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The new baseball complex would be built where homes and businesses are now. This chart comes from this Renton School District Presentation
The Renton School District is on a buying binge, going after 42 business properties and single-family homes to amass ten acres to move their baseball field. They’re apparently surprised by the high prices, and are starting to use eminent domain to take properties. With many multi-million dollar properties in the mix, one of them reaching 6 million dollars, the school district could potentially end up spending 60-80 million dollars on this property before they are through. Then they will have to pay to close several city streets, relocating all the utilities. They’ll also have substantial demolition costs, and environmental cleanup costs for some of the properties. And they will have archaeological preservation costs, as this former Black River riparian zone may have significant historical artifacts. All told, they could spend 80-90 million on site procurement and preparation before they even start work on the baseball field.
This means Renton High’s new baseball field could exceed the costs of our nation’s most over-the-top high school football stadiums, even before we install the first bleacher. That almost certainly makes it the nation’s most expensive high school baseball field.
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