LaGrave Field sold to Cats ownership group for $4.5 million

LaGrave Field, home to the Fort Worth Cats minor league baseball team, was sold to an affiliate of the team’s ownership group Tuesday morning for $4.5 million. The transaction, conducted outside the Tarrant County courthouse during a foreclosure auction, will give the team a home “for a long, long time,” said John Bryant, managing partner of FW Stadium Group LLC, which bought the property. Bryant said he is also managing partner of the Cats. The 13.2-acre parcel sold includes the stadium and land immediately around the facility extending to Sixth Street on the south.

Former Cats owner Carl Bell built the stadium in 2002 and went on to accumulate 58 acres in the area, on which he planned a mixed-use development of residential, retail and office space. But after the economy weakened, Bell defaulted on a $12.5 million loan from Houston-based Amegy Bank earlier this year. Amegy had posted the facility twice previously but the foreclosure was withdrawn after talks were extended both times. Bryant said the ownership group, which bought the team from Bell in December 2011, wasn’t certain what the stadium’s ultimate sales price would be, but he said the $4.5 million was about what they expected “it might reasonably be because of previous negotiations.”

-- Jim Fuquay