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www.wbjournal.com • Worcester Business Journal • 2 023 Economic Forecast 19 other ballpark district revenues as well, such as parking fees, taxes on stadium concessions, and the WooSox's annual lease payments, but the impact of those revenues toward the debt on the $160-million stadium is limited. e real solution to paying off the debt comes in the way of tax revenue through new developments. e original $125-million development plan from Madison Properties included two hotels, apartments, retail, restaurants, and office space. at has shrunk in scope, including going down to one hotel with the majority of the other buildings now anticipated to have a lower level of investment. All the buildings have been delayed multiple years; the hotel, for example, was slated for a 2022 opening but is now estimated to open in 2025. In Madison's agreement with the City, which includes property tax breaks and waiving of permitting fees, the developer is required to start making tax payments to the City on certain developments, regardless of when they get built. Denis Dowdle, the president of Madison Properties, didn't return requests for comment. We've got you. MAKE YOUR MARK! COMMERCIAL LENDING BY SCU. banking | lending | local Let's Talk. 888.599.2265 southbridgecu.com Membership to SCU requires a one-time interest-earning deposit of $5.00 in a prime share account. Equal Housing Opportunity. Equal Opportunity Employer. Federally insured by NCUA. NMLS #616673. R E A L E S TAT E 2022 on its 30-year bond, the City needed the special taxing district around the stadium to generate $2 million in revenue. It got $655,374. However, that number was bolstered by the one-time, $3-million sale of public property along Green Street in November 2021 to the owner of e Cove proposed development. at sale not only made up for the ballpark district's revenue shortfalls in the last two fiscal years, but it already gives the City about half of the needed $2.7 million for the fiscal 2023 payment. at will help, too, as the planned commercial and residential developments around Polar Park – on which the stadium repayment plan is largely dependent – are unlikely to contribute significant tax revenues in fiscal 2023, which ends on June 30. When the stadium was first announced in August 2018, the pay- for-itself plan was centered around six proposed buildings from Boston developer Madison Properties. at Madison development was originally planned to start coming online in January 2021, but it has significantly shrunk in size and been delayed. None of the buildings are open yet, and the first – the 228-unit South of Madison apartment complex – is slated for a mid- 2023 opening. Yet, City officials like Batista and Chief Development Officer Peter Dunn remain confident in the pay-for-itself plan because the Madison buildings have been bolstered by two other proposals from separate developers: e Cove, a seven-story apartment-and-retail tower from Worcester developer Churchill James LLC; and a 400-unit housing complex called Table Talk Los from Boston Capital Development LLC, on the former site of the Table Talk Pies manufacturing facility. By adding those developments into the projected revenue plan, Dunn said the city's assessor and chief financial officer have determined the ballpark district will generate more revenue than is needed over the 30 years to cover the debts, even using conservative estimates. Dunn didn't provide those calculations or the figures showing the 30-year revenue estimates to WBJ. "We have actually been better off than we were four years ago because [property] values went up," Dunn said. "But now with interest rates [going up], I think it is good that we have taken a conservative approach to valuations since the beginning." Unlike last year, the City now has a method for keeping track of the revenue generated within the ballpark district improvement financing (DIF) area, in order to ensure the stadium does pay for itself. Last year, before the stadium construction was completed and under the purview of the Worcester Redevelopment Authority, the City had to rely on what CFO Timothy McGourthy described as spreadsheet math to see how revenues were stacking up against expenses. e pay-for-itself plan includes Polar Park PHOTO/MATT WRIGHT W