After championing the project for 15 years, Watertown Town Supervisor Joel R. Bartlett’s effort is paying off with a planned $80 million event center off Route 3.
Mr. Bartlett and the Watertown Local Development Corp. are working with OVG Facilities, a $10 billion developer and operator of sports facilities around the world, a firm headed by Michael F. Sherman, former head coach and general manager of the Green Bay Packers, and Seahawks Hockey Premier Hockey Club, a hockey club and academy in Cape Cod.
The developers said they are moving ahead with the 520,000-square-foot multi-use indoor facility.
The Thousand Islands Event Center will provide state-of-the-art space for a complete range of sports, recreation, entertainment and special events serving the north country, the Thousand Islands and southern Ontario, the developers said.
“This might well put us finally on the map,” Mr. Bartlett said.
They are seeking $30 million in financing from the state.
Working with Upstate Strategic Advisors, a governmental affairs consultant, they’ll arrange a meeting in the next couple of weeks with Gov. Kathleen C. Hochul to secure state funding.
They’re confident that the state will come through with financial aid for the project they say will benefit the Thousand Islands tourism industry and the region’s economy.
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The group is projecting a Jan. 1, 2024, opening. They’re expecting groundbreaking to be later this summer or early fall.
Located near the Board of Cooperative Educational Services complex, the land is owned by the Watertown Local Development Corp., which will lease it to OVG Facilities and Mike Sherman Sports, or MS2, an athletics organization that he operates in Cape Cod.
Financing for the project also includes $15 million in private equity and $35 million in taxable bonding. Other funding would come from $5 million in naming rights and a capital campaign.
The events center will have two indoor turf fields, eight basketball courts, 16 volleyball courts, a 220-meter banked indoor track, two National Hockey League-quality sheets of ice and facilities for wrestling, gymnastics and pitching/batting cages.
Describing it as “a top-tier destination for year-round events,” the facility will bring people into the area, plus north country families will no longer have to drive a few hours away to sports tournaments for their children, the partners said.
They project that the facility will attract 250 event days and 305,884 patrons of which 93,554 will need to stay in local hotels.
They also project $142.5 million in visitor spending and $20.1 million in incremental lodging revenues over five years, with the need for an additional 327 hotel rooms in the region.
The event center is “ideally located” to serve a primary radius of 60 miles, a secondary market of 90 miles and people as far as 120 miles away, according to the developers.
The group envisions hosting college hockey tournaments with all of the nation’s top teams. The facility also will be used for the adult sports market.
The facility will also feature a 9,000-seat venue for sports, concerts, family shows and other live events. It will accommodate conventions, trade and consumer shows, exhibitions and other events.
The facility will employ 49 positions and 220 construction and short-term jobs.
The three partners are also working with Yaeger Architects, Lenexa, Kansas, on facility design; Arizona Building Systems, St. Louis, Missouri, for engineering; and Upstate Strategic Advisors, Buffalo, on governmental affairs.
