The City of Wilmington and Salesianum School have come full circle in regard to Baynard Stadium.

The city announced Wednesday a draft lease agreement that will allow Salesianum to raise $15 million to $20 million in private funds to completely renovate the 96-year-old facility and take over its operation.

The announcement comes 23 months after a press conference was held at Baynard Stadium to unveil a similar agreement.

That tentative lease was pending Wilmington City Council approval, but it ran into problems less than two weeks later when a majority of speakers, led by state Rep. Charles Potter Jr., asked a City Council committee to delay the agreement until it could be reviewed further.

The next day, Salesianum withdrew its offer.

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That left the city searching for unlikely new options to fund stadium renovations. Wilmington Mayor Mike Purzycki appointed an 11-member working group that announced five options, four of which called for major capital outlays from the city and/or state. The fifth option was a public-private partnership, which Purzycki decided would be best.

On June 27, 2017, Purzycki announced that Salesianum was the only entity that had responded to the city’s interest in a public-private partnership. Negotiations resumed, and it took 15 months to reach Wednesday’s announcement.

“We’re moving forward, in a lease that I think is great for the city, is great for the community and it’s going to work out very well for Salesianum,” Brendan Kennealey, president of Salesianum School, said Wednesday.

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Kennealey has been involved in the negotiations every step of the way, including the first tentative agreement two years ago. While he knows the new lease still requires City Council approval, he is confident that all issues have been resolved.

“It’s been vetted now for two years,” Kennealey said. “I don’t think there’s too many stones left to be overturned here.

“I think the lease that we have come to an agreement on with the mayor is excellent. … If there were concerns the last time, those have been addressed. I think the spirit of it is all very much the same, but the mechanics of how things are spelled out are a little more clear in this version. Which is good.”

The mayor is also confident that the deal, which calls for an initial 50-year lease followed by one-year extension options for up to 50 more years, will be approved by City Council.

"Last time, there wasn't nearly as much preparation done," Purzycki said. "I think a lot of people liked the idea, but they didn't fully understand the details of the transaction. When people started to pull it apart a little bit, maybe the whole thing fell apart. Then I think it got a little political on top of that."

Wilmington City Council President Hanifa Shabazz said the lease agreement must first be approved by the city's Finance and Economic Development Committee at its next meeting on Oct. 10. Shabazz expects that to happen, then expects the agreement to pass a full vote of the City Council at its next meeting on Oct. 18.

"We're very excited about it," Shabazz said. "As you see by the response from City Council and the mayor's office, this is something that both sides of the hall are in agreement with."

Major work needed

Baynard Stadium opened in 1922, and received its last major facelift in 1972.

The bleachers on the south side of the facility were condemned in May 2016 following a structural engineering assessment. They were demolished in July 2016, and a much smaller set of temporary bleachers were installed in time for the start of the 2016 fall sports season.

The historic stadium is in need of much more. It is owned by the City of Wilmington, but is part of Brandywine Park and has been managed by the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control (DNREC) since 1998.

With city and state budgets stretched thin, it was likely going to require a private entity to step forward with a proposal for funding renovations.

Baynard Stadium sits right across West 18th Street from Salesianum, a private, all-boys high school founded in 1903 that has demonstrated an ability to raise significant funds for athletics.

Sallies raised $7 million through alumni and private donations to build the Anthony N. Fusco Sr. Athletic Center, a renovation and addition to the school’s existing athletic facilities, which opened in 2012.

Kennealey said the school had commitments in place for enough private funding to begin renovations immediately after the first agreement was announced in November 2016. He said some private donors expressed concern after that deal fell apart, but he is confident that Salesianum can still raise the money.

“It certainly made fundraising more difficult. There’s no way around that,” Kennealey said. “Anyone who wants to invest, it gave them concern over what was going to happen. I’ve been able to go back to a number of our potential donors and speak with them, and I think they’re going to come through.”

If the new agreement is approved by City Council, Kennealey said Salesianum has 60 days to ratify the deal. He said that time will be used to gain commitments from private donors.

“I’ll feel confident after a City Council vote,” Kennealey said. “There have been a lot of ups and downs. We want to help the city. If that works, great.”

Kennealey said the same basic plan remains in place from two years ago. Planned renovations include a new artificial turf field, a new eight-lane track capable of hosting major meets; and new bleachers, lights, locker rooms, concessions, scoreboards and maintenance buildings.

“Everything gets updated, and dramatically so,” Kennealey said. “This will be, essentially, a brand new facility.”

Once the lease agreement is official, Kennealey said the next steps would be detailed master planning and architectural drawings of the site. Then permits would need to be obtained and bids would be taken on the project before actual construction begins.

Kennealey said the lease calls for the project to be finished within five years, but Salesianum is hopeful of completing all of the renovations within 18 to 24 months.

“We’re going as fast as we are able to go,” Kennealey said. “We’ll have to see when this all becomes official, how that timing will work. But we have every incentive to do this quickly.”

Salesianum plans to use the renovated stadium to host its football, soccer and lacrosse home games and track meets.

Howard High School of Technology, Delaware Military Academy and St. Elizabeth also currently play home football games at Baynard Stadium, although DMA is currently building an on-campus football stadium that is expected to be ready next season.

Padua, Howard and Salesianum also currently host track and field meets at Baynard Stadium, along with CYM, YMCA and City of Wilmington groups. The city also uses the stadium for a flag football league, and Ursuline Academy has played soccer games there.

Kennealey said all schools and organizations currently using the stadium would be welcome to continue using it during and after renovations, under the same financial arrangements they have now.

He said the new lease agreement has been clarified and carves out an average of 30 hours per month for “city time,” when groups may use the stadium for free under the direction of the Wilmington Parks and Recreation director. In addition, the renovated stadium will be open for “public time” for 90 hours per month, allowing the public to walk around the track for free.

“That was intended from the beginning,” Kennealey said. “This just codifies that a bit more, which is a good thing. It’s good for the people who use it, and it’s good for us. It’s not left in question; it’s really clear.”

The mayor said the negotiated city time and public time in the new lease proposal made all the difference.

"We've negotiated so much access to the stadium today that didn't exist in the first lease," Purzcyki said. "... It's far more than we've ever used the field, so it should be great for us."

Shabazz also said the new lease provisions should meet with council approval.

"All of the concerns were addressed," the council president said. "... We got a little bit more than we asked for, so we're all excited about that."

Eden Park renovations

At the same press conference, the mayor also announced plans for major renovations at Eden Park, on the city's east side. That renovation is projected to cost $2.4 million, and Purzycki said most of the funding is already in place. Salesianum will not be involved in that separate project.

The Eden Park renovation will include a new artificial turf field suitable for football, lacrosse and soccer; regrading and seeding of an existing grass field next to the new turf field; a new scoreboard; new fencing bordering the field; resurfacing and new backboards for the basketball court; painting and recoating of the park's three swimming pools; upgraded pool filtration systems; an umbrella spray feature for the pools; new playground equipment and synthetic mulch to protect children from falls; new picnic tables and refurbishing and seal coating of the parking lot.

Purzycki said requests for proposals have been issued for the Eden Park renovation, and the work should begin soon and be completed by next fall. Eden Park is home to many of the city's youth football activities.

"We were discussing fields in the city, and I remember making the statement, 'If we're going to do something about a field, we've got to do something about Eden because that's where we play,'" said Nnamdi Chukwuocha, chairman of the City Council's Education, Youth and Families Committee and 1st District council member. "I talked about the condition of the field, that two weeks into the season it's almost like a mud pit in the middle of the field."

Expanded usage

Kennealey said Salesianum will manage the schedule for the renovated Baynard Stadium, including times when it is rented. But the new artificial turf field – which would replace the existing natural grass field – should expand the number of hours the facility is able to be used.

“The usage is going to dramatically increase,” Kennealey said. “We obviously need it for certain things at certain times, and we need to be able to rent it at certain times for certain things or we can’t make it work financially. But there is still plenty of time for all users.”

Purzycki said that as part of the agreement, Salesianum will have the right to rename the stadium in order to attract donors and sponsors.

The mayor also pointed out that even though the city owns Brandywine Park, it has not maintained the facility since 1969. So, "we're not giving up something that we've had real operating ownership of," he said.

"This is a better result," Purzycki added. "This is a more comprehensive view of providing fields for the kids, and it includes two terrific facilities in the city. We need them."

Kennealey did say that if the new agreement falls through, Salesianum has consulted with architectural firms in regard to building its own, private stadium on the school’s campus.

But Sallies would certainly prefer to renovate Baynard Stadium and keep it available to the community for years to come.

“We have master planned our site for doing our own thing,” Kennealey said. “But it would be silly to do that. If we’re going to invest the money to build a stadium, we might as well build one that the community can use. It doesn’t make any sense [to build a private stadium].”

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