Billionaire businessman Stefan Soloviev's team believes a renovated McCoy Stadium can co-exist with a new public high school – and is ready to spend $40 million to make it happen.

Soloviev Group representatives earlier this month briefed Pawtucket city and school officials on quotes from two local construction companies to fix up McCoy so it could be used as a multipurpose field capable of hosting a wide range of sports teams, including those of a new high school.

The Zoom meeting and a letter outlining a $40-million offer from the Soloviev Group's charity to the city came a few days after the City Council voted to hand control of the McCoy Stadium property over to the School Committee so it could begin work planning a new high school on it.

Is the Pawtucket School Committee interested in saving McCoy Stadium?

At that point, the schools had not shown much interest in trying to determine if building a new school while preserving the stadium would be beneficial or feasible.

The architect for the schools told School Committee members at the end of October that the school design proposed to the state Department of Education would not work with McCoy Stadium still standing and he had not studied whether another configuration could work.

Even if it did fit, school officials said they had concerns about security and whether an old ballpark can accommodate high school football and track.

Soloviev Group says design would accommodate school and McCoy Stadium

But Michael Hershman, CEO of the Soloviev Group, said the organization's designers told them a school could fit on the site without knocking the stadium down.

"We would envision the high school being built around the stadium," Hershman said Tuesday. "In our discussions, we were shown several options for building the school, including one that would allow for McCoy Stadium to be operational."

Soloviev proposes creating a nonprofit agency to own and operate the renovated stadium, governed by a board appointed by the city.

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As for who would cover ongoing maintenance and operating costs of the building, Hershman said Soloviev would be "open" to discussions around future funding.

"We don’t believe this is a huge moneymaker," Hershman said. "There isn't much in terms of profitability, but we think there are ways to cover the costs by events."

Two Warwick construction firms, D'Ambra Construction and Ahlborg Construction, developed the $37.8-million estimate for renovating McCoy Stadium.

"In addition to the renovation budget as outlined in the attachment, we would add additional funds to create a multiuse facility to accommodate high school sports," Hershman wrote in a Nov. 2 letter to Pawtucket Mayor Donald Grebien.

He confirmed that making the stadium multiuse and all-season would require moving from grass to artificial turf. But other than that, and moving some stands around to allow football, the Soloviev Group hopes to preserve McCoy as much as possible.

Who is Stefan Soloviev?

Soloviev, who runs a family ranching, farming, railroad and real estate empire, attended URI and gave $3 million to help the school build a new basketball practice facility.

He first dangled the idea of saving McCoy in July, but it remains difficult to tell whether the idea has legs.

After receiving Hershman's letter, Grebien and City Council President Terrence Mercer wrote to the School Committee asking that it take a look at the Soloviev proposal, but ultimately laying the issue at their feet.

"As you are intimately aware, the process towards our unified high school is well underway, and if this dialogue does not take place in the near future, there is the potential missed opportunity for both the city and Soloviev Group," Grebien and Mercer wrote. "Now that some tangible information has been added to this ongoing conversation, we are hopeful it may inform your ongoing process."

School Committee member Joanne Bonollo on Wednesday said the Soloviev offer raises new questions, including whether the state Department of Education, which is expected to fund more than 90% of the cost of the new high school, would accept a new concept designed around accommodating a World War II-era minor league ballpark.

She said the School Committee has already gone out to bid for a project manager on the high school and is about to look for an architect.

Now that the Soloviev Group has made a more substantial proposal, the School Committee will have to discuss the idea collectively and decide what to do, she said.

As for her personal thoughts on preserving the stadium, Bonollo said all of her focus is on getting a new high school built and she is heading warnings from architect Jonathan Levy that the ballpark won't fit.

Pawtucket expects the Department of Education to approve their application for funding a new high school sometime next month. Once that happens, the city will have five years to complete it to qualify for maximum reimbursement.

The Department of Education has declined to provide The Journal a copy of Pawtucket's application, saying it is not public.

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Will McCoy Stadium be saved? Billionaire Soloviev still offering.