LOCAL

Multiuse sports, event center one step closer for downtown Hagerstown

Julie E. Greene
The Herald-Mail

The Hagerstown-Washington County Industrial Foundation has purchased The Herald-Mail property as part of the Maryland Stadium Authority’s plans for a multiuse sports and event facility in downtown Hagerstown. 

The $5 million sale went to closing on Tuesday afternoon, said Greg Snook, president and CEO of the nonprofit foundation known as CHIEF. 

“We are pleased to complete this transaction with The Herald-Mail, which serves as the first step in our efforts associated with the new multiuse sports and event center,” Snook said. 

The multiuse facility is “gonna happen. The legislation is in place and the money has been allocated,” Snook said. 

The Herald-Mail will maintain its community presence, with the news operation reporting local news in the Tri-State area. 

“The Herald-Mail has long been a staple in the Hagerstown community, and we look forward to that continued relationship with the community members,” said Dawn Friedman, advertising director and site leader for The Herald-Mail. 

Gannett, a publicly traded company that owns The Herald-Mail, put the 3.985 acres up for sale earlier this year.

The property at Summit Avenue and West Antietam Street has for years been part of discussions for a possible baseball stadium. 

Major League Baseball took control of the minor leagues and announced it was reducing membership by 25%, leading to the end of the Hagerstown Suns’ tenure in the Hub City. The Single-A team’s final game in the aging city-owned Municipal Stadium was in 2019. The team never played in 2020 because the COVID-19 pandemic shut down all of minor league baseball. The local team, which most recently was an affiliate of the Washington Nationals, shut down in December. 

But late this summer, the Atlantic League of Professional Baseball’s (ALPB) board of directors approved Downtown Baseball LLC’s application for an expansion franchise in Hagerstown. The ownership group is led by Howard “Blackie” Bowen, Don Bowman, James Holzapfel and Frank Boulton.  

Bowen said the local ownership group is “thrilled” to have the property sale close. There are still other properties that need to be acquired for the project. 

Snook said the goal is to have the stadium built in two years. 

Bowen said the hope is still to have the Hagerstown franchise play in the new multiuse facility in the spring of 2023. If not for the supply logistics problems going on in the world, Bowen said he’d be “pretty comfortable” with that goal. 

The ALPB is an independent league based in the Mid-Atlantic region with teams in Lancaster and York, Pa., and Waldorf, Md. It currently has eight teams. 

Players in the league have included future and former members of Major League Baseball. 

The Herald-Mail Media building on Summit Avenue in Hagerstown.
The Herald-Mail Media building on Summit Avenue in Hagerstown.

What’s CHIEF’s involvement in the stadium project? 

CHIEF is a nonprofit that buys land to aid development in Washington County. 

In this instance, CHIEF is helping the Maryland Stadium Authority acquire the land for construction, Snook said. Then CHIEF will get the “keys” back and become owner of the stadium, working out a lease for Downtown Baseball LLC, he said. 

The state legislature, earlier this year, gave the stadium authority permission to allocate up to $59.5 million in bonds for design and construction of the stadium. Maryland lottery proceeds will be used to pay debt service on the bonds, Snook said. 

Because the property went up for sale early this year, CHIEF secured an option on the property so no one else would buy it before the legislation allowing the bonds was approved, Snook said. That legislation didn’t go into effect until Oct. 1, so CHIEF borrowed the money to buy the property. 

Snook said he expects the stadium authority to own the land, reimbursing CHIEF, by the end of this year. Around $10 million in state general and capital funds was designated for CHIEF to help with property acquisition. 

The stadium authority will head up efforts to acquire other properties for the project, Snook said. 

According to the stadium authority’s request for proposals for design and construction, those properties include: 

• 32 W. Baltimore St., home of the Auto Spa and Lube Center. 

• 140 Summit Ave., home of D&P Coin Operated Laundry 

• 80 W. Baltimore St., which is owned by Washington County government and houses offices such as engineering, plan review, and permits and inspections. 

The laundromat and car wash would need to be relocated, according to the request for proposals. 

The stadium authority is hosting a networking event at The Herald-Mail site on Oct. 19 for contractors. 

This illustration shows one of four concept designs outlined in the Maryland Stadium Authority's report released Tuesday for a new multiuse sports facility located at Baltimore Street and Summit Avenue in Hagerstown.

Multiuse center design 

“The facility is anticipated to be a state of the art, family- friendly venue with flexibility to include the hosting of outdoor concerts, festivals, community and family-oriented events, in addition to serving as the home field for an Atlantic League Professional Baseball Club,” the request for proposals states. 

Sports activities include baseball, soccer, lacrosse and field hockey, Snook said. 

The facility also is to meet field standards for high school and college football and rugby, according to the request for proposals. 

“I think it’s a big step in the economic development for the whole downtown core,” Snook said. 

Snook said he believes the project has already brought other developers to look at other properties because they see what’s happening downtown. 

Design concepts show The Herald-Mail building remaining beyond left field.  

Homeplate would be near the county building with the stadium using most of The Herald-Mail site, focusing on the parking lot side, Snook said. How much of the property will be left over after the final design is still to be determined, he said. 

The project would close Hood Street and the adjacent section of the Hagerstown Cultural Trail would be relocated to curve around the stadium, Snook said. 

Leadership Washington County celebrates 30 years of service with a reception at the Herald-Mail's Press Room on Sept. 23, 2016, in Hagerstown.

The Herald-Mail 

Friedman said The Herald-Mail building has a “lot of really amazing attributes,” but that it’s “just too much space for all of us.” 

The building includes an event space, The Press Room, which stopped making sense to rent out because of the pandemic, Friedman said. 

“As a company, we are continuing to work remotely through the end of the year because of the (COVID-19) pandemic,” Friedman said. 

The Herald-Mail is looking for “more suitable” office space in Hagerstown, she said. 

“We’re looking forward to being close to each other again instead of being spread out,” Friedman said. 

The newspaper building was constructed in the late 1970s with operations moving there in December 1979. 

The Herald-Mail got rid of its press equipment in 2011. Replacement parts for the 1977 press were difficult to find, a factor in contracting out the paper’s printing. 

The framework of The Herald-Mail building in downtown Hagerstown starts to take on a look familiar to the final product. The Dagmar is visible in the background. The media building was built in the late 1970s.

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