Fifteen hours after the Westfield City Council approved the indoor soccer facility, another major announcement designed to make Grand Park a year-round destination and offer a broader range of sporting activities was made.
On Sept. 23, the city said a group of local investors have committed to develop a 56,000-square-foot indoor facility for basketball and volleyball worth an estimated $6 million. The new facility, called Grand Park Fieldhouse, will feature six full-sized courts with locker rooms, offices and a café focused on healthy eating options. Sand volleyball courts also are being considered.
“Since March when we opened and there was still ice on these ponds, I would quite occasionally get the question, ‘Andy, you are very unHoosier for you do not have the presence of Indiana’s icon sport of basketball.’ I said, ‘Be patient, very soon some wise folks from the private sector will help us fill that void,’” Mayor Andy Cook said.
Officials said strong demand has been forecasted for this type of basketball and volleyball facility from the local area and across the nation for leagues, camps and tournaments. The investor group developing Grand Park Fieldhouse includes entrepreneur Andy Card and other local investors.
“Without the mayor and Henke Development Group this project wouldn’t have gotten off the ground,” said Card, founder of Grand Park Fieldhouse.
Card said the idea started a year ago after a basketball game on a napkin at a Mexican restaurant.
“I was sitting there, talking about doing this and Clint Cushman from Henke Group said, ‘I’ve got a guy that I’m telling you this was meant to be, you and I had dinner.’ So we continued to ignore the other 12 people at the table for the next two hours drawing on the tablecloth and napkins and he’s texting people. Ever since then it’s just gained a lot of momentum.”
The fieldhouse will be east of Grand Park Parking Lot G. In addition to hosting basketball and volleyball events, the fieldhouse is in negotiations with a third-party sports rehabilitation company, which will allow athletes of all sports to utilize the facility.
“Our intention is to make it the cutting edge indoor basketball, volleyball facility in the Midwest to go along with the Westfield Sports Complex here, which is known nationally for its quality,” Card said. “Putting this fieldhouse here in Westfield is going to get some young men and women I believe opportunities they may not have ever had … It helps them have a place to go, play and tone up their athletics and be at a place where good things are happening with good role models.”
Rodney Sinn will be vice president of operations of the fieldhouse.
“It’s a dream come true to run a facility like this,” he said. “We’re excited about bringing our family here to Westfield. We’re excited as Andy said to have a top-notch facility. We’re not trying to reinvent the wheel; we’re just excited to make the thing roll a whole lot better.”
It is estimated that the fieldhouse will create 100 jobs and bring tens of millions into the local economy. The facility has a tentative groundbreaking date of April and an opening date of January 2016. It will begin its zoning application during the next several months.
Cook said resident should expect to see other announcements on the vacant land adjacent to Grand Park come soon, including a hotel.
“What this tells us is the financial plan for Grand Park is working and working well. What we set out to do was invest in this public entity with the goal of creating a very unique and very profitable environment in which the private sector can join us in this investment. And this announcement today just begins to put a huge exclamation point on that theory.”
With 800,000 visits since the opening, Steve Henke of Henke Development Group said there is more interest from hotels and restaurants to come to Westfield.
“The development coming into this area is absolutely incredible,” Henke said. “We are really, really excited about this development.”
