The city of St. Paul will build a downtown ballpark in 2015, thanks to $25 million in state bond funds approved by the governor’s office.

The 7,000-seat ballpark, a future home for the St. Paul Saints and amateur and student leagues, took home more than half the grant money on Thursday, Sept. 13, when Gov. Mark Dayton announced nine economic development projects that will share $47.5 million in state bond funding.

“We’re going to celebrate for four days,” said Mike Veeck, who co-owns the city’s popular minor league baseball team with actor Bill Murray and others.

Together with the Minnesota Vikings stadium in Minneapolis, approved by the Legislature earlier this year, this is the second time in a handful of months that the governor has gone out on a political limb for a professional sports team.

“You get this downward spiral if you don’t put money and effort into downtowns,” Dayton said, addressing reporters at the state Capitol.

The final grant amounts were a closely held secret until Thursday morning, when applicants and lawmakers received phone calls from the governor’s administration informing them how the months-long process had played out.

“We are happy, happy,” said Joe Campbell, a spokesman for St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman, who is out of the country with his wife for her 50th birthday. “We asked for $27 million, but $25 million is still in the ballpark.”

The rest of the $54 million project will be paid for through a combination of city and team funds.

Veeck, who was traveling, said he had no idea how the $2 million gap will be closed, but he was confident that city and team officials would figure it out.

Coleman believes the city-owned ballpark will create 225 construction jobs, 23 full-time jobs and hundreds of seasonal jobs while drawing $10 million in fresh revenue into downtown. Critics such as Rep. Ryan Winkler, DFL-Golden Valley, have called those revenue estimates heavily overstated, and they’ve argued that the ballpark will simply move jobs and spending from Energy Park Drive, where the Saints play in 30-year-old Midway Stadium.

Dayton, however, noted that a land swap with the St. Paul Port Authority will allow Midway Stadium to be converted into a use more in keeping with its surrounding business district, and he noted the Port Authority’s “strong track record” of creating jobs by redeveloping old sites.

The Energy Park Drive area has few amenities for visitors, offering them little incentive to stay and spend money. City officials expect the new ballpark, on the other hand, to anchor Lowertown, adding a key attraction alongside the revitalization of the Union Depot transit hub and the construction of the Central Corridor light-rail transit line and a host of residential projects.

The team’s future home is currently occupied by an industrial brownfield, the long-vacant Gillette/Diamond Products building at Fifth and Broadway streets.

St. Paul officials joined lawmakers and representatives of the Saints, the Port Authority, and the St. Paul Area Chamber of Commerce outside the site Thursday afternoon.

The Ryan Cos., a national construction firm, said it would complete the open-air ballpark in time for the Saints’ 2015 season. Plans call for 7,000 seats and an overall stadium capacity of 9,000. The plans also include six to eight suites, a public plaza, restaurant and permanent arts exhibits featuring the works of local artists. Other project partners include Minneapolis-based Julie Snow Architects and AECOM, a sports facilities designer.

In deciding the funding recipients, Dayton stuck closely to recommendations forwarded to him by the Department of Employment and Economic Development, with one exception. He awarded $2 million to the Metropolitan Council to keep the proposed Southwest light-rail transit line from Minneapolis to Eden Prairie in line for more than $500 million in possible federal funding.

Many applicants will have another shot at state funding in January, when the governor submits his 2013 bond requests.

The nine funding recipients were scored and grouped by region, and each received slightly less money than they asked for.

St. Paul projects funding its $17 million share of the ballpark by issuing $8.5 million in city bonds, paid back over 25 years. The city will also take $1.5 million from its capital improvement program, and use $3 million netted from the land sale to the Port Authority.

Another $1.5 million would come from STAR grants, which are funded by an existing citywide half-cent sales tax. An additional $1 million would come from a land sale related to the Lafayette Bridge project and other Department of Public Works fees, and $1.5 million would come from a tax increment financing district surrounding the ballpark.

The team will contribute $10 million, including $1.5 million up front. The Saints would use revenue generated by the new ballpark to pay the city back $8.5 million for bonds issued on the team’s behalf.

Frederick Melo can be reached at 651-228-2172.