Dowdle simply has more sway than anyone over whether Polar Park pays for itself as city officials maintain, and whether the ballpark can spur a revitalization of the surrounding neighborhood.
Madison Properties first proposed in 2018 a mixed-use development with hundreds of thousands of square feet of offices, apartments, hotel rooms and retail – enough to imagine a nearly completely remade Canal District. Economic conditions haven’t helped, and the project has been downsized slightly and delayed by a few years. Nonetheless, Dowdle, whose firm hasn’t built a project of this scale before, remains a kingmaker of sorts who almost singlehandedly can make the ballpark a financial success for the city, or not.
