Hinchliffe Stadium Opens New Opportunities for Paterson while Reconnecting to its Past

July 18th, 2023 by Michael Atkins

While New York City boasts the “House that Ruth Built,” and Cooperstown and Kansas City host hall of fames, New Jersey’s role in the history of baseball, and in particular, NJ’s open exhibition of Black baseball during segregation is often overlooked. Hinchliffe Stadium was once a bustling hub for Black baseball, drawing fans from across the region to Paterson, NJ to see the best players of the day. After years being unoccupied, a new and exciting redevelopment project in Paterson — the largest historic preservation project in NJ — that is the talk of the town and state, providing an unmatched example for blending outdoor activities, historical representation, and contemporary urban needs in one mixed-use project.

A session at the Planning and Redevelopment Conference dedicated to chronicling the success of the Hinchliffe redevelopment project titled, “Thrills, Skill, & Spills: Lessons Learned from the Hinchliffe Stadium/Paterson Redevelopment Project” convening public and private perspectives on this stellar project that has energized local and statewide communities. Panelists included Baye Adofo-Wilson, Redevelopment Counsel, Post Polak; Joseph Portelli, Senior VP of Development, RPM Development Group; Michael Powell, Director of Economic Development, City of Paterson; and George Wheatle Williams, Founding Principal, Nishuane Group, LLC; and was moderated by Anne Babineau, Shareholder, Wilentz, Goldman & Spitzer, P.A.

 

In summary, the project provides the following amenities: revitalization of the stadium to include recreational facilities for local school, a museum dedicated to Negro League Baseball, development of 75 new affordable units for seniors, and a 315 space parking facility. Joseph Portelli, who brought with him a presentation featuring photographs, renderings, and a drone film overview of the site, noted the 800-seat stadium will also host a restaurant and a daycare. 

“The point is difficult things are difficult to do, but it takes a good team to get it done.” -Michael Powell, City of Paterson

The assembled panelists, all of whom worked closely on various aspects of the redevelopment project, shared how blending and balancing community needs with funding streams made it possible. Each component of the project had a funding source, and a discreet use. While it is in total a mixed use project, each “use” had a dedicated funding stream including, but not limited to, historic and new market tax credits, soft subsidies, and Covid recovery funds. 

This varied approach in securing funding mirrored the complexities of stakeholders in the project. Hinchliffe Stadium is a city property owned by the Paterson School Board and is a National Historic Landmark site, with each layer posing challenges. “In negotiating with the school board, your threshold for community partnerships is a real challenge. You need to at times bite the bullet for the common good,” noted Adofo-Wilson. With the school district serving as the primary tenant for 180 days of the year, the project team had to continually persuade external partners of the ultimate positive impact the project would have on the city and community. 

“Paterson is the third largest city in New Jersey. Cities needed a certain amount of push. Paterson is [oriented] around the Falls, and densely populated [with] 168,000 people,” explained Baye Adofo-Wilson. He asks, “How do you maximize the people, how do you maximize the historic assets, and how do you think about towns that are fundamentally oriented differently than ‘How fast can you get me to New York or Philadelphia?’” 

Global, national, and statewide trends all influenced the realization of this project in the heart of Paterson. As Michael Powell shared, “The realities of dealing with this during Covid was that what made this project possible is because it was outdoors, and because the museum examined race and class history in America. To do this around a narrative that makes Paterson interesting as a minority-majority city, is that it hasn’t gotten its fair shake.” Adofo-Wilson added to this, “NJ has a great policy that mandates Black History education in NJ. This is a new policy and a new opportunity. We have created a regional and statewide attraction to bring NJ students to a Black history site.”

Wheatle Williams, noted that the story begins much earlier than 2020, or the current elected administration taking office in 2018. It all starts with thoughtful planning. “I would like to acknowledge Paterson’s role and give credit to the work done on the planning and public side. Their 2003 Master Plan spoke to using redevelopment planning in Paterson strategically and intentionally. When the Master Plan was updated in 2014, it again focused on redevelopment plans for Paterson, including Hinchliffe Stadium.”

Adofo-Wilson reflected, “Everybody feels like they own the stadium. We had an 80 something couple who were a cheerleader and running back with memories from the stadium stretching back to the 1950s. And we had a number of people involved in this project who went beyond their professional obligations over and over again out of dedication to making this project a reality.” Powell concurred, “The point is difficult things are difficult to do, but it takes a good team to get it done.” With Hinchliffe Stadium now once again playing host to baseball, Paterson has many fans locally and statewide cheering it on from the stands.

Posted in Community Design, Development and Redevelopment, Economic Development, New Jersey Future Blog, Redevelopment

Tags: Affordable housing, age friendly, community, historic preservation, Housing, housing and equity, mixed-use, Redevelopment, revitalization

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