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The city of Greenwood hopes to create a new athletics campus with a multi-use playing field, eight ball diamonds and a splash pad on 40 acres adjacent to Interstate 65.
The unnamed project—still in its early planning stages—would cost an estimated $8 million to develop over the next few years on a strip of vacant land northwest of the Worthsville Road and the I-65 interchange, on the city’s southeast side.
According to a site plan, the first phase calls for eight total softball or baseball diamonds (four 225-foot and four 300-foot fields), as well as a shelter, parking, batting cages, a playground that would accommodate children with special needs and a maintenance structure.
Phase two would feature a 240-foot-by-300-foot multi-use sports field for soccer, football and a variety of other sports, plus a splash pad, a second playground, a trail and restrooms.
Greenwood has partnered with Beech Grove-based Mader Design LLC to master-plan the site and will use a public bid process to find a developer to execute the city’s vision.
“We’re thinking late summer to fall that we’ll hopefully have the design package ready and put it out for bid,” Greenwood Mayor Mark Myers told IBJ. “We’re hoping in 2021 to start construction on the site.”
The land for the project was acquired by the city from the Indiana Department of Transportation in mid-2019 at no cost, because the city contributed about $12 million toward the Worthsville interchange project, Myers said.
The land is bordered on the west by Clark Pleasant Middle School and the Harvest Indy South church, with fields and a planned neighborhood to the north.
The mayor announced the development during his State of the City address Thursday, touting it as an opportunity for Greenwood to draw in families and central Indiana athletic teams for games, as well as competitions for travel teams.
“We’ve always had a large softball demand in our area for local teams, so this will help augment that,” Myers said. “At the same time, we know that we’re designing it so it’s big enough for travel teams that are passing through. It will be a good destination” for those types of competitions.
The mayor said the city is exploring the use of artificial turf for the fields, along with advanced water drainage systems—such systems are used at many recently-constructed facilities, including Grand Park in Westfield.
Myers said a firm date has not been determined for when the project might open to the public.
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