NEW HAVEN — Times change. Communities change. Plans change. And names change.
All of those things are true for the city of New Haven, which broke ground Aug. 8 on the New Haven District, which the city plans as the home for a youth sports fieldhouse, hotels, tourism bureau, dining options and more.
Mayor Steve McMichael, alongside Andy Card, founder and CEO of developer Card & Associates, and partners in the public-private partnership turned dirt to signify the start of what is now the New Haven District, 3800 Minnich Road.
The first piece will be the $31 million fieldhouse and infrastructure construction. The 140,000-square-foot fieldhouse will include five basketball courts that can turn into 10 volleyball courts. An additional 65,000 square feet of indoor turf can be used for additional sports and can be used for alternate purposes.
Digging should begin in 2-3 months with roads and sewers being added simultaneously, Andy Card said.
The first tenant will be Parkview Sports Medicine (PSM), which offers services such as athletic rehabilitation, orthopedics, sports nutrition, performance training and more.
Plans date to 2021 when the city was working with Grace Gathering to build baseball fields, and more recently, a fieldhouse on the church’s property at 3157 Minnich Road. The church’s elders said online that it planned to sell 12 acres for the first phase, which was the fieldhouse.
“Card & Associates (the developer) and the City of New Haven recently informed us that they have decided to develop the fieldhouse on a nearby city-owned property. Therefore, the ‘Fields of Grace project,’ as previously communicated, is not moving forward, and Grace Gathering will retain full ownership of our entire 84 acres.”
Asked if Grace Gathering no longer has a role in the project, McMichael took time before carefully answering, “As of this point, Card and Grace continue to have conversations about the best use of their property is.”
Card & Associates has experience with creating youth sports facilities, and plans for New Haven’s are nearly identical to one it built in Noblesville, Andy Card said.
Check back later here and in Aug. 15’s Greater Fort Wayne Business Weekly for more details on the project.