Groundbreaking Ceremony Scheduled For Paul E. Joseph Stadium

A groundbreaking ceremony will be conducted for the reconstruction of the Paul E. Joseph Stadium, Terrence Martin Ball Field and construction of a permanent Carnival Village on Tuesday, Dec. 16 at 10 a.m. at the Paul E. Joseph Stadium Ball Field in Frederiksted. The announcement was made Wednesday by Commissioner St. Claire Williams of the Department of Sports, Parks and Recreation.

The facility’s design is expected to include a 3,500 seat baseball stadium with multi-use capabilities, 750-seat Little League Field, and a permanent St. Croix Christmas Carnival Village with 10 permanent vending booths and 10 permanent slab foundations equipped with power, water and sewer hookups for temporary vending booths.

“It has taken a long time to get to this point, but I am pleased that the project is ready to move forward as the developer, GEC, LLC, has been given their notice to proceed and enable St. Croix to have a state-of-the-art sports facility,” Commissioner Williams said.

In November, Gov. de Jongh signed a $20 million contract with St. Croix-based GEC, LLC for the revitalization of the stadium. The funds–which have been made available by bonding authorization approved by the Legislature in Act No. 7453 in 2012 and amended by Act No. 7663 in 2014–is being overseen by the Public Finance Authority.

Paul E. Joseph Stadium

Of the development, de Jongh said, “The reconstruction of the Paul E. Joseph Stadium will have a lasting effect on St. Croix and particularly Frederiksted. I believe that the sports complex will have a major economic impact on the island, as it is estimated that the new facility could attract up to 8o sanctioned events each year. I am so pleased that this project is finally going forward and it has been an initiative high on my agenda for several years now.”

The road to revitalizing the dilapidated stadium has been a long one.

In a separate proposal in 2012, which was eventually killed by Governor de Jongh, it was found that some of the stateside contractors with whom the Virgin Islands Government intended to do business had misrepresented their financial histories, business credentials, and industry connections, among other falsifications. A top executive at one of the companies is currently serving a three-and-a-half-year prison term in Texas for conspiracy to commit bank fraud in an unrelated project to the Paul E. Joseph Stadium.

In a previous report, Gov. de Jongh said his administration expects “a very aggressive use of local labor and of local purchases,” in the reconstruction of the stadium.