The city of Macomb will wait for a state bond program to open and award projects before deciding whether to move ahead on development of an indoor sports complex.
“Right now, we have a substantial amount of data that says that it does work, but it requires something that we don’t have control over right now. And that’s a program at the state of Illinois level called the STAR Bonds program,” said Mayor Mike Inman.
Inman said as part of the program, there’s a competitive process for the bonds, geographically spread out across the state. He said the city’s consultant on the project, Sports Facilities Companies, believes STAR Bonds are essential to making the sports complex a reality.
“It would be a hard ‘yes’ if we get the authority to utilize STAR Bond programs to make this project work. It would be a hard ‘no’ if we don’t,” Inman said.
The mayor said the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity will open the application period for STAR bonds later this quarter. The deadline will be in June.
He said that will push back the timeline for the sports complex project by about six months, should the city decide to move ahead with it.
Inman: “We believe that the process needs to be followed through with due diligence, and that’s what we’re attempting to do.”
TSPR: “So you’re maybe in a little bit of a holding pattern?”
Inman: “Exactly. Good way to put it.”
The city believes the sports complex would attract youth sports tournaments and generate economic activity.
Inman said Sports Facilities was tasked with looking at a fairly large region — an area within a 240-minute drive of Macomb — to determine what sports could use facilities and make tournaments happen. He said their analysis identified volleyball and basketball.
Sports Facilities estimates a price tag of $58.4 million in development costs to build the facility.
The mayor said the city has talked about scaling back the seating so that the arena can hold up to 3,000 people instead of 4,000. That would be a cost-saving move, and no decision has been made on that.
STAR Bonds
STAR stands for sales tax and revenue bonds. They allow municipalities to finance major developments with government bonds up to $75 million and use sales tax revenue generated by the completed project to pay them back.
The Illinois bill does not allow the bonds to be used by professional sports teams, and the bonds come with some criteria attached:
- They require a capital investment of $30 million
- The project must generate least $60 million in annual gross sales
- The project must create 300 new jobs
“We still need to get in front of DCEO and sharpen our pencil and see where we’re at relative to those criteria,” Inman said.
The mayor hopes DCEO can give the city clear direction on whether it meets the criteria and can proceed.
He believes the city does meet the criteria.
Inman: “That’s our belief at this point, that’s our consultant’s belief, and that’s the way we’re proceeding for now.”
TSPR: “What is the projection on the number of jobs this will create?”
Inman: “We believe that the overall project — and remember, we’re talking about an economic development project here that’s not simply a sports complex, it’s all the retail and commercial development that comes along with that — we believe that we can meet those requirements.”
TSPR: “You don’t have a specific figure?”
Inman: “We do not, but believe we can fall within those guidelines.”
Family entertainment included in the plan
Inman emphasized that even though the complex is primarily designed to bring people into the community, it will also offer activities for local residents. He said the complex will include a 25,000 square foot family entertainment center.
“It gives the highest return on the square-foot investment of any part of the complex. We’ve seen a couple of, three iterations of what that might look like. And it’s fun, it attracts people,” Inman said.
The entertainment center would be available to residents and out-of-town visitors alike and could offer a variety of attractions.
“Think climbing wall. Think arcade games on steroids,” Inman said.
Sports Facilities said the facility could also include pickleball courts and space for a medical tenant to offer physical therapy, sports medicine, and more.
Macomb also initially looked at including an outdoor facility as a second phase of the project.
“But saw the price tag with that and thought that was a little much to bite off,” said Inman.
However, it might still be possible for Macomb to attract outdoor sports tournaments, and do it without making another large investment.
Veterans Park
When the Macomb Park District acquired the 80-acre Veterans Park in the early 2000s, the goal was to create a complex where youth baseball, softball, and soccer leagues could all be held in a single location.
Blake Severs did not work for the park district at the time. But now he’s the district’s executive director. He has reviewed the history of the park, and said the idea behind it was to help minimize travel for parents and to help minimize maintenance costs for the park district.
He said they’ve accomplished those goals.
“I feel like its initial purpose has come to fruition at this point, and every year we have a lot of success with those programs,” Severs said.
He said the influx of youth softball travel teams today has him interested in exploring the possibility of bringing in tournaments.
Severs believes the indoor sports complex will be a great asset to Macomb — if everything comes together — because it will bring people to the community. He said the park district could possibly piggyback off that and bring youth baseball, softball, and soccer tournaments to Macomb.
“We have the utility out there. We have everything in place, and it’s a great, functioning park. But utilizing that in the future definitely I think would be something that could really help Macomb and utilize what we’ve already got,” Severs said.
He’s all for using the park district’s fields as long as it’s feasible for the staff and financially feasible for the district. He does not see any competition between the sports that would be played at the indoor complex and what the park district can offer at Veterans Park.
Looking ahead
Inman said city leaders intend to have a “discussion with the general public” once they have more information from DCEO.
He said the sports complex is a complicated project and people deserve to know as much as possible about it.
“It would be easy to throw your hands up and say, ‘Oh no, let’s not do this!’ But we honestly believe, and we believe that we have the support of the council, that this is the right thing to pursue until we just can’t pursue it anymore,” Inman said.
He emphasized that property tax dollars and the city’s general fund revenues are not part of the equation. He said city leaders would not put the community at risk like that.
“If that was part of this equation, it would have been a hard no from the beginning,” Inman said.
He said the project will be funded through the money it generates through, for example, fees paid by developers and/or sales tax revenues raised within the city’s newly-created business development district.
“Those things would continue to pay the debt service even if the doors closed in five years,” Inman said.
A site has not been chosen, but the indoor sports complex will be located within the business development district.
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