Charlotte (N.C.) city officials refined a plan to help fund a new Charlotte Knights (Class AAA; International League) ballpark, adding hotel/motel taxes to mix and dropping the total to $8.5 million.
The Knights originally requested $11 million coming from property-tax increases in the ballpark area; this number was later reduced to $9 million by city officials before the new plan emerged late last week. The new plan calls for $8.5 million from the city ($522,000 annually for 20 years), with 85 percent of that coming from existing hotel/motel taxes and the rest from property taxes.
The city funding is the last pieces of the puzzle. Mecklenburg County has already agreed to lease the Uptown ballpark site for $1 annually and will pay the Knights $8 million for infrastructure improvement. The Knights will privately finance the vast majority of the cost of the $55-million project: $37.5 million, assuming the city portion comes through.
If the funding plan is approved by the full City Council — and that’s an iffy proposition, given how the city’s finances are going — work will begin before the end of the year, with a ballpark opening planned for 2014.
RELATED STORIES: Charlotte outlines ballpark funding plan; Knights: We’ve met big condition for new ballpark; Reese returns with another anti-Knights lawsuit; Economics of new Charlotte ballpark iffy: Mayor; Economic of new Charlotte ballpark questioned; Knights make economic case for city funding of new ballpark; Charlotte may help fund new Knights ballpark;More legal silliness in Charlotte; Back from the dead! Mecklenburg Co. moves forward with Knights ballpark; Rising from the ashes: A new Knights ballpark
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