LOVES PARK — Aviators Stadium, the home of the Rockford Aviators professional baseball club, will be up for sale at auction this spring.

The potential sale won't affect the Aviators' upcoming season.

The 3,279-seat stadium at 4503 Interstate Blvd. is owned by Northside Community Bank of Gurnee. It can host crowds of more than 4,000 because of its suite area, VIP boxes, group areas and right-field deck branded the Budweiser Party Porch.

The auction will be run by Chicago-based auction firm Rick Levin & Associates Inc., whose credits include auctioning Chicago's former Main Post Office building for$40 million in 2009. The auction will be conducted online at ricklevin.com from March 25 to April 2. Interested buyers can inspect the site from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.March 19 and 27.

"This is a very unusual, hard-to-value asset," Levin said. "We think it's a great opportunity for an entrepreneur who wants to make a significant contribution to the metropolitan area."

The opening bid for the property will be $1.5 million. The stadium was completed in 2006 and to replicate it today would cost more than $8 million, which Levin said was a "ballpark" figure, pardoning his own pun.

The stadium is fit for multiple sports and alternative uses such as concerts or other specialty events, Levin said.

"With interest rates so low and the stock market so high, what a great time it is to diversify into a property that you can buy for a lot less than it would cost to replicate," Levin said.

The bank took ownership of the property through foreclosure. It was owed about $4.6 million on a $4.7 mortgage, according to a February 2012 foreclosure casecited in Register Star archives. The July 2005 building permit pegged construction costs at roughly $4 million, according to information on the Rockford Township Assessor's website. Tax assessor's determined the fair market value to be about $1.15 million in 2013.