Dave D’Marko Posted: Apr 8, 2022
PARKVILLE, Mo. — A real life “if you build it they will come,” appears to be playing it in the Northland.
On the same day many MLB cities had their opening day, so did Parkville, Missouri, as it opened its first 92 room hotel, in front of Creekside Baseball Complex. “This is opening day for Parkville , so we are pretty excited about it,” Ed Linnebur, Parkville Economic Development Council Executive Director, said inside Creekside Hotel.
The 6 half-artificial half-natural grass fields might look different than major league stadiums, but Creekside Baseball Park had more visitors than a half dozen major league teams last year, with a million fans and players coming from 19 states.
“A team is going to travel from Minnesota they may play one game in a day that’s a lot of hours that they aren’t playing baseball so what can they do outside of the park,” Ty White, Creekside Baseball Complex Director of Operations said.
Johnny’s Tavern is one of more than a dozen businesses that have opened since the baseball complex hosted its first tournament at a difficult time, March 2020.
“When they developed that baseball field that’s really what brought everybody here.” Johnny’s Managing Partner Tim Moore said.
There are also 800 apartments, townhomes and single family homes with people already living in them in several new Creekside communities along I-435 and 45 Highway.
“I’d say we’re another 2-3 years until we are fully built out,” Brian Mertz, developer of the nearly 300 acre, $300 million Creekside, said.
For the hotel, there’s a million reasons not to worry about occupancy, because of the development city planners call a home run. 76 teams will be playing in this weekend’s tournament alone.
“We’re sold out this weekend its going to be a huge weekend normally on an opening you wouldn’t sell out right away,” Beth Wilson, Regional Field Support Manager for Creekside Hotel, said.
Read the full article from Fox4 here.
