Next steps in bringing minor league baseball back to Spartanburg

Local baseball fans were so excited last month with the announcement that the Down East Wood Ducks would be moving to Spartanburg from their current home in Kinston, NC that they could practically smell the hot dogs. Once here, the team will play its games in the 3,500-seat centerpiece of a $250 million development that will fill the 16-acre site immediately behind the AC Hotel along S Daniel Morgan Ave., which in addition to the ballpark will feature tens of thousands of square feet of residential, office space, and retail. A lot of work is still yet to be done before the stands are filled for the first pitch of a minor league baseball game in Spartanburg since 1994. The City, County, developer, and team will need to approve agreements to bring the development to fruition, designs for the stadium and nearby developments will need to be approved, and then the largest construction project in Downtown Spartanburg history will get underway, transforming the vast and vacant site that exists today into a hub of entertainment and commerce unlike anything our community has ever seen. Today on the podcast, we're talking with City Manager Chris Story about those next steps and about the impact this transformational investment will have in Spartanburg.