Some interesting news regarding the old Tigers stadium in Detroit. Looks like they may consider using it for America's Thanksgiving Day Parade operations!
Almost 13 years after the Detroit Tigers played their last game at their historic playing field at Michigan and Trumbull, a new concept has emerged for reusing the old Tiger Stadium site.
Three sources familiar with the idea say the City of Detroit is talking with the Parade Company, the non-profit organization that runs the city’s Thanksgiving Day parade and other special events, to buy the site and build its new headquarters, warehouse, and operations center there.
The idea remains tentative. No deal has been signed, and success would depend mostly on the Parade Company raising the estimated $15 million or more it would need to build the facility. Even though the idea remains tentative, it appears to be the leading concept right now.
Under the proposal, the Parade Co. would occupy just a portion of the roughly nine-acre site, mostly along the Trumbull and I-75 sides of the site in what used to be the outfield of Tiger Stadium.
They would use the site for creation and storage of parade floats and costumes, using a variety of employees and volunteers. There’s no word on exactly how many people might work or volunteer at the site, but it would mean new jobs downtown.
Importantly, the historic infield and some of the outfield would be preserved as a site for youth baseball. And a portion of the Michigan Avenue side would be held for future retail and/or residential development.
In addition to the three sources who confirmed that talks were underway, Thom Linn, an attorney and president of the non-profit Old Tiger Stadium Conservancy, said Wednesday he has been briefed by the city about the idea.
Linn said the city would like the conservancy to transfer most of a $3.8-million federal earmark it controls to the benefit of the Parade Company project. U.S. Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich) obtained the earmark, an allocation of federal money, to aid business development in and around the site in Corktown.
Linn said he would discuss the idea with the conservancy board and set up a meeting with the Parade Company. “It’s definitely worth a meeting with the Parade Company to see how feasible it is,” he said. “The bottom line is I’d rather see something done than this earmark go to waste.”
Tony Michaels, president and CEO of the Parade Company, declined to comment when contacted by the Free Press this week.
Sources indicated that the concept calls for the Parade Company to buy the site from the city for between $800,000 and $900,000. The city would use that money to help the non-profit Police Athletic League improve the existing Jayne Field, a complex of baseball and athletic fields on the east side near Davison and Conant.
The Parade Company currently operates out of an old auto industrial building on the city’s east side at 9500 Mt. Elliott.
Besides the annual Thanksgiving Day event, known as America’s Thanksgiving Parade, the organization produces the annual Target Fireworks show known as the International Freedom Festival. It also produces the annual Hob Nobble Gobble, a black-tie fundraising event; and special events including the 1997, 1998, 2002 and 2008 Red Wings Victory Parades and the 1998 University of Michigan Rose Bowl Victory Parade.
The company also assists with events outside Detroit, including the 1999 Big Balloon Parade staged in Green Bay, Wisconsin and the Centenary of Federation Parade in Australia in 2001.
The Tigers last played at Michigan and Trumbull in September 1999, after which they moved to their current home at Comerica Park. For a time, it appeared that the Old Tiger Stadium Conservancy might be able to arrange for financing to reuse a portion of the old stadium as a museum and community center. That funding never came through sufficient to make that happen and the city began demolishing the old ballpark in 2008.
Since then, a variety of ideas have been floated for reusing the site, but the city has held out for development that would have significant economic impact. About a year ago, two non-profit groups, the Greening of Detroit and the WARM Training Center, proposed building a new headquarters on the stadium site, but the idea came to nothing.
(Source: Detroit Free Press)
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