Images: Overland Partners
Work has commenced on a new baseball stadium that is part of a wider $425m (£348.7m/€400.1m) development that has been dubbed the biggest scheme in the history of the city of Spartanburg, South Carolina.
The 3,500-seat Fifth Third Park is scheduled to open by April 2025 and will be home to the currently titled Spartanburg Professional Baseball Club, a minor league affiliate of the Texas Rangers, which claimed its first MLB World Series title on Wednesday.
In May, a group of public and private partners led by local developer The Johnson Group announced that a new stadium would be built to return Minor League Baseball to Spartanburg for the first time in 31 years.
The City of Spartanburg will own the stadium, designed by Overland Partners, and it will be developed by The Johnson Group. The facility is part of a $425m development that will include the likes of a 150-room hotel, more than 375 luxury apartments and 200,000 square feet of office space.
“This is the biggest project in Spartanburg’s history,” said Spartanburg Mayor Jerome Rice at the groundbreaking ceremony, according to the Spartanburg Herald-Journal. “A couple years ago we were just talking about a baseball team coming. But now, look at what will happen on this site here.”
It has also been announced that Fifth Third Bank has agreed to a multi-year deal with Diamond Baseball Holdings, an organisation that owns and operates select Minor League clubs affiliated with MLB, to become the official bank and naming rights sponsor for the new stadium.
“In partnership with Fifth Third Bank and the Johnson Group, we are going to build one of the most beautiful facilities in minor league baseball,” Tyson Jeffers, general manager for the Spartanburg Professional Baseball Club, added in a statement.
“Our goal is to establish a community-first culture here that harnesses the unique personality of the Upstate and creates nationwide attention for Spartanburg. But most importantly, Fifth Third Park will be a community destination for fun any night of the week.”
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