Florida governor signs bill, final hurdle for new Nats-Astros spring complex

The Nationals will be moving to a new spring training facility in West Palm Beach, likely in time for the 2017 Grapefruit League season.

Yesterday, Florida Gov. Rick Scott held a bill signing ceremony that will pave the way for the Nationals and Houston Astros to share a 160-acre facility at the corner of Haverhill Road and 45th Street. Barring any complications, the new complex will be ready in January 2017.

The Nationals and Astros previously agreed to a 30-year lease on the proposed facility.

The final hurdle for the project - projected to cost $135 million and be split between the teams, city and county - was for Scott to tweak existing laws dictating the amount of land needed as a buffer zone along the canals on the property, which feed the area's water supply. A bill allowing for the change passed both chambers of the Florida legislature in May and Scott signed it into law early last month.

That change freed up 27 acres that will be used for both parking and grass fields.

The City of West Palm Beach and Palm Beach County previously agreed on a land swap to make the land on the site of a former landfill available.

"Palm Beach County has worked hard to create a premier spring training destination here in South Florida, and today's bill signing moves us that much further towards our goal," Palm Beach County Mayor Shelley Vana said in a news release. "Together, with our partners, we welcome two more major league teams to Palm Beach County for a total of four teams, and I can't wait to see the first pitch get thrown at the new stadium."

Throw in the Mets in nearby Port St. Lucie and there will soon be five teams within a 30-minute drive. The Nationals had long sought to leave their current spring base at Space Coast Stadium in Viera, citing the fact that their closest competition was an hour-long, one-way drive to Kissimee in Osceola County, where the Astros currently train. Now, the two teams will be partners in a shared facility.

"Spring training and Major League Baseball are a major reason why Florida continues to welcome record numbers of tourists," Scott said in a news release. "Last year, almost 99 million people visited Florida - and we're on pace for even more visitors this year. With the Nationals and Astros announcing their spring training operations will remain in Florida for the next 30 years and the news that our state will host the MLB All-Star Game in 2017, it's clear that Florida is the number-one state for baseball in the country."

The Nationals have trained in Viera since the Expos moved from Montreal to D.C. before the 2005 season. The Lerner family has tried for the last handful of years to find a more suitable location to cut down on travel costs, at one point even suggesting that the team could move spring training to Arizona, where Cactus League clubs are clustered more closely together in the Phoenix area.

The Nationals had hoped to partner with the Astros on a new two-team complex in Kissimmee, but Osceola County officials showed little interest in luring a new team to central Florida, much less keeping the Astros there. The Nationals thought they had a deal in place to rehabilitate City of Palms Park in Fort Meyers, the former spring home of the Red Sox, which would have made them the third team in that city, joining the Red Sox and Twins. However, funds to make over the stadium could not be secured and a planned public/private partnership that would have spurred growth around the stadium evaporated.

The new facility in West Palm Beach will bring 160,000 to 220,000 visitors a year to Palm Beach County, according to estimates from the teams, and create an create an annual economic impact of $92.1 million to $128.6 million.