Kelly Automotive Park is officially under new ownership.

The city Parks Recreation Grounds and Facilities Authority on Monday closed its deal to buy the ballpark from Dollar Bank for $300,000.

The authority, commonly called the stadium authority, took over ownership of the park from the city redevelopment authority, which could not pay its mortgage on the property.

Nick Ban, chairman of the stadium authority, is confident his board will be able to make the payments.

“Our offer was based on real world numbers,” he said.

The authority will pay about $3,300 per month on the mortgage.

“That’s better than the $13,000 monthly payment for the original mortgage,” Ban said.

The stadium authority, which was created to manage the park, used a bond issue from NexTier Bank to finance the purchase. It is to be paid off in 10 years, although there is no penalty for paying it early.

“NexTier stepped up to the proverbial plate to enable us to keep this a community asset,” Ban said.

The stadium authority had been working with Dollar Bank throughout the summer to reach an agreement to buy the property.

The city redevelopment authority owed more than $1.6 million on the park to the group of banks that held the mortgage and hundreds of thousands more to other bond holders. That authority defaulted on its mortgage in January and has been unable to make payments this year.

The previous debt was wiped away with the new deal, as the USDA had guaranteed most of the original financing used in 2007 to renovate the stadium, formerly called Pullman Park.

Ban said he was happy to see the deal finalized.

“There was a lot of negotiating back and forth,” he said. “In the end it worked out well in the city’s favor.”

Ban said the authority now can turn its attention to maintenance on the park and a project that will be add a second tier of outfield signs.

“We had to turn a few folks away this past year because we ran out of fence space,” Ban said.

Ban thanked the community and businesses for their support of the park, and said the authority board worked well together as a team to get the deal done.

“It was a group effort,” he said. “We are in a much better position than we were this time last year.”