One of the nation’s two remaining Negro League Baseball stadiums is at the heart of a $103 million redevelopment in New Jersey that seeks to preserve history and act as a present-day economic driver for the city of Paterson.
In a ceremony with celebrities including actress Whoopi Goldberg and former New York Yankee star Willie Randolph, a facility that some said represents a chapter of U.S. culture that is often underplayed and overlooked — segregation in pro baseball, and the eventual triumph over it — was officially reopened on Friday. Hinchliffe Stadium is the venue where baseball legends like Larry Doby first showed off their skills when there a color barrier in Major League Baseball that barred Black men from playing in its games.
"This is not a landmark for Paterson alone," U.S. Sen. Cory Booker, a New Jersey Democrat, said at the event. "This is not a state landmark. This is an American landmark ... Think about it. On this field folks played that were denied entrance, folks played that were denied their truth, folks played who were even greater than those who played in the National Baseball League. Here we saw Black folk and Caribbean folk and Latino folk coming together and demonstrating that though the light might not shine on them like on others, that they are brilliant and bright and that they can lift a community and a city.”
The Hinchliffe redevelopment has not only restored the once-dilapidated stadium, which was in danger of being torn down, but added affordable senior housing, a museum dedicated to its history, a parking deck and dining to the property. It's a boost for Paterson, which like many urban centers is grappling with crime and poverty. Earlier this month, the State Attorney General's Office took control of the city police department after officers fatally shot a community activist.
RPM Development Group and BAW Development undertook the redevelopment project, which officials said they hope will transform the neighborhood where it's located and serve as an economic driver for Paterson, drawing visitors for events like local high school sports, cultural affairs, concerts and New Jersey Jackals games. That local minor league baseball team is making Hinchliffe its base, and the team is slated to hold its home opener there Saturday. In addition to that, the mixed-use development is bringing much-needed affordable housing to the city.
Sports Illustrated called Hinchliffe, which was closed for 26 years, "one of sports’ best comeback stories."
Construction on the Hinchliffe Stadium Neighborhood Restoration Project began in spring 2021, with financial help that included a grant of $67.2 million in tax incentives from the New Jersey Economic Development Authority.
The project includes the rehabilitation and ground-up development of: the 7,800-seat stadium; a six-story, 75-unit affordable senior housing building at 1-27 Jasper St.; the 4,000-square foot Charles J. Muth Museum of Hinchliffe Stadium, showcasing the facility's history as a centerpiece in Negro League baseball, auto-racing and high school football; a 3,800-square-foot food court; a 5,200-square foot preschool; and a 315-space parking garage at the intersection of Liberty and Maple Street.
The work isn't complete yet, with areas like the museum and food court still being completed.
The ceremony at Hinchliffe featured speakers that included actress and "The View" co-host Goldberg, a Garden State resident who said her son-in-law is from Paterson; New York Yankees executive Omar Minaya; and the developers, Baye Adofo-Wilson, CEO of BAW and Joe Portelli of RPM. And there were several hundred spectators in the stands watching.
"How many of you here have seen the movie 'Field of Dreams'?" Paterson Mayor Andre Sayegh asked at the event, referring to the film that starred Kevin Costner as a farmer who builds a baseball field in his cornfield that attracts the ghosts of baseball legends.
"With all due respect to Kevin Costner, Ray Liotta and James Earl Jones, that field of dreams was a corn field in Iowa and a movie set. Hinchliffe Stadium is the real field of dreams," he added.
Sayegh, a New York Mets fan, over a series of years spearheaded the effort to redevelop Hinchliffe.
At the ribbon-cutting, Adolfo-Wilson told CoStar News he grew up in Paterson and even ran at the stadium when he took part in track as a student at Passaic County Technical Institute. The developer, who is also a lawyer, spent part of his career serving as deputy mayor and director of economic housing development for Newark Mayor Ras Baraka.
The stadium, which debuted in 1932, was closed by its owner, the Paterson school district and its superintendent, in 1997 as it grew older and posed a safety hazard. It become a neighborhood eyesore overrun with vegetation. Adolfo-Wilson saw its decline with his own eyes.
"When we started [the redevelopment], it was trees and homeless people," he said.
Hinchliffe, one of the last two remaining historically preserved Negro League stadiums in the country, was formerly home to the New York Black Yankees and New York Cubans at a time when segregation prevailed and Black players were barred from playing in the white leagues. The facility is located within the Paterson Great Falls National Historic Park and was designated a National Historic Landmark in March 2013.
''Affordable housing was an important component — you have sports here, you have senior citizens here, there's a preschool, a childcare facility and a museum," Adolfo-Wilson said. "So we wanted multiple generations to be able to access the space and access the park. It's all about capturing opportunities in and around the falls."
The facility still has its historic design, which includes an art deco exterior and a classical, amphitheater-style horseshoe-shaped interior. In addition to being home to the Jackals, the multipurpose stadium will also host a variety of local high school and league-based sporting events, including baseball, football, soccer, track and lacrosse. The stadium is also set to be home field to Kennedy High School for several sports, and serve the broader community by hosting concerts, festivals, graduations, sports camps and other semi-pro and professional sporting events.
“We were able to safely preserve the architecture, design, and charm of the original stadium, including the perimeter walls that were erected more than 90 years ago,” Bryan Verhasselt of RPM, who will serve as general manager of the newly created Hinchliffe District, said in a statement. “The bones of the stadium are all original, and we went through a painstaking process to ensure the facility was brought up to code, including the addition of modern [American Disability Act] accommodations."
Doby, who was a Paterson native, was with the Newark Eagles of the Negro National League. He later became the first Black player in the American League, about two months after Jackie Robinson became the first Black player in Major League Baseball, in the National League.
Financing for the Hinchliffe Stadium Neighborhood Restoration Project was managed by RPM. Funds were provided by a combination of sources, including a $60 million construction loan from Goldman Sachs and $10 million in New Market Tax Credit and Federal Historic Tax Credit equity from U.S. Bancorp Community Development Corp., U.S. Bank’s tax equity and community development subsidiary.
Its funding also included $21 million of New Market Tax Credit allocation from four Community Development Entities: Community Loan Fund of New Jersey, Consortium America, RBC Community Development and USBCDE. The Passaic County Improvement Authority issued a bond in support of the project, purchased by Goldman Sachs through its construction loan, which serves as a bridge loan for the state tax credits.