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A ballpark is going up in Hillsboro, fit for the minor league Hops baseball team.

The stadium is under construction, with substantial completion expected in December 鈥� well ahead of opening day for the 2026 baseball season.

During a recent visit by the 91视频, a towering NessCampbell crane was flying in beams for the roof structure. The stands were discernible, as was the outfield wall. Four orange cones marked the future location of home plate, where Arizona Diamondbacks prospects will tally runs.

Construction of the $120 million project, with oversight by design-build contractor Mortenson, has proceeded apace without incident. About 80 workers are on site each day. That number will increase to about 150 at the peak of construction.

鈥淓verything is trending in a very good direction, both schedule and budget,鈥� said Jake Tonnessen, senior project manager for Mortenson. The structure is scheduled to top out on March 7.

To most fans, the stadium may not look markedly different from the existing Hops ballpark, which was completed in 2013. Perhaps the biggest change for baseball fans will be a long bank of glassed-in luxury seating at the second level. The premium club will hold about 500 fans, out of 6,000 total seating capacity for baseball.

The artificial turf playing surface will sit 8 feet below the stands in a bowl. Besides regular seats, fans will also have access to a party deck and a grass berm beyond the outfield wall.

Many of the upgrades compared to the existing stadium are to player facilities that will not be readily visible to average fans.

Indoor batting tunnels will have 16-foot heights that meet Major League Baseball standards. The stadium will have a weight room, expanded clubhouses and facilities for men and women umpires and coaches (The Hops had the first female manager in high Single-A when Ronnie Gajownik was promoted to the role in 2023. She was most recently a coach with the Arizona Diamondbacks鈥� Double-A franchise in Amarillo, Texas).

鈥淭he player development spaces is really what drove the project, and (player development space) is roughly double what they have now,鈥� Tonnessen said.

The Hops ballpark is part of a nationwide wave of minor league stadium construction that was set off by MLB鈥檚 imposition of Professional Development League standards. In 2021, MLB shrunk the minor leagues by 40 teams, and told remaining team owners to meet stringent facilities standards.

Some teams renovated existing stadiums, while others started from scratch. The Hops鈥� ownership group, led by President Mike McMurray, opted to build anew instead of renovating a stadium that was then less than a decade old.

The Hops engaged SRG + CannonDesign and Populous, a Kansas City, Missouri-based architecture firm that specializes in sports stadiums, to help design the ballpark.

The Hops鈥� ownership group 鈥� roughly 30 investors organized as Short Season, a limited liability company 鈥� is providing the bulk of the funding ($82 million). The Oregon Legislature approved allocation of $15 million, and the rest of the cost is being covered by a mix of Hillsboro, Washington County and Explore Tualatin Valley contributions. The ballpark will be owned by the city of Hillsboro.

The stadium will have artificial turf except for clay around the pitcher鈥檚 mound and home plate.

An access point on the third-base side will allow trailers inside the structure, enabling the stadium to host concerts and other major events.

Construction has been aided by the design-build contract, Tonnessen said. The contract has allowed Mortenson to purchase and store electrical switch gear and an elevator before they were needed, avoiding the materials delays that have hit other projects.

鈥淔ortunately,鈥� Tonnessen said, 鈥渨e were able to get ahead of it.鈥�