Rendering courtesy of Big Sports Properties
Update, July 9, 1:30 p.m.: Following the Hazelwood City Council's approval of the final terms and settlement between the St. Louis Outlet Mall and Big Sports Properties, the POWERplex Sports Resort development is now officially underway. Read more about the project below.
Original story:
"One of the best youth sports complexes in America." That's how Dan Buck foresees the plan for POWERplex, the space currently housing the basically empty St. Louis Outlet Mall, formerly St. Louis Mills. Hazelwood's City Council recently "unanimously approved" public support terms and refinancing plan for POWERplex, for which Buck is a managing partner. Not only could the megaplex be one of the biggest tourism attractions in Missouri, Buck says, but it has the potential to bring in over $250 million and 2.9 million visitors to the region annually.
"That doesn't include just the organic traffic that will come to the Cabela's—they already draw more than 400,000 guests a year," he says. "And that's not our calculations. We've done a lot of third-party studies, a lot of people who've looked at this and have said that based on the volume we can handle on the total number of courts and the total number of fields, 2.9 is a nice, safe, conservative number that we know we can hit."
The key to hitting that number is to remember the family, Buck says. "Whether that be the siblings, grandparents, or parents. Now we keep building bigger, better ballparks, but really not thinking about the total needs of the family." At POWERplex, that full-family entertainment looks like putt-putt golf, bumper boats, ice skating rinks, go-cart tracks, and an 18-theater cineplex, all of which Buck says the developers already have operators secured for.
What would a youth sports complex be without sports? The space will include nine beach volleyball courts—six of those indoors—22 regular volleyball courts; 10 pickleball courts (which will be rain forest–themed); three full-size NCAA basketball courts with five three-on-three courts; eight turf fields, three of which are indoor underneath a 120-foot-tall dome and the another inside a 2,200-seat stadium. The team is planning a second phase in 2021, Buck says, which will include a large dance and cheer competition zone along with 20 team dorm rooms that will have more than 400 beds.
PHOTOGRAPHY BY BYRON KERMAN
The POWERplex plan would turn the near-vacant St. Louis Outlet Mall, formerly St. Louis Mills, into a youth sports complex with the opportunity to bring int $250 million annually.
The developers first looked to vacant, wetlands, and farm fields near Chesterfield Athletic fields as a potential site. "We were facing over $12 million of just infrastructure work to get the sewer, the water, the gas lines under the highway to widen the roadways to improve the entrance ramps to be able to get just better egress in and out of the property," Buck says. With the St. Louis Outlet Mall, Buck says the team will have to do very little steel and concrete work. "A lot of this is just demolition, fixtures, furnishings, equipment, sports courts, lighting—and we're up and running."
Buck anticipates the structure will tap into a youth sports market St. Louis has yet to really compete in, comparing what the developers envision to resemble Grand Park in Westfield, Indiana, or Sports Force Parks in Sandusky, Ohio. "From a sheer infrastructure standpoint, it is a remarkable space to do something really special for the sports communities, not just in St. Louis but we know they'll travel here from a 12- to 14-state region each and every weekend."
Hastings + Chivetta architectural firm are to design the megaplex, with the overall plans and layout already developed. At press time Buck couldn't reveal retail or restaurant partners or project sponsors, but the team is planning an announcement for July 9. They also anticipate closing on August 30 with a partial opening by early 2020.
