A proposed West Chester (Pa.) ballpark is in serious trouble, with the full Borough Council expected to give up the ghost on the project tonight after the city’s redevelopment agency recommended it be rejected.
The ballpark funding, as proposed by the Turk’s Head Stadium Alliance, included $14 million in state funding from the Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program (R-Cap) program. However, new Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett has frozen that program in the face of the state’s financial woes. Without that $14 million, the other funding sources for the ballpark don’t come close to cover construction costs. That’s what led the city’s Redevelopment Agency to reject the proposal, and that’s what’s likely to lead the council to reject the proposal tonight.
The alternative, according to members of the Turk’s Head Stadium Alliance, is to seek private financing for the project. Perhaps not impossible if it’s part of a larger redevelopment, but both the city and the alliance would need to give up control of the project.
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