Nothing beats a nice warm winter to quicken the pace of Ohio’s most visible construction project, the building of the $500 million Hall of Fame Village at the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton.
The hall, developer and other notables on Thursday celebrated a “topping off” ceremony to mark a significant phase, the building of new north stands at Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium. Demolition of the old stands at the former Fawcett Stadium started in September.
The initial phase of what is a multiyear project is a couple of weeks ahead of schedule and on track to be finished in time for the annual induction ceremony and the Aug. 7 NFL Hall of Fame game. A warmer-than-normal winter helped the estimated 100 construction workers on site get their work done sooner than planned.
The topping-off ceremony — originally scheduled for late April — featured a crane placing the final 8,000-pound section of stand seating, topped with a small evergreen tree, in the last row of the newly built area.
The Hall of Fame Village will be a major economic engine for Canton, Mayor Thomas Bernabei said.
“It will be exciting when the next phase starts,” he said. “I think we will have a great, great summer in Canton, Ohio.”
Dave Baker, president of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, said this initial work is, in football terminology, taking place at best early in the first quarter of a game.
“You want to celebrate these milestones,” he said. “It’s a pretty good touchdown.”
Baker ticked off a list of remaining work to be done in time for the this year’s induction program: a retaining wall, new stadium light poles and also painting.
New synthetic turf — actually turf taken up from the Superdome in New Orleans — is scheduled to be installed May 16, Baker said.
Once complete, the stadium will actually be a small-venue NFL stadium designed to host other entertainment such as musical acts, he said.
The second part of the two-year stadium work will begin Aug. 8, the day after the 2016 Hall of Fame Game between the Indianapolis Colts and Green Bay Packers is played.
“The best is still ahead,” Baker said.
The Hall of Fame Village will include the museum, stadium, a hotel and conference center, Legends Landing residential village, a youth sports complex, a Center for Excellence, restaurants and retail, and a high-tech “HOF/NFL Family Experience” virtual reality venue and rides.
The goal is to have much of the project finished in time for the NFL’s 100th anniversary in 2019; the league was founded in Canton. The hall of fame is hoping to host the NFL Draft as part of the 100th anniversary celebration.
The next project phase that starts in August will involve perhaps five times as many people than who are currently working, said Don Taylor, head of Welty Building Co., which is building the project. (He is the husband of Ohio Lt. Gov. Mary Taylor.)
“The hall of fame project is the largest, most high profile project in the state of Ohio,” Taylor said. “You don’t get bigger than the NFL.”
Developer Stu Lichter of California-based Industrial Realty Group, whose firm owns significant properties in Northeast Ohio, pitched the village concept to the NFL in 2014.
Dave Kirven, head of the East Central Ohio Building & Construction Trades Council, said the union workers building the stadium and who will work on the rest of the project are looking to give back to the community. He noted that the workers were outside throughout the winter, in all kinds of weather.
“This stadium we are building is a tribute to these guys,” he said. “This is a once-in-a-lifetime deal for any community.”
Jim Mackinnon can be reached at 330-996-3544 or jmackinnon@thebeaconjournal.com. Follow him @JimMackinnonABJ on Twitter or www.facebook.com/JimMackinnonABJ.