Wichita City Council approves developer for new stadium

The Wichita City Council has approved a developer for the new AAA baseball stadium.

The council at its meeting Tuesday voted unanimously to give the design job to the DLR Group with construction by JE Dunn.

The city wants the project done by spring of 2020 - in time for the Babycakes' first season in Wichita.

The team is expected to get a new, more Wichita-centric name.

Also at Tuesday's council meeting, more questions were answered about the new-stadium. Besides an answer to who's going to build the new stadium, the council got a better idea about what's likely going to happen with McLean Boulevard.

The design build team for the stadium project has a tight deadline to have the facility ready for its new team by April 2020.

"We have started meetings with the city, will continue to meet with them next Wednesday," says Scott Sherry with JE Dunn Construction. "One of the first things we need to do is site the ballpark, locate where home plate is going to be."

Sherry, JE Dunn Vice President, says the design builder plan to break ground on the new stadium in mid February.

One part of the project many want more information about is whether McLean Boulevard will still be in front of the stadium as it currently is at the site for the recently-demolished Lawrence-Dumont Stadium.

Don Barnum, Principal with the DLR Group, says he anticipates that McLean will continue to run all the way from north to south, but it's also anticipated to become a more "pedestrian-friendly environment as it passes through, rather than the high speed traffic-way that it is right now."

With this, Barnum says it's possible McLean could close down on game days.

"But we think it will be reduced from the two lanes each way potentially down to one lane each way, and slow the traffic down," he says. "Because of the development on either side, we don't want traffic passing through there fast."

Developers say to make it easier for people walking around the project, a private developer will build retail and entertainment venues on either side of McLean.