I drove through the old Bull Street asylum after work two days ago to check out the progress.
As for the baseball stadium, a massive dig has already occurred. The first sign of any development was an enormous mound of displaced dirt. Not far away was the site of the future stadium, and the land there has been flattened in the obvious shape of a stadium. However, from what I saw, the project didn't look to be much further along than digging out/flattening the land. They had a few skinny metal rods in the ground (which I assume mark the locations where concrete will be poured) and they had some rickety wooden-board structure on the first-base side of home plate. Needless to say, they have a lot to accomplish if the stadium is going to be built by opening day 2016 (10 months away), because as of now nothing has been built. I know nothing about construction, particularly of stadiums, so I can't say if they're ahead of schedule or behind schedule, but I will say I was surprised by the fact that the actual building of the stadium hasn't begun. If it's completed on time I'll be impressed with the speed at which such a massive project can be accomplished.
As for the rest of the Bull Street property, I didn't see a single sign of redevelopment. I know the baseball stadium has been billed as the lynchpin of the project, but I didn't realize that 100% of the initial construction was being devoted to the baseball stadium. The area surrounding the stadium was full of crumbling, abandoned buildings and old, rotting trash. It looked like something out of a post-apocalyptic movie. I hope they quickly redevelop the surrounding area, because if that takes a while, I think a lot of folks will be disinclined to attend a game in such a creepy environment.
As for the baseball stadium, a massive dig has already occurred. The first sign of any development was an enormous mound of displaced dirt. Not far away was the site of the future stadium, and the land there has been flattened in the obvious shape of a stadium. However, from what I saw, the project didn't look to be much further along than digging out/flattening the land. They had a few skinny metal rods in the ground (which I assume mark the locations where concrete will be poured) and they had some rickety wooden-board structure on the first-base side of home plate. Needless to say, they have a lot to accomplish if the stadium is going to be built by opening day 2016 (10 months away), because as of now nothing has been built. I know nothing about construction, particularly of stadiums, so I can't say if they're ahead of schedule or behind schedule, but I will say I was surprised by the fact that the actual building of the stadium hasn't begun. If it's completed on time I'll be impressed with the speed at which such a massive project can be accomplished.
As for the rest of the Bull Street property, I didn't see a single sign of redevelopment. I know the baseball stadium has been billed as the lynchpin of the project, but I didn't realize that 100% of the initial construction was being devoted to the baseball stadium. The area surrounding the stadium was full of crumbling, abandoned buildings and old, rotting trash. It looked like something out of a post-apocalyptic movie. I hope they quickly redevelop the surrounding area, because if that takes a while, I think a lot of folks will be disinclined to attend a game in such a creepy environment.
