Aviators Stadium for sale at auction

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wasteland
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Aviators Stadium for sale at auction

Post by wasteland » Thu Feb 26, 2015 5:07 pm

LOVES PARK — Aviators Stadium, the home of the Rockford Aviators professional baseball club, will be up for sale at auction this spring.
The potential sale won't affect the Aviators' upcoming season.

The 3,279-seat stadium at 4503 Interstate Blvd. is owned by Northside Community Bank of Gurnee. It can host crowds of more than 4,000 because of its suite area, VIP boxes, group areas and right-field deck branded the Budweiser Party Porch.

The auction will be run by Chicago-based auction firm Rick Levin & Associates Inc., whose credits include auctioning Chicago's former Main Post Office building for $40 million in 2009. The auction will be conducted online at ricklevin.com from March 25 to April 2. Interested buyers can inspect the site from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. March 19 and 27.

"This is a very unusual, hard-to-value asset," Levin said. "We think it's a great opportunity for an entrepreneur who wants to make a significant contribution to the metropolitan area."

The opening bid for the property will be $1.5 million. The stadium was completed in 2006 and to replicate it today would cost more than $8 million, which Levin said was a "ballpark" figure, pardoning his own pun.

The stadium is fit for multiple sports and alternative uses such as concerts or other specialty events, Levin said.

"With interest rates so low and the stock market so high, what a great time it is to diversify into a property that you can buy for a lot less than it would cost to replicate," Levin said.

The bank took ownership of the property through foreclosure. It was owed about $4.6 million on a $4.7 mortgage, according to a February 2012 foreclosure case cited in Register Star archives. The July 2005 building permit pegged construction costs at roughly $4 million, according to information on the Rockford Township Assessor's website. Tax assessor's determined the fair market value to be about $1.15 million in 2013.

The Aviators have a lease in place through 2015 and their upcoming Frontier League season will proceed as scheduled. The team kicks off its season May 15 on the road against the Gateway Grizzlies. Opening day at Aviators Stadium is scheduled for 6:35 p.m. May 19 against the Traverse City Beach Bums. The team had 72,340 fans at its home games last year, an average of 1,608 per game, according to baseballpilgrimages.com. That was 12th lowest attendance of the 13 teams in the Frontier League.

Milwaukee-based MKE Sports & Entertainment took over business operations for the Aviators in August. Owner Mike Zimmerman said the team wants to be in Rockford for years to come and sees great potential for a public-private partnership with the Rockford Park District, which plans to install five turf fields adjacent to Aviators Stadium by 2016 as part of the Reclaiming First regional sports tourism project. The Park District envisions that Aviators Stadium could be a championship field for tournaments hosted at Sportscore Two when new fields are installed.

"The possibilities are truly powerful and are the reasons we want to be in Rockford for the long term," Zimmerman said in an email to the Register Star.

The Park District hopes Aviators Stadium can also feature synthetic turf so that is "equal or greater" to the condition of the new turf fields being built. The district would only be interested in owning the property if it can generate enough revenue to cover the cost and maintenance expenses "because we can't put any further burden on taxes," Park District Executive Director Tim Dimke said.

"We're interested in partnering however we can to ensure the stadium stays in excellent condition, no matter who happens to own it and operate it."

- See more at: http://www.rrstar.com/article/20150225/ ... GCmQh.dpuf

nksports
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Post by nksports » Thu Feb 26, 2015 11:50 pm

[quote=""wasteland""]The bank took ownership of the property through foreclosure. It was owed about $4.6 million on a $4.7 mortgage, according to a February 2012 foreclosure case cited in Register Star archives.[/quote]

Who at the bank signed off on this loan? And the mortgage holder defaulted after just $100,000? Was that the down payment or something? Why isn't someone in jail for fraud?

ca
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why was a new pk ...

Post by ca » Sun Mar 01, 2015 3:37 am

ever built in rockford in the 1st place marinelli was a nic e place to watch a game

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