New Lenox hopes new regional sports complex attracts Midwest, national tournaments

New Lenox — The Village of New Lenox broke ground on a 100-acre sports complex Monday during a ceremony that also saw the facility’s name and logo unveiled for the first time.

The New Lenox Crossroads Sports Complex will complete construction of phase one in time for the 2025 baseball and softball season.

The Crossroads moniker was chosen to represent the location of the complex, which sits at the crossroad of Interstate 355 and Illinois Route 6 and is within a short drive of Interstates 80, 55, and 57, making the facility within a 20-minute drive of more than 600,000 Illinois residents.

“This is a great day for the village of New Lenox, and a great day regionally,” Mayor Tim Baldermann said.

The facility, which will feature 10 full-sized baseball fields that can be reconfigured into 29 youth fields as well as 12 soccer or lacrosse fields when it opens, is expected to draw not just local teams, but travel sports tournaments from around the Midwest and potentially from around the country.

“This is a premier project in the Midwest,” said Michael Kelly, executive vice president of Sports Facilities Companies, which is helping to develop the complex. “This will be the premier destination in the Midwest, I assure you. This facility will not only be a great amenity for New Lenox, but for everyone coming here to play and their families.”

In addition to the 1.5 million square feet of playing fields – which will be made with artificial turf to improve drainage and make playing easier after inclement weather – the Crossroads Sports Complex also will include a welcome center, restaurant and beer garden, three concession stands, a playground, and 15 batting cages when it opens in 2025.

The construction project, which is already underway by Northern Builders at the intersection of I-355 and Route 6, also includes a new mile of road and a 1,300-space parking lot as well as development space for a hotel and retail and restaurant space.

“A lot of people have come to us over the last 15 years with ideas to develop this land,” Baldermann said. “Originally it was going to be a million square feet of retail spaces, which I think we can all agree worked out with the state of retail today.

“We’ve had warehouses proposed for the site, and there’s a need for that. There is a lot of trucking and warehouse space in this area, but we did oppose it for this site. We have a hospital operating here and ambulances coming in and out, so we waited to find the right project.”

The new sports complex is directly across the street from Silver Cross Hospital, which Baldermann said was consulted about the development and approved of the project.

The outdoor sports facilities are expected to be complete by May 2025, and Baldermann expects at least some of the retail and restaurant space will be filled by then, although the hotel will likely open later.

Baldermann said the village is already in talks with hotel tenants for the space, and others are exploring options to develop 300 privately owned acres across Route 6 from the site.

“We’re not in competition with those developers,” he said. “It will all draw in tax revenue for the village, and we want them to bring in more businesses.”

The village owns the property where the sports complex is being built and is funding the project, although Baldermann emphasized that the development will not result in a tax increase for residents.

The village believes that the increased revenue from visitor taxes and the facility itself will cover the $100 million cost of the project.

Once more development is complete around the area, the village plans to create a second phase of the project, which will be a 122,000 square foot field house hosting basketball and volleyball courts. That facility would also be able to accommodate tournaments for multiple other sports including wrestling and pickleball and would have a similar goal of drawing in regional tournaments.

There is no immediate timetable on the construction of phase two.

It is unclear who will be playing at the facility when the first pitch is thrown out next spring, although Baldermann and Kelly said they are already working on drumming up business for the complex.

“We don’t subscribe to the ‘Field of Dreams’ theory of ‘if you build it, they will come,’” said Kelly. “You need to build it, and you need to market it for them to come, which is why we are going to be promoting the Crossroads at the Sports Events and Tourism Association Symposium in Portland, Oregon all this week.”

If the marketing plan successfully draws tournaments to New Lenox, the development is expected to have a $12 million economic impact in its first year, increasing to $20 million by its third year. After the completion of the field house, the Crossroads is anticipated to draw nearly half a million visitors annually from multiple states, with an annual economic impact of $34 million.