Ground broken on new Salt Lake Bees Stadium and South Jordan downtown

Oct 19, 2023, 7:11 PM | Updated: Jan 22, 2024, 9:42 am

State, city, and legislative leaders joined the Bees owners, the Larry H. Miller Group, for a ceremonial groundbreaking of the stadium on Thursday. (Lindsay Aerts, KSL NewsRadio)

(Lindsay Aerts, KSL NewsRadio)

BY LINDSAY AERTS

Former Anchor/Producer/Reporter

Tune in to Dave & Dujanovic at 10:20 a.m. to hear the latest in the future of the Smith’s Ballpark!

SOUTH JORDAN, Utah — The Salt Lake Bees are getting a new stadium. And it will anchor a brand-new downtown for the city of South Jordan.

State, city, and legislative leaders joined the Bees owners, the Larry H. Miller Group, for a ceremonial groundbreaking of the stadium on Thursday.

Here’s the moment state leaders and the @theLHMcompany broke ground on the new @SaltLakeBees stadium and downtown South Jordan hub.@kslnewsradio pic.twitter.com/cFMaF2ufj2

— Lindsay Aerts (@LindsayOnAir) October 19, 2023

The Bees new stadium site sits near the corner of Mountain View Corridor and South Jordan Parkway off of Grandville Avenue. LHM Group CEO Steve Starks also revealed the stadium will anchor the massive new America First Square. This will become home to downtown Daybreak.

The site will include a new LHM Megaplex theater and luxury bowling alley. It will also feature housing, shops, and restaurants, plus a new TRAX stop.

“[The site will include] 500 affordable and deeply affordable housing units, 16 acres of open space to go along with existing open space throughout Daybreak including Oquirrh Lake, 9,000 direct jobs, structured parking with street-level retail and dining, and connected trails between schools, neighborhoods, and recreational amenities like the new Bingham Creek Regional Park.” Starks said.

“I think the community is so excited about what this means for downtown Daybreak, the southwest side of the Salt Lake Valley, and really the state as a whole,” Starks said. “This is development done right.”

The hour-long ground-breaking ceremony included speeches from Starks and Gail Miller. Representatives from Major League Baseball and the Anaheim Angels were there. And Gov. Spencer Cox, Senate President Stuart Adams, and House Majority Leader Mike Schultz, among others.

Starks also announced that America First Credit Union has a naming rights partnership with the LHM Group, though Starks said a name for the new stadium has not been settled on.

‘In a nation full of arsonists we are in a room full of architects’ says Cox at new Bees stadium

The speeches included mention of the Millers’ leadership in creating this space, as well as the unity and collaboration that this development represents between city, state, and legislative leaders.

Gov. Cox gave a passionate speech about how he believes baseball can “save our country,” and how South Jordan and Daybreak now get to experience that.

Related: Mayors in SLC, South Jordan, discuss Bees baseball moving to Daybreak

“Baseball is slow … not as slow as it used to be,” he joked. “You come and you get to talk to your neighbor … and we have to be patient when we watch baseball because something amazing is going to happen but it takes time.”

Cox said that patience, moderation, and humility have been lost — and baseball requires that patience. It also, he said, connects generations and “gives us a different identity,”

“When we gather together at a baseball game, we’re no longer Republicans or Democrats, we’re not MAGA or woke, or anything else, we’re Bees fans, right?” he said.

“We’re Utahns. We’re Americans. Because this is America’s game.”

Follow @lindsayonair