At a meeting of the Elmhurst Park Board on Monday, Sept. 23, Commissioners approved a contract to purchase a 16-acre site located at 837 Riverside Drive as the potential home of a new indoor sports facility as part of Vision 2020. The purchase price is $15 million, and the contract is contingent on a successful March 2020 referendum. Park District staff will now begin the due diligence process.
The property located at the intersection of Route 83 and Riverside Drive, also known as the Kieft Brothers property, is 16.4 acres divisible over two adjacent lots. It is a rare opportunity to acquire a site of this size within the District’s boundaries. Zoning for the property already allows for a recreation building or community center, and the site is ideally sized and situated to function as the location for an indoor sports facility. The parcel will have little to no impact on neighboring properties, consisting of commercial property and no residential homes.
Based on the Vision 2020 Plan, the community wants more indoor sports space including a walking track, turf fields, and gymnasiums with hardwood courts. A market feasibility study completed in 2016 and updated earlier this year indicates strong demand for this type of facility to serve both local and non-local users. In a recent community survey conducted by the Park District, 75% of respondents were “very” or “somewhat” supportive of developing an indoor turf facility and 72% were supportive of developing an indoor gymnasium facility while 64% of respondents were supportive of an indoor sports facility in general. Currently the Elmhurst Park District does not have any gymnasium space, and there are no indoor turf fields within the community requiring residents to look elsewhere for those facilities.
The proposed indoor sports facility is proposed to be approximately 161,500 square feet with a walking track, two turf fields and six hard court basketball courts that could be converted to 12 volleyball courts and pickle ball courts. To learn more about the project and to view the presentation from the August 12 board meeting on the indoor sports facility, please visit vision2020.epd.org.
For more information, call (630) 993-8900 or visit epd.org.
