BROOK PARK, Ohio — Brook Park City Council approved a key building block for the new Browns stadium Wednesday night, voting unanimously to create a special public entity to own the building and shape development around it.
The Brook Park New Community Authority will be much more than the team’s landlord. It will have the power to issue bonds to help cover the cost of constructing the $2.6 billion stadium.
It will have the ability to tack fees onto concert tickets, restaurant tabs, hotel bills and other spending across the 178-acre entertainment district.
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“This really enables a lot of the development. It enables a lot of the infrastructure. It’s a governance mechanism. And it’s a financing mechanism,” said Ted Tywang, the chief administrative officer and general counsel for team owner Haslam Sports Group.
“It’s a big milestone. It’s a really big milestone,” he added during an interview.
Haslam Sports Group will turn over 42 acres of the property to the new community authority, or NCA, for the stadium project. The NCA will lease the enclosed stadium to the Browns for at least 30 years, according to documents submitted to council.
The authority will be governed by a nine-member board, with five representatives picked by city officials and four selected by Haslam Sports Group.
During Wednesday’s meeting, Mayor Edward Orcutt described the arrangement as “a partnership that will be able to work together for decades on economic development.” He stressed that many major decisions still will require council vetting and approval.
Orcutt will sit on the authority’s board. The city’s other four seats will be held by Brook Park residents, including a few people with local government experience.
Haslam Sports Group is putting of two of its executives — President Dave Jenkins and Tywang — on the board. The team’s other two seats will be filled by Darrell McNair, president and CEO of Middlefield-based MVP Plastics, and Steven Chapman, an executive at Lincoln Property Company.
Lincoln is working with Haslam Sports Group on plans for private development around the stadium, including apartments, a smaller music venue, restaurants, retail and hotels.
“I’m really looking forward to that kind of thing,” said Chuck Buckholz, Sr., one of a few dozen residents who attended a public hearing about the NCA before the council vote.
“I’m gonna go to lunch every day over there. My and my wife,” he said of the stadium district.
To help pay for development, the NCA could add a surcharge of up to 10% on purchases at restaurants and stores across the district. Documents submitted to council also show a possible charge of up to 3.5% on admission to concerts and other ticketed events there, with a carve-out for NFL games. Hotel guests could see an NCA charge of up to 8%.
Those are maximum potential fees. The actual amounts haven’t been set.
Buckholz thinks the change in scenery will be worth a few extra dollars here and there — money paid by district property owners and people spending money there, not taxpayers in general.
He once worked at a Ford Motor Co. foundry on the development site, at Snow and Engle roads. He watched the automotive industry shrink dramatically in Brook Park, leaving empty manufacturing buildings that eventually got torn down.
“That was Brook Park,” Buckholz said of the blue-collar city. “And once they closed up two of the plants over there, Brook Park, we haven’t been able to catch up. It’s been hard economically here. And I think this is gonna be a huge boost for us.”
Michelle Jarboe is the business growth and development reporter at News 5 Cleveland. Follow her on X @MJarboe or email her at Michelle.Jarboe@wews.com.
