The Madison, AL City Council has approved a bid from Hoar Construction to oversee construction of the city’s new Southern League ballpark, set to open in 2020.
The current Mobile BayBears (Class AA; Southern League) will spend one more season at Mobile’s Hank Aaron Stadium, before moving to a new Madison ballpark that will be constructed in the Town Madison development. The city took a key step in the planning process for the upcoming facility on Tuesday, when the council approved a bid for ballpark construction from Birmingham-based Hoar.
Coming in at just under $39 million–$38,771,941.00, to be exact–the bid serves as a base price. The city has set a $46 million budget for the ballpark project. More from WHNT:
The bid has allowed the city to come in under budget on the project so far. Leaders say the total cost, which includes paying architects for the design (what it calls soft costs) on top of the construction portion, remains under the $46 million figure the mayor has routinely said is Madison’s top price.
But the bid the council approved Tuesday is just a base price, what [Madison City Council President Tommy] Overcash calls the “bare minimum.” That still includes most of what the team wants in the stadium, though.
“The boxes, the patio areas, the berm, the picnic areas. It’s going to be a first-class stadium,” Overcash noted.
Other options have been left out, with the impression that the council can submit change orders later to add them back in when possible.
Earlier this year, BayBears owner BallCorps, LLC finalized the club’s upcoming move to the new Madison ballpark, with the facility slated to open in 2020. Once it arrives in Madison, the franchise will rebrand as the Rocket City Trash Pandas. Madison is located in the Huntsville Metropolitan Area, which has not had a professional baseball team of its own since the Huntsville Stars (Class AA; Southern League) played their final full season at Joe Davis Stadium in 2014. That franchise is now known as the Biloxi Shuckers.
Rendering courtesy Breland Companies.
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