'Field of Dreams' movie site sold

• Tweet

DUBUQUE, Iowa, Jan. 2 (UPI) -- Investors have completed the purchase of the Iowa baseball field from the movie "Field of Dreams" and say they plan to add 24 more ball fields to the facility.

Go the Distance Baseball LLC -- a group led by Denise Stillman and her husband Mike that includes baseball Hall of Famer Wade Boggs -- closed the sale on the 193-acre property last week for $3.4 million plus interest, the Chicago Tribune reported Wednesday.

The Stillmans -- who saw the 1989 Kevin Costner film on one of their first dates together -- began in July 2010 to try to buy the field and farmhouse made famous in the Oscar-nominated film, the newspaper said.

Denise Stillman, president and chief executive officer of the company, said plans call for preserving the existing facility and adding 12 baseball fields and 60 clubhouses as part of an All-Star Ballpark Heaven to open in 2014, and the number of fields and clubhouses doubling by 2017.

Construction is to begin this spring.

"We've got that big milestone under our belt now, and we're just getting into the business of opening the (site)," she said.

Of more immediate concern is getting the site ready for the tourist season beginning April 1, the Tribune said. An estimated 65,000 visit the site each year.

The sale had been held up in part by a court challenge brought by neighbors who opposed the expansion, The Des Moines (Iowa) Register said.