WDET News
- Tiger Stadium Deal Coming Together
-
Jul 29, 2008General
A group trying to save part of historic Tiger Stadium has reached a tentative deal with the City of Detroit.
The Old Tiger Stadium Conservancy was able to get a last minute deal after a city council committee voted last week to demolish the entire ballpark.
The conservancy, which includes Hall of Fame broadcaster Ernie Harwell, has until August 8th to put $369,000 into an escrow account. Some of the money will be used for maintenance and security at the old stadium.
State Representative Steve Tobocman is a board member of the conservancy group.
“We’re trying, to the best of our ability, to try to cover additional costs the city would incur for pausing the demolition on this portion of the stadium. To be honest, we don’t even know exactly what they cost is… that’s one of the things the Detroit Economic Growth Corporation is going to go find out.”
The conservancy says redevelopment will cost between $12 million and $15 million.
Under the tentative agreement, the conservancy would have until March 1st to come up with the redevelopment money needed to turn the site into the community ballpark and museum envisioned by the group. If the group fails to raise the cash by March 1st, the entire stadium will be torn down and some of the escrow money would be used to offset the cost of halting the demolition.