ST. JOHNS, Fla. -- Potentially the biggest privately-funded indoor sports complex in North Florida is one step closer to breaking ground near the Duval and St. Johns County border line.
Project Family, as it reads on the St. Johns County Government docket of hearings, will be presented before the county commissioners on September 20. The project is seeking approval for the use of 42.3 acres of land to change from rural/silviculture to intensive commercial. If approved, it will allow for approximately 246,087 square feet of non-residential construction.
A huge portion of that buid-out will consist of an indoor sports facility costing roughly $25 million. This project is the brainchild of Northeast Florida real estate holdings company, Saint Johns Development Partners LLC.
Last week, the St. Johns County Planning and Zoning Agency unanimously voted in favor of the rezoning amendment the project is seeking. The large parcel of land, with a physical address of 5404 Racetrack Road, sits in the northern sector of the future Durbin Park development.
Lisa Davis, a UNF alumnus who is at the forefront of project development, says the idea for the facility was birthed out of a need for families to have a centralized location to bring their kids.
“It truly takes the entire family to shuffle them around from school to practice and everything else,” Davis said, referring to the logistical issues she has seen transporting her own nieces and nephews all over town. “They are all involved in gymnastics, pop warner, little league baseball, basketball, swimming, you name it. They are all in a different activity.”
The plan for Project Family, as it stands, places the 175,000 square foot indoor sports facility in St. Johns County on a parcel of land that is divided by the Duval County border to the north. According to Davis only around 22 acres of the total 42.3 will be developed as the rest is considered wetlands.
“We truly wanted this to be in St. Johns County,” Davis said. “There is huge growth there. That’s where we live. It’s close to a lot of our friends and the neighbors we were talking to and that our kids participate in sports with.”
While there isn’t much out there now, the northern part of St. Johns County has seen exponential growth over the past 10 years. The saturation of housing developments seen in Nocatee and St. Johns alone have prompted the construction of new roadways and fly-overs that connect major traffic routes to US-1, I-95 and the I-295 beltway via 9B.
Around 175,000 square feet of the projected 246,000 will be strictly designated for sporting activities that range from basketball and volleyball to football and gymnastics. In addition to numerous indoor courts and multi-use turf fields, there will be an elevated professional-length track that will circle the gymnasium floor below it.
Also, six batting cages and three pitching tunnels will accompany a full-sized baseball/softball infield for practicing base running and other strategies.
According to Davis, there will also be dedicated space for high intensity training, as well as a fitness center that gives parents the option to remotely view their kids practicing gymnastics or playing in a game. The facility will also provide child care services for parents who need it.
If that wasn’t enough, there is more. Davis is expecting to build a sports bar/restaurant inside the massive complex, where a family could sit down for dinner after a game. She related the layout of the restaurant to resemble something along the likes of a Chipotle Mexican Grill.
The construction of one massive structure is obviously required to house the amount of indoor sporting activities Saint Johns Development Partners is promising. The closest thing to an indoor complex of this size is the 100,000 square foot Jacksonville Ice & Sportsplex near Downtown. The one planned for in St. Johns County nearly doubles that.
Davis acknowledges that indoor sports facilities are more common in the northern states where inclement weather is a bigger factor, but she believes that the heat and rain here in Florida, especially during the summer months, is a good enough reason to build.
“You can still play football and things like that in the rain, but not lightening,” Davis said. “For an example, Pop Warner’s just kicking off, and they have to get so many hours in their helmet and conditioning before they can put pads on. Well, we got rained out the whole first week.”
The indoor complex will be membership based, according to Davis, and they are hoping local sporting clubs like Pop Warner will partner with them.
“We want the best volleyball club in Jacksonville to come and this be their home,” she said. “The best basketball academy and basketball leagues to partner with… partner with the schools, so we have afterschool activities that can come in and utilize the facility.”
Davis said she hopes people of all ages will come and utilize what the facility has to offer, but she expects that it will be most popular for people between the ages of 4-18. While they aren’t as big now, adult leagues are something she hopes will grow as a result of the indoor complex.
Having the ability to host a plethora of events all at one time and, more importantly, in one location, is something Davis thinks will allow them to go after tournaments on the national, state and local levels. With numerous hotel rooms and shopping centers scheduled to be built in Durbin Park within the next two years, the ability to attract families from all around Florida, seems plausible.
“I think it’s really something the city needs, the county needs and parents need,” Davis said. “The reason we are doing this is, I’ve been very fortunate in other ventures I’ve started and created, but it’s really about the family and bringing that family together.”
Tri-Co Construction Inc., a Jacksonville-based company, has been chosen as the general contractors who will spearhead the multi-million-dollar development aimed at breaking ground the first part of 2017. Davis says that SJDP plans to utilize as many local businesses and resources as possible in the construction process.
If all goes as planned, Davis says, a final vote should be reached by sometime in December. Before that happens though, the plans for rezoning the land will first have to be approved by the St. Johns County Board of Commissioners on September 20 and then finally, the State of Florida after that.
There are numerous obstacles like building permits, delinquent funding and required amendments that could stagnate the building process along the way, but Davis seems confident that the project will inevitably break ground on time.