New Lenox plans multi-sports complex along I-355

New Lenox plans to build a 90-acre sports complex off Interstate 355, a project the mayor said should make the village a destination point while also attracting private development preferred over warehouses.

Calling the land a “premier location in Will County,” Mayor Tim Baldermann repeatedly said at a press conference last week and in an interview Monday that village officials did not want to see warehouses and truck terminals built there.

Instead, the village will build a complex aimed at attracting the growing business of youth travel sports with a vision that restaurants, hotels and retail will come as well.

The complex, located just east of Silver Cross Hospital, will include eight baseball fields, five soccer fields, a 50,000-square-foot field house for indoor sports, a pool for competitive swimming and family outings, and a 10,000-square-foot clubhouse.

The village will pay $8.2 million for 103 acres of land. Development of the multi-sports complex is expected to cost between $45 and $50 million.

New Lenox plans to sell 10 acres of the site to private developers of restaurants, retail and hotels that otherwise were not coming to the site, Baldermann said.

“What we’ve been getting calls for over the years is for warehouses and truck terminals,” the mayor said. “If you go up and down I-355, that’s all you see. We didn’t want that, especially not next to a Top 100 hospital.”

The “Top 100″ is a reference to Silver Cross Hospital’s appearance on a Fortune/Merative Top 100 Hospitals list for 10 years in a row.

Baldermann said the village expects private development on the 10 acres and the tax revenue it brings to fund the costs of developing the sports complex. He noted there are hundreds of acres available in the area for more retail, restaurants and hotels.

The village had expected the area to be developed with retail, restaurants and hotels when I-355 was built. But the 2008 recession put a damper on retail development, leaving the site open to the probability of warehouse development without New Lenox stepping in, Baldermann said.

Restaurants and hotel developers are interested in the location, he said. But they need a bigger draw to supply customers before they come.

“We had to be the ones to make it happen,” Baldermann said. “If you’re going to make your community thrive, sometimes you have to take these steps.”

Baldermann expects the multi-sports complex to thrive, saying there’s nothing like it within 100 miles and teams need such locations to play and practice. A similar facility in Rantoul has a three-year waiting list for tournament play, he said.

Since a Friday announcement of the project, the village already has begun to hear from teams that want to play there and hotel developers who want to build there, Baldermann said.

The village has the money to pay for the project in its reserve funds, which can cover 13 months of village operations if all other revenue would stop. Baldermann said. New Lenox will continue its practice of rebating the entire village share of property taxes back to taxpayers.

Development along I-355 has not been exclusively warehouses, said Doug Pryor, chief executive officer for the Will County Center for Economic Development.

Pryor pointed to Lockport, where a Holiday Inn Express, apartment complex and Walmart-anchored shopping center all feed off of easy access to I-355.

Still, Pryor said he understand the New Lenox concern about bringing the right kind of development to its spot along the interstate and around Silver Cross Hospital.

“That area in New Lenox is a premier destination,” Pryor said. “Silver Cross continues to grow and expand.”