking lots that will soon give way to what is being described as a state-of-the-art minor league ballpark.
Among those who will be at Thursday's groundbreaking ceremony are city, state and federal officials, along with executives from the Worcester Red Sox, the ballpark's construction and design team and community leaders from the Canal District and the Green Island area.
City and team officials promise it will be more than a place to host baseball games. They envision the facility being used for a variety of activities on a year-round basis.
"We're going to be very excited and proud of what comes out of the design process," said City Manager Edward M. Augustus Jr. "Hopefully, people will be as enthusiastic (about the design) as those of us who have been part of it are today."
Work is still being done on the design of Polar Park. Augustus recently told the City Council that work probably won't be done until next month at the earliest.
"It will be something we share in great detail with the entire community," he said of the ballpark design. "It could be into August before it is completed. We've been going back and forth on the design and value engineering process now. If I had to guess, I'd say (the design will be completed) sometime in August, give or take."
So far, no plans have gone before any city board or commission for the ballpark or any part of the associated private development that will be done by Madison Properties.
According to the voluminous Draft Environment Impact Report that was filed with the state earlier this year for the ballpark/mixed-use project, Polar Park will have a capacity of about 10,000 people. It will include meeting rooms, a pedestrian promenade, function rooms and about 41,500 square feet of restaurants and retail space.
"The facility will hold at least 125 events each year, including baseball games, charitable events, high school and collegiate sporting events, and concerts," the report stated.
In addition, a 95,000-square-foot, multilevel office building will be integrated into the left-field corner of the ballpark.
Meanwhile, the mixed-use development will be constructed in five buildings on the south side of Madison Street. According to the Environmental Impact Report, it will include two hotels with a total of 250 rooms, 385,000 square feet of residential space (370 units), 179,000 square feet of office space and 101,800 square feet of retail space.
A 522-space parking garage will also be built on the south side of Madison Street and will be used, in part, to provide parking for events at the ballpark.
The entire development will be done in two phases, with the ballpark and associated office and retail uses, two hotels, about 60,600 square feet of retail space on the south side of Madison Street, 220 residential units and the parking garage to be done in the first phase.
The time frame for the second phase will depend on market conditions but is expected to be completed within five to 10 years.
Before the construction of the ballpark can begin, much site preparation work will have to be done first.
Because the area on the north side of Madison Street where the ballpark will be built has a higher elevation than the roughly 18 acres on the south side of the street where there will be the private development, excavation work will need to be done to bring that elevation to street level. Earth removed from the north side of Madison Street will be used to raise the elevation of the land on the south side of Madison to street level.
A significant amount of new drainage, water and sewer lines will have to be installed in that area. The drainage improvements are also planned to better serve the Canal District and Green Island neighborhood, which has been prone to flooding in the past because of its aging and insufficient drainage system.