Scheels Sports Park at Legacy Pointe remains on track to be fully operational by spring 2025 on Springfield's south side despite recent questions from City Council members about the way public money will flow to the project and the viability of private financing scheduled that will cover half of the total $67 million in costs.
The assurances about timelines and dollars came from Ryan McCrady, president and chief executive officer of the Springfield Sangamon Growth Alliance, a Springfield-based economic development organization.
"There is no delay in any of the financing," McCrady told Illinois Times. "There is no delay in the project."
McCrady spoke on behalf of Legacy Pointe Development, the Springfield-based private investor group working with the City Council to build the 95-acre sports park.
The park is expected to attract youth sports tournaments from across the country and host local sports practices and games. It is being built through a unique public-private partnership with a private financing from Legacy Pointe, hotel-motel taxes, city sales taxes and property tax incentives from units of local government including the city, Sangamon County and Springfield School District 186.
Public money hasn't been spent on project costs yet. But several City Council members raised concerns in November in response to a request from Legacy Pointe Development that the council authorize $1.4 million in spending on equipment for the site from hotel-motel tax revenues that had been accumulating since 2021.
Ward 2 Ald. Shawn Gregory said at the council's Nov. 14 committee-of-the-whole meeting that he thought the development agreement between the city and Legacy Pointe called for city funds to be spent only on infrastructure and not other project costs.
City Corporation Counsel Gregory Moredock said eligible project costs go beyond roads, sewers and related infrastructure, so the request from the developers was within the scope of the agreement.
Ward 3 Ald. Roy Williams said it appeared to him that Legacy Pointe was seeking the hotel-motel tax revenue now because the seven local banks planning to lend the developers money for the project "haven't signed off yet."
Williams has said he worries that the project won't benefit hotels and restaurants throughout the city as originally promised.
"We do a whole lot for this developer that we don't do for other developers," he told Illinois Times.
Williams said he was dismayed by what appeared to be a delay in financing from the banks. He said he was under the impression that the banks – the identities of which haven't been made public – were going to finalize their commitment to assist Legacy Pointe with financing shortly after a groundbreaking ceremony near Scheels on Sept. 20.
He said he wondered whether the banks' commitment to the project was wavering.
"Something's just not quite right for this project," Williams told the newspaper. "I want it to be a success. ... but the jury is still out."
However, McCrady said there's nothing irregular or unexpected about funding from the banks not being available yet or the developer requesting an advance on the $4.6 million in accumulated hotel-motel taxes.
"None of those items are unexpected," he said. "If the banks weren't committed to the project, we wouldn't have had a groundbreaking."
The $4.6 million has been collected since the council increased the hotel-motel tax citywide to 8% from 7% in October 2021. Twenty-five percent of the current hotel-motel tax is being set aside for sports complex construction costs.
An ordinance authorizing the city to spend all or part of the $4.6 million in initial city spending on the complex, including the $1.4 million for equipment, is needed because that spending authority wasn't part of the current fiscal 2024 budget passed by the council in February, McCrady said.
The council discussed the ordinance Nov. 14 and is expected to vote on it Dec. 19.
Money from the banks isn't needed by the developers yet, McCrady said. Drawing on funds that have been committed by the banks too soon would incur unnecessary interest charges, he said.
Val Yazell, director of Springfield's Office of Planning and Economic Development, said it appears all financing packages from the banks should be finalized by the end of the year.
Legacy Pointe Development partner Dirk McCormick issued a statement on the project's status, saying: "The financing process is moving forward as anticipated, with remaining approvals expected in the coming weeks. ... We broke ground on the Scheels sports park on Sept. 20, and shortly after that, crews began mass grading the land as that is the first step for this project. Because we are now into the winter, the mass grading work has paused and will resume in the spring. In the meantime, crews will begin working on the underground work as weather permits in the coming months."
The sports park's enclosed, 150,000-square-foot air structure – billed as the largest permanent inflated building of its kind in the world and allowing for year-round use – is expected to begin operating in late 2024, Yazell said.
The outdoor fields are expected to begin operating in spring 2025, she said.
Yazell told the council in November that the council soon will receive monthly updates on the flow of city money to the project and the need for future council votes on spending as the project progresses.
City officials are working to ensure that the city doesn't exceed its pledge to fund half of eligible project costs, she said.
The $1.4 million requested for equipment at the domed structure falls within the city's 50% commitment, Moredock said.
Dean Olsen is a senior staff writer at Illinois Times. He can be reached at [email protected], 217-679-7810 or twitter.com/DeanOlsenIT.
