FAYETTEVILLE -- With just about a year left to build a ballpark from the ground up, Fayetteville officials say local companies are coming through and construction is on track. 

The downtown stadium is set to be the home of the minor league team for the Houston Astros starting in spring of 2019.

Leaders say the goal is to get local workers to finish this hometown project.

"It's been a priority of the Council from the beginning that we use local contractors and small and disadvantaged business contractors, and that we make sure we build our local capacity to do this 30 million dollar project," said Mayor Mitch Colvin.

Barton Malow, the general contractor for the project, held several meetings recently to encourage locals to bid on the work.

"We've completed our bid package one contract bidding section," said Senior Project Manager Roslyn Henderson. "We have not released all of those contracts, but we are about 80 percent awarded. Currently out of that bid package, we have achieved a culmination of about 40 percent local and 40 percent SDBE (Small Disadvantaged Business Enterprise Contractors)."

There is some construction happening on the site right now, and project managers expect more to begin early next year.