Pro baseball: John Prince Park is back on deck | www.mypalmbeachpost.com

Looks like we are going into extra innings! Wow. Things had been quiet on this front for a while and I think many people thought the John Prince Park location had fallen off the table. Now we have this article in today's Palm Beach Post. Apparently much work has been going on behind the scenes and Greenacres Sam Ferreri (an architect and part of the original Palm Beach Garden's failed effort) tweaked previous versions of the plan to be more sensitive to the park's amenities. The new location would be just east of Palm Beach State College. The outfield would back-up to Lake Osborne, offering and opportunity for kayakers to field long hits from home plate. Residents on the east side of Lake Osborne, north of 6th Avenue South, like the lovely Lakeside Gardens condominiums could almost watch night games from their catwalk balconies!

This is exciting for the city - a way to be kinder to the park and take advantage of Tri-Rail and other local synergies. From the article:

“Last year, I went to a game in San Francisco and there were probably 2,000 people outside the stadium trying to catch a ball, either on the walkway or on the bay,’’ said Ferreri, whose firm was involved with the city of Palm Beach Gardens’ efforts last summer to build a spring training facility.
“What an amenity to have 6,500 people in the stands overlooking the lake with a cool breeze. We could have a walking trail along the (back of the) outfield,’’ he said.
The site still has challenges. Palm Beach State College would have to agree to allow its baseball field to be displaced by two practice fields and a parking lot. A dog park where the main stadium is proposed would need to be moved.
But civic leaders say the site’s benefits – it’s a short walk to the Tri-Rail station on Lake Worth Road – provide a chance to offer a major economic boost to the Lake Worth corridor.
“This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for this area. For us not to explore the possibilities is irresponsible,’’ said Lake Worth Commissioner Scott Maxwell.