VERO BEACH, Fla. - Local officials and team representatives hope to put the ''town'' in Dodgertown.
A draft plan outlining the redevelopment of the Los Angeles Dodgers' spring-training facility would surround Holman Stadium and a new baseball complex with a ''mini-town'' consisting of a hotel, conference center, rental apartments, stores and restaurants.
The plan is outlined in a draft ''memorandum of agreement'' drawn up by a Tallahassee law firm hired by Indian River County. The memorandum has not yet been signed by any of the parties.
The Press Journal learned the terms of the draft during an examination of County Administrator Jim Chandler's notes and files documenting the Dodgers negotiations. State law classifies the documents as public records.
Chandler cautioned, however, that the agreement is still in flux and may change significantly before negotiations end.
''I can't emphasize enough that we have reached no agreements,'' Chandler said. ''All those things aren't necessarily chiseled in stone. We've (subsequently) had some discussions of real substance that's not in there yet.''
Derrick Hall, the Dodgers vice president of communications, declined to comment on the plan's details.
But he said the fact that the team has put so much effort into the plan does not necessarily mean it has decided to remain in Vero Beach. The team is still exploring an invitation to move to Las Vegas, he said.
''In looking at both cases, we wanted to see what makes the most overall sense,'' he said. ''We took time in both cases to make sure it would be done the way it should be. So, that's what's involved here.''
The Dodgers are currently the only one in Major League Baseball to own its training facility. It wants to get out of the real estate business to reduce its spring-training costs.
Under the agreement, the county would buy 64 acres of Dodgertown comprising the current conference center, Holman stadium and practice fields. It would use the land to build a new training facility and lease it back to the team for $1 per year.
The Dodgers would pay operating costs for the facility and keep all revenue it generates.
For the remaining 62 acres of Dodgertown, the Dodgers would cut a deal with a private developer to build the hotel and other amenities on the existing Dodgertown Golf Club and citrus groves north of the stadium.
The agreement does not name the developer, but Chandler's handwritten notes identify the firm by the abbreviation ''DeG.'' Elsewhere in the files is a business card for De Guardiola Development Inc., of West Palm Beach. Chandler would not confirm whether the firm is involved in the deal.
DeGuardiola is the developer of Abacoa, a ''new urbanism'' community in Jupiter that includes the new Roger Dean Stadium, spring training home of the Montreal Expos and St. Louis Cardinals.
Palm Beach County paid $25 million to build the stadium and complex amid the 2,055-acre Abacoa, which includes 6,073 homes and apartments, retail and office space, schools and a golf course.
The agreement anticipates that the hotel and conference center would be complete by the first quarter of 2002. That phase of the project must be complete before the existing conference center can be razed to make way for the new training complex.
Once the land is cleared, the Dodgers would use county funds to build a new practice facility to be designed by HOK Inc., the Kansas City, Mo.-based sports architects that designed Roger Dean Stadium, Pro Player Stadium in Miami and Alltel Stadium in Jacksonville.
The files contain few details about the new practice facility. But Holman Stadium would not be demolished.
There are, however, a few kinks in the plan, including the price of the land, the cost of the new training complex and property taxes.
The county would pay for the deal by issuing bonds backed by a half-cent sales tax, a penny of the local Tourist Development Tax and a state grant of $500,000 per year for 15 years.
Because the county must apply for the grant by Oct. 1, the Dodgers have said they expect to choose a new spring-training home in the next week or so.
The local proposal is competing with one from the city of Las Vegas, which hopes to build a training facility for four to six teams, with the Dodgers as the anchor tenant.
The draft agreement does not name a price for the land to be purchased by the county. Chandler's notes, however, list figures of $9.5 million for acquisition and $7.2 million for the improvements.
An updated appraisal of the land, completed in April, values the property at $7.5 million.
Chandler said the existence of the notes doesn't mean a purchase price has been agreed upon. That figure must be set during future negotiations, he said.
''When I get in there, I'm not going to roll over and take their figures,'' he said. ''There's a lot of things to be taken into consideration in getting to that bottom line.''
Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service.
