Matt Reed: Deal could put baseball, events in Titusville
- Owners of minor-league baseball and pro softball teams have pledged support of the plan.
- Funds would come from baseball club, tourism taxes, North Brevard Economic Development Zone
Let the dreaming and debating begin about the next potential sports and economic development deal for Brevard County.
County Commissioner Robin Fisher is assembling a proposal to build a $25-million, minor league baseball stadium and community events center at the site of Sand Point Park in Titusville. It would be at the foot of the Max Brewer Causeway, just two blocks from the heart of downtown, where crowds would be encouraged to park and walk past restaurants and a popular brewery.
As the Brevard Manatees look to depart Viera, probably for another county, records and interviews confirm that an organization affiliated with Major League Baseball has been working on the idea with Fisher. Picture the “Titusville Rockets” playing in a 3,000-seat stadium with big concourses and banquet rooms overlooking the diamond.
The complex also probably would land a professional women’s fast-pitch softball team and amateur baseball tournaments owned by the United States Specialty Sports Association, said CEO Don DeDonatis in a letter. (USSSA is the outfit taking over Space Coast stadium and surrounding fields.)
“I’ve got a lot of work to do – this is a hard one,” said Fisher, who has 180 days left in office.
The proposal has not yet gone before boards that would have to approve the project and financing, including the County Commission, Titusville City Council, Tourism Development Council and North Brevard Economic Development Zone. Fisher's goal is to bring those leaders an all-but-completed deal, tentatively signed by the private parties -- as he pulled off with USSSA and Space Coast Stadium in Viera.
Those leaders – and you – probably will share the same questions I had:
How real is this plan?
Who pays for it?
Would it work to improve the economy and reduce blight?
Besides the sports organizations, an Ocala-based hotel company has expressed interest in building a new 100-room Home2 Suites in downtown Titusville, saying the proposed events center would be a deciding factor.
Fisher’s pitch includes having the city-owned facility be used for corporate events, concerts, fireworks shows or hosting rocket-launch parties on the waterfront. He wants it to be home to the annual Space Coast Birding & Wildlife Festival and the Art & Algorithms festival.
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That's the mixed-use model now favored by minor-league clubs.
Without signed a agreements from a team, construction wouldn't proceed, Fisher said.
Still, there will be arguments and probably a power struggle or two over where the $25 million would come from in coming years to finance construction. Fisher’s plan:
- $5 million would come from the baseball club.
- $10 million would come from the North Brevard Economic Development zone. That’s a sprawling redevelopment district formed to cope with job losses and blight after the end of the space shuttle program. It is funded by incremental growth in the tax base.
- $10 million would come from the Tourist Development Tax, a 5 cents-per-dollar charge on hotel rooms and vacation rentals in Brevard. By statute, the “fourth cent” of that tax must be spent for two purposes: marketing to tourists and supporting professional sports facilities. That’s how the county built and paid off Space Coast Stadium.
As for whether it would work economically...
The economic zone just produced an economic-impact study of the proposal. That document concludes that a combination stadium and “multi-use event facility” in Titusville would increase room nights in regional hotels by 42,000 per year, add $20.8 million in annual spending by spectators and event attendees, and increase local sales tax collections by $1.74 million a year.
Still, Fisher expects objections from people who oppose the very existence of redevelopment districts. Why not use that money for roads?
And he knows how many interests have jockeyed for bigger shares of or new uses for the tourist-development tax. Why not market Cocoa Beach to more vacationers?
All I can say is that this proposal fits the basic mission of any redevelopment agency to reduce urban blight. The area northeast of downtown Titusville today is characterized by vacant lots with slabs from torn-down shops and a small RV park that seems to be biding its time until property values rise.
And tourism interests could still get an additional $225,000 a year for marketing, even if the county committed $750,000 a year from the “fourth cent” to the Titusville complex and $250,000 a year to improvements at Space Coast Stadium for USSSA.
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This is an idea worth considering.
“It’s more than a ball park,” Fisher said. “Our goal would be to program the heck out of it.”
Contact Reed at mreed@floridatoday.com. Follow him at Facebook.com/MattReedNews or on Twitter and Instagram @MattReedWrites.