Everett has a big decision to make in choosing downtown stadium site

EVERETT — By the end of the year, city leaders here may have a site picked for a new downtown stadium to house Everett’s minor league baseball team, a decision that could affect businesses and other development around the city’s core.

Next month, the Everett City Council plans to select a site for what is pitched as an outdoor multipurpose facility. The driving force behind it is the need for a new or updated ballpark for the Everett AquaSox, a Seattle Mariners-affiliated minor league team. In 2021, Major League Baseball restructured its minor league system and released new stadium requirements.

Funko Field, the stadium where the AquaSox currently play, doesn’t meet the expansive new standards. Because of that, the city must choose which of three forks in the road to follow.

The city can fix up Funko Field by remodeling the stadium and expanding the outfield, which could cost about $80 million. Financing that project would be challenging because the land is owned by the Everett School District, not the city. It would also require the AquaSox and the various high school and community college teams that use the field to find other places to play during construction.

Everett can also do nothing and leave Funko Field as-is. Without the changes required by MLB, including updated locker rooms and changing areas for women staffers, the AquaSox would be fined hundreds of thousands of dollars each year. Everett would lose the team, according to the city.

But a third plan, one that’s supported by the city, Snohomish County and the Mariners, is to build a brand-new stadium roughly a mile north of Funko Field’s current 3900 Broadway location. The city contends the new site would have a much greater economic impact, by driving money to surrounding downtown retailers, and that the plan is easier to fund.

It would also cost roughly $120 million of private and public dollars.

The owners of the AquaSox, 7th Inning Stretch, would sign a 30-year lease, according to Everett officials.

If the city’s preferred option is approved, planning and design could begin in early 2025, according to a presentation the city gave to community members on Nov. 12. The site that city officials are eyeing would displace several businesses including a vegan cafe, an indoor mushroom farm and an auto repair shop across the street from the Angel of the Winds Arena, a multipurpose arena where the Everett Silvertips hockey team plays.

An economic impact study commissioned by the city of Everett estimated that the AquaSox at Funko Field directly and indirectly supported $18.7 million in revenue, 130 jobs and $6.4 million in income for workers in 2023. The study said that a downtown stadium opened to more events would generate 50% to 100% more economic activity than the current field, depending on the demand for nonbaseball events.

Nathanael Engen, who owns the mushroom farm in downtown Everett called Black Forest Mushrooms, said he’s excited about the economic vitality a new stadium could inject into the area.

His warehouse, full of lion’s mane and blue oyster mushrooms growing under his crew’s watchful eye, is also inside of the rough outline the city has designated as the downtown site it would like to occupy.

Engen started his company in his two-car garage, selling mushrooms at the Snohomish Farmers Market. Once it became big enough to expand, he settled on a warehouse in Everett. He says working with the city had been phenomenal since he opened up almost a year ago.

“We chose to come here because Everett clearly showed potential for growth,” Engen said. “Which makes me all the more surprised that we don’t get direct communication about a project like this.

“I don’t get why there’s been a breakdown in communication. You have our numbers, you can make us a part of this.”

The city said the areas shown in the renderings for a new ballpark are just what was studied as part of the environmental review. The planning and design for what could become a new stadium won’t occur until at least next year, and it’s too early to tell the exact orientation of a new stadium on the site.

Engen said when he opened the farm, the city was helpful right away. If he has a problem or issue, he’s able to get someone on the phone.

If the downtown site becomes a reality, he’d love to stay in place and serve mushroom jerky or other vegan food to AquaSox fans.

“If we’re relocated, there are procedures to help us out and I don’t think the city will steamroll us. They’ll do for us what they can,” he said. “But if there’s open communication then we can try and be a part of it. I genuinely think it would be a great project.

“If you invest in Everett and the community, then people show up.”

The downtown site is also next to one of the preferred locations of a proposed light rail station, the construction of which is planned to start in 2030.

Brock Howell, executive director for the community development group Everett Station District Alliance, said his organization’s board hasn’t taken a stance on the downtown stadium. He sees the big opportunity for economic impact but knows there’s a cost that comes with it.

“We’ve asked hard questions because our neighborhood has been a place for a lot of people to live and work near downtown,” he said. “The stadium has a lot of impact on that. We want to make sure the plan incorporates housing and jobs.”

When Howell gave public comment in February about a potential downtown stadium, he said the location could directly impact the number of housing units the city builds near a future light rail station and the current transit station.

He remains reticent but is hopeful, with more communication in the planning process, his organization’s mission can be met.

“I think there’s a tremendous opportunity to include housing and jobs in the project and I would love to be involved in that,” Howell said. His association “works to try and support more housing and job growth, we’d love to see that catalyzed by a project like this.”

The Everett City Council is expected to select a site Dec. 18.