Striking out

About 18 months ago, when Gary Creed first became involved in two baseball parks being planned by local developers, he thought America’s Park in Mooresville would open first.

But Creed, vice president of operations for Charlotte-based Edifice, the general contractor for America’s Park, was wrong.

The other park, Nation’s Park in Newberry, Fla., is expected to open in three months, just in time for summer.

“We had been working with America’s Park and Nation’s Park since the inception,” Creed said. “Newberry came out first. Mooresville, I thought, was going to go first.”

Didn’t happen.

Construction hasn’t even begun on the proposed 25-field, $20 million America’s Park. No one has even announced an exact date on which construction will begin, and the project’s expected completion has already been pushed back at least once.

Indeed, America’s Park has been besieged by curveball after curveball:

Developers haven’t been able to find enough investors, which has delayed the project.

Required transportation improvements have also stalled the development.

And it was revealed earlier this year that one of the developers, Lou Presutti, is no longer part of the project. There’s been no public explanation for his departure.

Robert Carney, executive director of the Mooresville-South Iredell Economic Development Corp., said he was “not at liberty to share” details of the split, which he called “very smooth.”

“As far as what took place with Presutti, it was a mutually agreed upon situation,” he said. “I just know that this is a good thing for the project.”

Todd Hines and Jeff Cernuto are the other two developers. According to Carney, Hines and Cernuto “have the ability to carry through on this project. We’re really excited.”

The three developers could not be reached for comment.

When the project was announced in 2010, it was pitched as the largest youth baseball facility in the U.S.

It’s slated to include cabins that would serve as temporary living facilities for the baseball players, a cafeteria, concession stands, an administrative office and bathrooms, Creed said. The fields would feature a mix of natural and artificial turf, which Creed said was unique for baseball fields.

The venue is supposed to be a magnet for 8- to 13-year-old baseball players from across the country. America’s Park’s developers have said the complex will draw about 80,000 players, coaches and family members to Mooresville for 13 weeks every summer.

And it was supposed to open this year.

But last year, Cernuto, Hines and Presutti said the opening would be pushed back until 2013. Edifice was named the contractor just this year.

Creed said he’s not sure when ground will be broken. The hope is for that to take place this spring or summer, allowing the fields to open in time for the 2013 baseball season, he said, adding that he is working with developers on pricing.

“It is not ready to be submitted for a permit,” he said. “We have a site plan in the design and development phase. It’s just the process of getting everything designed and funded and that kind of thing.”

Subcontractors also have not been chosen, he said.

Besides securing funding, the developers also have to keep the North Carolina Department of Transportation happy by making road improvements. Carney said the costs for those improvements have the park’s developers looking for new investors.

The NCDOT is requiring the developers to fund an interchange project at the intersection of Judas and Cornelius roads, which feed into Rankin Hill Road. In exchange, the NCDOT will pave and widen Rankin, a two-lane gravel road that runs about eight-tenths of a mile and provides sole access to the proposed park. Currently, Rankin can’t handle the expected surge in traffic that is expected once the park opens, Iredell County officials say.

The NCDOT moved Rankin to the top of its road improvement list and plans to pave, widen and build turn lanes for about $800,000. The NCDOT wants the developers cough up $200,000 to $300,000 for the interchange project, which would widen the intersection and add extra turning lanes. Traffic signals also might be required, costing the developers another $50,000.

But Steve Abbott, spokesman for the NCDOT, said the Rankin improvements will not begin until the developers start work on the ballpark complex.

“We’re not going to start and spend money until we know it’s actually going to be built,” Abbott said, citing the delays that are already slowing the project and the change in the leadership of the development team. “We don’t want to spend the money and then, for whatever reason, they aren’t going to build it.”

Abbott said the NCDOT has not heard from the developers, but that it isn’t necessary for them to reach out to the state agency. In the meantime, the NCDOT will wait to see construction begin at the site, he said.

Carney said the developers would be pursing “other opportunities” like NCDOT grants. And he said the development team is working with the NCDOT to make sure traffic projections are accurate.

“We’re still trying to best determine those impacts of this project,” he said. “Most of the traffic that comes in has been stated to be off-peak hours. So, from an impact standpoint, we’re trying to best determine what that looks like.”

Presutti, a Salisbury resident, also founded Cooperstown Dream Park in New York.

Hines, who lives in Mooresville, owns Carolina’s Baseball Center in Charlotte, an indoor training facility that sponsors travel teams that play in tournaments throughout the region.

Cernuto is president of Princeton Management, a real estate investment and development company in Mooresville, and owns the 170-acre plot of land just north of Mooresville where the baseball park will be built.

Creed said he knows nothing about why Presutti split with the other developers.

“It hasn’t been a change so much, because Todd and Jeff have always been involved,” he said. “I’ve always felt like it was Jeff and Todd.”

Regardless of what the split means for the project, this much is certain: It still needs funding.

“The next big step is basically filling in for the remaining investment part,” Carney said.

RAMSEY can be reached at [email protected].