Zion mayor: Baseball stadium still will be an economic catalyst

Zion Mayor Lane Harrison says new plans for a minor-league baseball stadium in his city will still serve its original intent to keep Illinois companies from crossing into Wisconsin.

Instead of rising at Trumpet Corporate Park at Green Bay Road and Ninth Street, the Lake County Fielders' stadium is now pegged about a half-mile to the south at the northeast corner of Green Bay and Route 173.

Harrison had said the stadium was meant as an amenity for Trumpet Park, which competes with LakeView Corporate Park in the border town of Pleasant Prairie, Wis. A 260,000-square-foot recreation and ice-skating facility is among LakeView's features.

But Harrison said those involved in the project needed to look elsewhere because of a lack of state funding Zion was counting on to buy 55 aces of former landfill property to build the stadium in Trumpet Park.

Harrison said the 4,000-seat ballpark spearheaded by private investors still would be an amenity for Trumpet Park at its new location in a partially built commercial development near a CVS/pharmacy store.

"This is still right at the entrance to Trumpet Park," Harrison said Monday. "It's not like it's five miles away or something like that."

Plans call for retail shops, a movie theater, outdoor concert stage, restaurant and banquet facilities to be part of the "ballpark village." Fielders officials say they are hopeful the ballpark would be ready for the independent Northern League home opener with the Gary RailCats on June 11.

Democratic state Sen. Michael Bond of Grayslake said $1 million in public money approved for Zion could be used for the stadium project at the new site. Bond has been involved in meetings regarding the ballpark.

Bond said Zion has $460,000 of the grant and should soon get the balance from the state's $31 billion public works program, known as a capital bill. He said Zion was one of the first governments to receive capital bill cash about three weeks ago.

Zion would have to be the ballpark's owner for the $1 million to be used on "public asset" infrastructure, Bond said. The investors could deed the stadium to Zion, but remain the listed owners of the commercial components, he added.

Bond agreed the stadium would be an enticement for businesses to locate in Zion's Trumpet Park or Antioch Corporate Park on Route 173 to the west.

"Anything we can do to keep businesses from jumping the state line," he said.

Harrison said he expects the Zion city council at some point to approve a special-use permit necessary for construction. Fielders officials said development work would start this week.

North Shore Sanitary District officials began working with Zion more than a year ago to sell the 55-acre former landfill site for the ballpark to the city for $2.6 million, General Manager Brian Dorn said.

Dorn said the sanitary district even filed a construction permit application on behalf of Zion with the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency. Dorn said Zion officials did not inform him about the decision to build the stadium at Green Bay Road and Route 173.

A. Rick Scardino of Lee & Associates Commercial Real Estate Services is a retail brokerage director in charge of that site. He declined to comment about the proposed stadium, other than to say Lee & Associates would handle the project's retail end.

Richard Ehrenreich, president of Fielders parent company Grand Slam Sports & Entertainment, said the land is owned by a group of real-estate developers. Ehrenreich, who owns the Northern League's Schaumburg Flyers, said Grand Slam is renting the property.