Majestic Park construction process gets underway

The conceptual master plan for Majestic Park, provided by Visit Hot Springs. - Submitted photo
The conceptual master plan for Majestic Park, provided by Visit Hot Springs. - Submitted photo

The construction process is already underway for Majestic Park, a five-field baseball complex located at the former site of the Boys & Girls Club of Hot Springs that is being funded by the proceeds from an $8.5 million bond issue city voters approved on Sept. 10.

Visit Hot Springs CEO Steve Arrison said the bond closing is estimated to be Dec. 12, and the project's completion is estimated to be spring 2021.

Although the bond money won't be available until early December, Arrison said construction has already begun for Majestic Park thanks to a grant from the Oaklawn Foundation.

"We're in the planning stages trying to figure out what it's going to look like," he said. "We were very fortunate to get a $500,000 grant from the Oaklawn Foundation, so we've used that money to start the process already. We've already cleared the field off, we've already done geological testing to check the soil and see how it will withstand the buildings."

Arrison said B&F Engineering Inc. is the park contractor and HALFF Associates Inc. is the park subcontractor.

"I think we're moving forward with great excitement," said Mike Dugan, a member of the Home Run for Hot Springs committee, which campaigned for passage of the bond issue. "I have my own thoughts on what I want the park to look like: I want it to look like a very traditional baseball park from the 1940s or '50s. ... Baseball is a sport that honors its history more than any of the other sports, and I think tying that heritage in there is critical to moving forward with this."

Arrison said it's important to keep the historical aspect intact with Majestic Park.

"I think that's one of the things that separate us from the competition out there, is our history that Babe Ruth played at this site," he said. "That's just as important as having all-turf fields and a first-class facility, is taking advantage of the history that we have that no one else has."

Arrison said history is a "big selling point," and referred to the Longwoods International research that showed the top special interest activity for travel in Hot Springs from 2013-2018 was visiting historical places.

"We're already getting calls from people who are wanting to do tournaments -- it will attract people," Arrison said. "Right now we have very limited sports tourism because we don't have any fields. ... We're missing out on a large market of traveling teams."

Arrison said tourists are not the only people who will benefit from Majestic Park, noting locals will also have the opportunity to play baseball or softball there.

"Traveling tournaments are usually on the weekends, the fields are seven days a week," he said. "Hopefully when we get them built they can be used year-round, that's why we went with the all-turf."

Dugan said the park will also provide a good advertisement opportunity for local businesses.

"We've already had people calling, wanting to know about advertising: How could they advertise, how could they link their name in some way to the project."

Arrison said there are no current ideas for Majestic Park management.

"There's so many options out there. I would say, at this point, we're leaning toward operating it ourselves," he said. "I think the commission will probably pull in four or five local baseball people, because we're not baseball experts, to help us with the process."

Dugan said the committee is excited for what is to come with Majestic Park, and grateful to the voters who voted in its favor.

"I think when we looked at the demographics from the election and so many people -- close to 75 percent of the people that cast votes -- were over 60 years old and we still won by a great margin. That shows me they understand the importance of this project is not only for the economic future of our community, but taking care of the children in our community," Dugan said. "We're moving forward into the future and yet honoring our past."

Local on 09/22/2019

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