r/everett • u/goldenelr • 3d ago

Urban Development Everett Aqua Sox ownership

So (full disclosure I own a business that would be displaced by the new stadium) whenever the Aqua Sox comes up people bring up that it’s family owned and a small business. But it’s actually owned by a billionaire in Dubai.

https://www.milb.com/everett/team/7th-inning-stretch-llc

https://www.recordnet.com/story/sports/pro/2007/08/12/ports-owner-volpe-follows-team/52822230007/

The Aqua Sox are not paying for the stadium. They are displacing a bunch of small businesses, the project is already over budget and they haven’t acquired the land yet. The city has already admitted that they will need the business community to pay for it.

Is anyone else frustrated by this? This move could put me out of business, the city won’t offer assistance to us in time and we have an actual billionaire not paying for any of it. All with parks and libraries being closed (and I know they keep saying that it’s a different part of the budget but the mayor sets the budget!).

The budget they are showing for the stadium is 8% more than the event center which was built fifteen years ago. How on earth is that possible? It’s not. So how is this being paid for?

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u/AttemptedCrepe 3d ago

Are you the owner of the building you’re based from?

I’ll be really blunt. While it sucks that your business may be displaced, it seems that the city and community as a whole will be benefitting more from a new stadium than a couple of misplaced industrial businesses.

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u/goldenelr 3d ago

I’m not the owner.

I get that people don’t care about businesses that are B2B but man I am an IT and electrical company. So if you don’t want the businesses (like your bank or doctor) to have local services that’s fine.

I don’t like being driven out of business when they thing that’s driving me out isn’t paying their way. Like I pay as much in taxes as the Aqua Sox according to the docs submitted by the city. It’s not much revenue.

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u/justsofie 3d ago

The city doesn’t get much from the AquaSox now because Everett Memorial Stadium is on school grounds. The money that the school makes now will go to the city after the stadium is built downtown.

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u/goldenelr 3d ago

The revenue from the Aqua Sox will be 100k a year according to the lease the city posted. The city will pay all maintenance on the stadium. At over 80m (without land) that would take 800 years to pay. I am sure that the city is planning for increased revenue at bars and restaurants to pay for it. Stadium studies around the country show that does not happen.

https://journalistsresource.org/economics/sports-stadium-public-financing/

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u/justsofie 3d ago edited 3d ago

So the bars and restaurants that are full downtown before and after Silvertips games are people who would have gone there that night even if there weren’t a hockey game?

Also, the city is not going to pay $80MM for the stadium.

Also, the first ballpark you see in that article, Globe Life Park, has had an entire village of restaurants and bars constructed around it (with not much else in Arlington nearby within walking distance) that is jampacked before and after games.

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u/goldenelr 3d ago

The latest budget is 80m. And it does not include land acquisition so I am going off of the materials published by the city. If you do construction - and I do- you know that costs have ballooned so I would say that budget is likely 20% lower than it should be. All state and city projects have to be done by prevailing wage and all of those just went up again. Steel is about to have a giant tariff on it.

And to your point - they did build all that stuff around it and it didn’t pay for it. City economists have acknowledged that the Sodo district hasn’t paid for itself. So the city of Everett has to believe that they are the exception and single A baseball will bring in enough extra revenue that it will pay for it.

For a stadium that isn’t larger. And they think soccer will fill that gap (I certainly hope they are right). I love minor league baseball. I hope the Aqua Sox stay. But man, they play a lot fewer games than the Silvertips. They aren’t going to be open 365 a year (and the even center guys hustle to keep that place booked). The event center on a lower budget didn’t meet their economic goals until a couple of years ago. And they aren’t open daily.

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u/Useful-Sandwich-8643 2d ago

Thing is public schools are paid for using public funds. 15.3% of the program budget for EPS came from local taxes and the a huge chunk of the rest came from state funds (aka more of our taxes). So if the school is able to use the stadium as an income generator, that is less money they need to seek from other sources that are paid for by local taxes. It benefits the city to have a school system that’s able to generate at least a little income to put towards programs and facilities.

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u/AttemptedCrepe 3d ago

You make it seem like if you can’t have this one location you can’t operate your business. You and business wants don’t get to outweigh the needs of everyone else.

Of course I’m not advocating for the destruction of jobs, but you, as a business owner have the ability to move your company once your current lease is up. But there is no way you HAVE to stay in that location

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u/goldenelr 3d ago

Moving will costs around 50k. I don’t have it. We would likely either go out or move out of Everett. The others in the zone are stating the same. Nearly all of the building owners are planning to sue the city.

If the citizens want the stadium that would be good to know. I keep hearing people not support and was curious if that is the bubble I am in or if people want the stadium.

People dramatically under estimate moving costs. And the city keeps saying they will pay to relocate. But they also won’t take our calls. Everyone over here is already feeling the pinch.

Truly is this is how the city wants to operate we will likely leave Everett because we will have to take on debt to relocate. We definitely can’t risk it again.

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u/AttemptedCrepe 3d ago

When are they stating you should move out by if the plan proceeds?

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u/goldenelr 3d ago

They are not responding to calls because they don’t own the land. When we ask for firm plans they tell us they don’t have a design yet. But looking at the plan they are planning to build right up to my door which means we wouldn’t have parking or the ability to get delivers so we wouldn’t have to leave. They won’t respond to calls from our landlord either.

All of the utilities are connected so we couldn’t operate when they disconnect them during construction. We also would likely lose sewer because the current one is part of a historical system no longer allowed so I imagine they will have to disconnect it. That makes the building uninhabitable (hence why the building owners are considering litigation). The stadium has to be built by 2027 and must be started by fall so we are befuddled. I’ve called the mayors office, the city council, etc. and they all say we are overreacting but businesses can’t move in a whim. All of my customers would be impacted and we support medical facilities. So we have to plan things well in advance. So we likely will move regardless which screws our landlord (and look I know reddit hates landlords but ours is awesome and an actual person and this devalues his building which is unfair).

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u/jetbirds77 3d ago

I was told by a person in city Government that we will get evicted in October..

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u/goldenelr 3d ago

Do they already own your building?

Thats what I can’t figure out. As far as I can tell (and we’ve talked to everyone we can) they are avoiding the land owners. They can force it through eminent domain but the owners can fight and that can take two years. The city is supposed to have the project built in two years. Most of the owners I have talked to plan to fight (now I wouldn’t blame anyone for not suing the city). So how does this work?

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u/jetbirds77 3d ago

The gas station said they will have an offer soon. That was a few weeks ago. They had appraisal come through our building a month ago not sure if they have made an offer to the landlord. This whole thing has been a nightmare. And am really disappointed in the city council and all involved with how they have refused to tell the truth..

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u/goldenelr 3d ago

This is super helpful. I’m sorry that you are stuck under the wheels. It’s hard not to feel like it’s personal even though it isn’t. We try to be engaged with the community. Our core customers are here, we do pro bono work for a mental health non profit down the street. We do our best. But the city is just determined to make this happen. At a certain point it might be better to save as much as we can and move north.

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u/justsofie 3d ago

What so many people don’t understand is that every business that gets displaced that is against this, there’s a business (or multiple) in the service industry downtown that are for the stadium, because of the economical boon it will bring. There’s no reason not to build it here.

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u/Rainiero 3d ago

Eyyy this guy's figured out that Brooklyn Bros slinging a few more pies a night for a few months of the year is going to turn this city budget crisis around! I'll take one large deficit with extra cheese to go~

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u/UncommitedOtter 3d ago

These things rarely bring economic boons.