Port Wentworth City Council unanimously approved a development agreement with the Savannah Ghost Pirates and Port Wentworth Development Authority for a new training facility.
In April 2023, the Ghost Pirates announced plans to construct the $25 million, 90,000 square-foot facility in Port Wentworth’s planned 150-acre recreation complex, which will be at the corner of Monteith Road and Interstate 95, and signed a letter of intent the same month. The groundbreaking for the facility will be in March 2024 and construction is expected to be complete in the summer of 2025.
The 58-page document expands on the letter of intent signed by the Ghost Pirates and Port Wentworth in April 2023, laying out all the mechanisms by which the city, the Ghost Pirates and the Port Wentworth Development Authority will operate under the agreement.
Some of the city’s obligations in the letter of intent include:
- Constructing and maintaining joint parking for the facility
- Waiving development and permit fees to the fullest extent possible
- Bringing utilities to the site
- Working with the DMO to provide billboard signage along I-95
- Providing the team financing for the facility, up to $6.5 million in the form of a loan, 35% of the cost of the facility’s design, construction, fixes, furniture and equipment
- Providing the team with a $1 million grant, upon issuance of certificate of occupancy
- Will contribute a total of $1 million by coordinating with the team to achieve a minimum of $100,000 in sponsorships and supporting partners for the team and the facility each year for the next 10 years.
- Transferring the title of the land to the team, on or before the facility is issued a certificate of occupancy.