WORCESTER, Mass. - When discussions to build Polar Park began, Worcester leaders pitched it as a project that would eventually pay for itself. Recent reporting by the Worcester Business Journal is calling their confidence into question, but stakeholders still believe the ballpark will live up to its promise.

In order for Polar Park to live up to its self-funded promises, the city needs help from developers to turn the surrounding area, known as the stadium financing district, into a revenue-generating hotspot. In the short term, the pandemic and labor shortages have delayed construction.

Worcester needed the district to bring in $2 million this past fiscal year to cover an annual bond payment for the park, but the Worcester Business Journal reports it only managed to bring in roughly $650,000. 

WBJ editor Brad Kane said its likely because some of the district's key revenue sources are still a work in progress. 

"The biggest chunk is from the tax revenues generated by the proposed hotel, the proposed life sciences building and the proposed residential buildings," Kane said. "When they initially announced this stadium financing plan in 2019, they were planning on much of that development being open basically on January 1, 2021."

The city made up for it with $3 million from the sale of public property on Green Street, which will also help cover the bond payment for fiscal year '23. While the sale helped the city avoid dipping into the general fund, eventually projects around the park will have to do the heavy lifting. 

Peter Dunn, Worcester's chief development officer, is optimistic the revenue stream is coming.

"One of the things that I think is really helpful with the ballpark is that it's really already done what we expected it to do, which is attract other development that wasn't even anticipated or even contemplated in 2018," Dunn said. "The sooner the better with a lot of different stuff, we'd like to see another building get under construction in 2023, and I think we're definitely optimistic that's going to happen."

But even if construction continues to be delayed next year, city leaders have some financial security when it comes to Madison Properties. The developer oversees five separate commercial and residential projects near the park, and even if they're not built on time, they'll eventually have to start paying the taxes. 

"The tax benefits for those projects are kind of tied to the timeline for those projects," Dunn said. "There's a motivation and an incentive for them to move in as quickly as they can because the benefits for them are greater the faster they move with those various pieces."

But Kane said over the course of a 30 year payment plan, there's likely going to be other setbacks which could jeopardize the goal of Polar Park paying for itself. 

"Everyone who's looked at the deal for us, with the exception of the person the city paid to tell them it's going to break even, said they don't think these things work out over time because you can have your projection, but over 30 years, things change," Kane said.

Dunn said he's not concerned about a handful of businesses leaving the Canal District in recent months because the interest is still there for new developers.