Home team, new home: Saints roll into Lowertown
In St. Paul, the Saints don't march in. They arrive on four-wheeled moving dollies.
The St. Paul Saints moved into their new $63 million ballpark on Thursday in the city's Lowertown neighborhood. The first pitch is still months away, but the team has a new home.
Staffers spent the day at CHS Field unpacking some of the memorabilia the team collected at its old site, St. Paul's Midway Stadium. That included historical records and photographs, including those of Minnie Minoso, the great Cuban player who recently died but who took an at-bat for the Saints in 2003 at age 81, and ex-Saints pitcher Ila Borders, one of the first female players to appear in a professional minor league baseball game.
And then, like the team's games, there was a little baseball to go with the entertainment.
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"There's still some good bats from last year that we brought over, and some uniforms," team vice president Annie Huidekoper said. "But really just with the new ballpark you get a lot of new stuff. Fresh equipment, fresh opportunities — it's just tremendous."
The ballpark has been under construction for nearly a year and a half. Demolition of a former shampoo plant on the site began in July 2013, and the first concrete was poured last April. The field lights were lit for the first time this week, and seats are being installed in the stands right now.
Sort of.
Some seats were still in boxes Thursday waiting for assembly. "I guess that some of them are still stuck in port out in L.A., but we'll have them in time," Huidekoper said. "We still have 11 weeks to go."
The ballpark is being built by Ryan Construction. It will be owned by the city of St. Paul. Officials hope it will add to Lowertown revitalization efforts that include the Green Line light rail and the $240 million Union Depot renovation.
The Saints will officially vacate Midway Stadium at the end of March. Demolition of the site will start a few weeks later, followed by a cleanup of the one-time dump site.
The St. Paul Port Authority, the city's development arm, has a joint venture with United Properties to build an office warehouse building on the site. The project is expected to bring 300 jobs, said Monte Hilleman, the port authority's vice president of real estate development. That $17 million project is expected to be finished in early 2016.
The first Saints game at the new field is scheduled for May 21. Single game tickets go on sale on March 21.