Ballpark Assessment OK’d

The Tulsa City Council last week narrowly approved an assessment policy for a downtown property near a new minor league baseball park to support the bonds financing the construction.

The fee will be collected for 30 years. A portion of the collected fees will provide debt service on $25 million of revenue bonds issued to fund part of the $60 million stadium for the Tulsa Drillers of the Texas League.

The 30-year bonds were issued by the Tulsa Stadium District, which was created by the City Council in 2008 to finance the stadium, and purchased by Tulsa Community Foundation with a loan from ONEOK, a natural gas distributor. The facility will be known as ONEOK Field.

The flat rate for all properties in the district is 6.5 cents per square foot, with 4.3 cents allocated to debt service on the revenue bonds and 2.2 cents reserved to pay for street cleaning, landscaping, and other services.

The property assessment is expected to generate $3.2 million a year, including $2.1 million for debt service.

The new ballpark is about 25% complete.

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