Regions Field

Minor League Baseball teams and the stadiums that house them are having a major impact on three of the largest cities in Alabama.

In Birmingham and Montgomery, the ball parks have helped spur millions of dollars in new development and renovation projects to revitalize what had been aging downtown districts.

It’s been more than a decade since Montgomery built the $26 million Riverwalk Stadium Park to serve as home to the Montgomery Biscuits. Officials will tell you the boom of hotels, offices, restaurants, shops and apartments have redefined an area that had been in decline before baseball came downtown.

“When you look around this area now, this baseball park was the start of it all,” said Charles Jinright, president of the Montgomery City Council. The Renaissance Hotel and Conference Center and Embassy Suites hotel stand nearby along with a cluster of restaurants and bars within easy walking distance of the ballpark.

Montgomery Biscuits’ stadium

A couple of blocks away, construction started earlier this year on 79C, a mixed-use development with 18,000 square feet of retail space on the ground-floor and 54 apartments on the three floors above. Completion is scheduled later this year and Mellow Mushroom will be an initial tenant.

“A few years ago, nobody would come to downtown Montgomery at all,” Jinright said. “Now there is a demand for up to 3,000 apartment units down here with 400 already planned or under construction.”

For Sherrie Myers, co-owner of the Montgomery Biscuits, revitalizing communities with baseball is nothing new. In 1996, she joined Tom Dickson to launch the Lansing Lugnuts in the newly constructed Oldsmobile Park in Lansing, Mich. Myers and Dickson, partners in Profession Sports Marketing have since been responsible for the development of over $150 million worth of new minor league ballparks in Dayton and Eastlake, Ohio; Joliet, Ill.; Gary, Ind.; and Charleston, W. Va.

Fireworks at the Montgomery Biscuits’ stadium

And, of course, Montgomery.

“Regionally, you change culture. You change attitudes,” Myers said from the owner’s suite at a recent Biscuits game. “We are aware we have an impact outside of this stadium. We are also aware of the relationships and the partnerships needed to make all of this successful.”

Alabama Power is among the sponsors whose logos line the scoreboards and outfield walls in support of the Biscuits as well as the Birmingham Barons at Regions Field and the Mobile BayBears at Hank Aaron Stadium.

At opening night of the 2015 season, Barons owner Don Logan took in the scene in what is the team’s third season in the new $64 million Regions Field. All around the stadium, construction cranes tower above apartment and retail projects and the neighboring Negro Southern League Baseball Museum.

Alabama Power is doing preliminary work on the Powell Avenue Steam Plant as it readies redevelopment plans for that historic property.

Logan knew moving the Barons from suburban Hoover to downtown Birmingham would work along with the neighboring Railroad Park as a catalyst for new development. He didn’t know it would happen so soon.

“It has been faster than we thought,” he said of the surrounding development. “There are even more projects coming that haven’t been made public yet.”

The Birmingham Baron’s home, Regions Field, is set in the city’s downtown area.

More than 500 new apartments are under construction within a few blocks of Regions Field. Having more people living in the area will spur more commercial development, Logan predicted. Publix is building its first downtown Birmingham grocery store as part of a larger development with more apartments. More retail development is also in the works.

Logan said Barons baseball is also part of the resurgence of Birmingham as a whole and the Magic City’s appearance in positive national rankings.

“I think it gave Birmingham another reason to feel good about itself,” Logan said. “We are seeing people come downtown who might not have come here otherwise. That’s got to be good for the city and its image.”

The most concrete example of the impact of Railroad Park and the ball park is the increase in property taxes from 2013 to 2014 by almost 50 percent in the district.

“If you look at the increase in property taxes in the area alone, there’s no question the ball park has had a tremendous economic impact on the area,” David Fleming, CEO of REV Birmingham, said. “What you cannot measure is the impact of the ‘good feeling’ we now have about our city because of this project, and how that translates into even greater growth for our area in the near and long term.”

Property prices around Regions Field also reflect the positive impact.

Nine parcels were purchased by the City of Birmingham for the ball park in 2012 at an average of $44 per square foot. Since the completion of the ball park there have been several transactions that have been close to $50 per square foot or higher.

Mobile Baybears

Hank Aaron Stadium isn’t in downtown Mobile, but having the BayBears in town does enhance the Port City’s image, according to Danny Corte, executive director of the Mobile Sports Authority.

“Since 1997, the Mobile BayBears have been an important part of Mobile’s sports landscape and we at the Mobile Sports Authority have successfully partnered with them on several different events over the years,” Corte said. “The management of the club has always been good to work with and we look forward to many more years of partnering up with the club on future events.”

The new multimillion-dollar McGowin Park Shopping Center is well underway near Hank Aaron Stadium and will bring retailers Dick’s Sporting Goods, Field & Stream and Costco Wholesale among others.

Montgomery Biscuits’ mascot Big Mo

Back at Riverwalk Stadium in Montgomery, Myers is moving between boosting the Big Mo costumed mascot and kissing Miss Gravy, the real-life pig mascot for the biscuits. While visiting with fans, a gentleman hands her a Lansing Lugnuts hat to autograph. He tearfully thanks her for what Minor League Baseball has meant to his hometown.

A tearful Myers responds with a hearty hug.

“It’s about more than just baseball,” she said immediately after that interaction. “I’m often reminded of that.”