By RICHARD ESSEX
WISH-TV | wishtv.com
The minimum bid to buy the Westfield city government’s Grand Park Sports Campus is $85 million. The city government still owes $77 million on the property that opened in June 2014. WISHTV.com first reported in March 2022 that the 400-acre sports park was for sale.
A committee reviewing purchase bids had narrowed the list; however, Grand Park may not sell outright.
Willis
Scott Willis, a Westfield City Council member, said of the park, “It is our identity. It has certainly been an economic engine for our city.”
But, that engine is not delivering the promised economic horsepower, so the city government looked for a buyer or someone take over the park’s operations.
Willis said, “Well, first let me say there is no guarantee the park is actually going to sell.”
To sell Grand Park, Westfield Mayor Andy Cook put together a five-member committee to evaluate bids. The exact details of the bids are kept within the committee. Willis says the city would consider a lease, a lease management agreement, or an outright sale of the property.
Willis said, “From what I’m hearing, they are going to try to narrow their bids down to their top two and take that into their final round of evaluation once that is done.”
If Grand Park is sold outright, the new owner would have to pay property taxes on the 400 acres. The city-owner facility is currently exempt from property taxes.
Willis says taxes could play a major role in who operates Grand Park in the future.
“Well, I think the lease could look like a variety of things,” he said. “I think the primary bid is for an entity or business to lease the entire operation of the park so the city would maintain control of the land, and the business of Grand Park would be leased out to a private entity, but I’m hearing rumblings that there are options to lease out the baseball portion and then the soccer fields. Lacrosse and football fields would be leased under a different entity.”
The big question is how much Grand Park is worth.
To finance the project, the city government sold its utility company for close to $50 million. Officials took out bonds to help pay for the land and the development costs. In total, Westfield taxpayers have close to $85 million invested in the property.
Willis says debt payments have exceeded revenue, and the city government is losing $3 million a year.
“Until you see the options, I don’t even know what the purchase price bids are for,” he said. “Is it $500 million, $100 million, $85 million? Those numbers would certainly change my views on the various options. Same thing with the lease. They are going to negotiate price for what that could be, and does that cover the debt for Grand Park? Does that put the city in the black? I can only speculate at this point.”
The committee reviewing the bids has not released a timeline on when it will decide. Any decision would be subject to City Council approval.
I-Team 8 was told the city government would like to have a deal in place by the end of 2024.