02 - September 2023

We serve municipal leaders of communities large and small by bringing together the intersection of tourism, economic development, amateur sports, and recreation in a way that no one else does. We bring private-sector innovation to government leaders to help protect and secure the future of sport, recreation, and tourism in America.

Editor in Chief

Ashley Whittaker

Feature Editor

Johnny Crosskey

Digital Editor

Johnny Crosskey

Assistant Editors

Andrea Brown

Ali Yenchick

Contributing Writers

Ashley Whittaker

Johnny Crosskey

Michael LoRé

Judy Leand

Tyler Williams

Joey Johnston

Advertising Inquiries

Creative Team

Tristan Makaroff

Makenna Parks

Research Coordinator

Cameron Connelly

Website Manager

Stephen Shafii

Playmakers,

The moment scissors meet ribbon on a new development project is a significant one for a diverse set of people. For developers, it’s a new project, a new portfolio piece, and a new revenue opportunity. For residents, it could mean more shopping and restaurants, or perhaps, a cool new concept to enjoy (axe-throwing anyone?). However, for the community leader, it means something different. New developments, in all forms, can mean a place for new residents to call home and current residents to gather. It’s a tool for economic development, but it can also be an asset that enhances your city’s quality of life. And if developed thoughtfully, it can transform the way we think about a community.

In this issue, we focus on a variety of development projects and the impact they are having on their respective communities. In Rocky Mount, North Carolina, and Kansas City, Missouri, we examine how downtown venues have become magnets for tourists and residents. Deep in the heart of Texas, a pair of new sports tourism and recreation venues promise to set their cities apart from others. And, we meet a real-life Leslie Knope, who fearlessly stood up for parks and recreation in her city.

Our hope is that these articles inspire you and inform you of what’s possible when you activate your vision, understand the needs of your community, and listen to your calling to serve.

Peace, love, and community service.

Johnny Crosskey Managing Editor, Community Playmaker

Issue 02: Fall 2023

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Cover Image Source: Fort Bend Epicenter

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Copyright Community Playmaker Magazine 2023.

REAL LIFE LESLIE KNOPE

INDIANA MAYOR EMILY STYRON’S PASSION FOR PUBLIC SERVICE LEADS COMMUNITY TO GREENER PASTURES

By Ashley Whittaker

She’s damn determined...and epitomizes belief in public service,” said Mayor Emily Styron when asked about her parallels with the character Leslie Knope of the popular show Parks and Recreation. “She doesn’t hear the word ‘no’. If she can’t get there from one route, she’ll recalculate the distance and take a different route. And I was the (Deputy) Director of Indy Parks, for real, way before the show.”

Zionsville, Indiana’s real-life Leslie Knope, AKA Mayor Styron is a character worthy of note in her own right. A career-long public servant, Styron was elected in November 2019 as the town’s first Democrat and first woman mayor in their history. She’s unapologetically opinionated, fiercely committed to her community, and not afraid to tell it like it is.

Photo Courtesy of Emily Styron

“I think for me, politics is yucky but public service is fabulous. When we eked out a win, we went in with a very positive attitude. We were going to work together and throw politics out the window.”

When Seeing a Need Becomes a Calling to Run for Mayor

Prior to becoming mayor of Zionsville, Emily Styron commuted to Indianapolis. On her daily journey, she passed by Creekside Corporate Park and was less than impressed with the results of the development, which had been positioned as an economic development driver.

“I was driving back and forth from Indianapolis every day going past that park and wondering, who the hell is in charge of this? We went through the largest economic boom in Indiana’s history and didn’t have any new corporate headquarters or anything built in Creekside,” commented Styron.

Inspired by the book Run For Something by Amanda Litman, a progressive callto-action piece originally published in 2017, Styron decided to throw her hat in the ring for mayor. Styron described her campaign as an effort founded on grassroots community engagement. From knocking on hundreds and hundreds of doors to hosting house parties, Styron had to get creative with limited campaign resources.

“I’m a single mother, democrat, female. I thought there was just no way I was ever going to get elected, but it didn’t matter. I ran because I wanted to give people a choice,” said Styron. “I just talked about what I wanted to see in my town and what I would do if I were elected. I ended up winning by 88 votes.”

Two of Styron’s areas of focus were the park system and economic development; a combination for which she is uniquely

suited, with a background in management of public organizations, including the Boone County Redevelopment Commission and the Zionsville Board of Parks and Recreation. During her open house Q&A sessions, many community members she spoke with expressed a desire for a community center that functioned similarly to a YMCA, while others were interested in economic development opportunities that could have a long-term financial impact on the town.

houses

businesses.”

A Vision and The Call that Changed Everything

After beginning her term, Styron and Deputy Mayor Julie Johns-Cole were invited by Stan Burton, owner of Wolf Run Golf Club, which had closed in 2017, to tour the property. On the tour, Burton described his vision and the plans he had filed with the town to request a rezoning of the land into retail and office spaces, 360 single-family houses, and 200 multi-family housing units.

“I’m looking around and I feel like I’m in a PBS masterpiece mini-series. The land was stunning. I thought to myself, ‘yeah there is no f*cking way this is going to become little houses and businesses.’ I went home and made a list of people that I was going to call the next day and ask for a million dollars.”

$5.5m bond was approved by the Zionsville Town Council in a 6-1 vote to not only purchase the land but for the necessary site work and construction documentation required to make it visitor ready.

$4m grant in Indiana Stream and Wetland Mitigation Program credits

$3m

Next Level Conservation Trust grant

“...The land was stunning. I thought to myself yea there is no f*cking way this is going to become

and

As Styron worked her way down her list of calls, she made a significant call to Jim and Nancy Carpenter, local conservationists and founders of the retail chain, Wild Birds Unlimited. What started as a ‘whatif’ conversation, quickly grew into legitimate interest by the Carpenters who ultimately purchased the 215-acre Wolf Run golf course land in 2021 for $5.5 million. Not only has the couple been a catalyst to saving the land from redevelopment as investors, but they also committed to a $1 million gift by selling the property to the town for $4.52 million.

In May of 2023, a 6-1 vote by the Zionsville Town Council approved a $5.5 million bond to purchase the land from the Carpenters for the preserve as well as for

Photos Courtesy of the Town of Zionsville, Indiana

the necessary site work and construction documentation required to make it ready for visitors. In addition to this funding, the town has also sought grant funding to support the vision for the project. This includes $4 million in Indiana Stream and Wetland Mitigation Program credits to fund restoration work alongside Eagle Creek, a $3 million Next Level Conservation Trust grant to partially reimburse the town for the land acquisition, and a $500,000 Land and Water Conservation Fund grant for the initial phase of development.

Styron and Nancy Carpenter encouraged local leaders and parks enthusiasts to unite and, in 2020, the Zionsville Parks Foundation was established with Nancy Carpenter named as the organization’s founder and president.

With community input on its master plan, the Carpenter Nature Preserve will serve as a local and regional nature destination, complete with walking trails and

boardwalks, playgrounds, a nature center with outdoor classrooms, and enhanced wetlands, woodlands, and prairies. Phase one of the preserve is slated to be completed in late 2025 with trails, parking, and restrooms.

In considering the effort of championing this project and its impact, Stryon said, “This preserve will last for generations. With Carpenter Nature Preserve established, hundreds of acres will never become houses. That will never become anything other than a respite for humans, mammals, and birds. When I won, I wanted to do the best job I could. This project – the preserve – it’s worth the headaches.”

Big Changes in Zionsville

While certainly the most notable, Carpenter Nature Preserve isn’t the only thing Styron has achieved in her mayoral tenure. She’s done what many other mayors have done in the past few years: led her community through the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent recovery, wrestled

The Carpenter Nature Preserve will serve as a local and regional nature destination complete with walking trails and boardwalks, playgrounds, a nature center with outdoor classrooms, and enhanced wetlands, woodlands, and prairies.

Photo Courtesy of the Town of Zionsville, Indiana

with issues with her town council, and attended her fair share of ribbon cuttings and public appearances.

All the while, she’s also embraced forward-thinking planning initiatives for the Zionsville community including adopting the Zionsville Gateway Area and championing the reinvention of the gateway into the town’s business district. Remember that underutilized Creekside Corporate Park? She secured Rahal Letterman Lanigan, the first new corporate headquarters in four years. She opened the town’s first dog park. Additionally, she developed and implemented the first Climate Action Plan in the town’s history.

“You know, these are big issues (referring to climate), but all of the issues start in a community and so the solutions need to start there, too,” said Styron. “I raised our hand and said we can participate. We want to be part of the solution.”

Styron announced earlier this year that she will not be running for re-election. After conferring with her staff, to which she freely and passionately gives credit for her administration’s success, she decided to go out ‘on a good note.’ As she prepares to pass the torch to the next Zionsville mayor, her next step isn’t set. “Next for me? I’m not entirely sure to be honest...I love working in organizations. I love working with great teams of people...I don’t really like politics at all, I never have and I still don’t. But, I do love working for the benefit of my neighbors and visitors to my town.”

In honor of our ‘real-life Leslie Knope’, let’s close out our story on Mayor Emily Styron with a Knope quote that matches the energy of both women:

“Go find your team. Get to work. Whatever that work is that you find worth doing. Do it, and find some people to love who’ll do it with you.”

Photo Courtesy of the Town of Zionsville, Indiana

COMMUNITY OF THE YEAR

NOMINATE A GREAT COMMUNITY

We want to hear from you!

There are so many great stories out there and we need your help to find and honor them. Please nominate a city, county, town, parish, or village that is doing a great job of enhancing the quality of life for its residents and serves as an example for other communities.

To do so, visit:

communityplaymaker.com/ communityoftheyear

Program Qualifications

• Cities, counties, towns, parishes or villages can be any population size but must be in the United States to qualify.

• Nomination forms must be complete including contact information. This information will not be shared/sold to a third-party.

Across the country, thousands of civic leaders are doing the hard and necessary work within their communities to enhance the quality of life for residents.

The Community of the Year Award is a celebration of cities and the visionary leaders that spark progress. It’s about innovative programs and initiatives that drive economic development, promote community engagement, provide places for residents to work and play, support public safety, amplify the arts and culture, and build open, inclusive, high-quality environments for all citizens.

• There is no limit to the number of nominations you may make.

• The deadline for nominations is Friday, November 20th at 11:59PM (EST).

Image Source: Adobe Stock

LEADERSHIP PERSPECTIVES

ADVICE FROM ACROSS THE COUNTRY

What’s a tool that’s been invaluable to your success?

Probably to be patient. And, the other one is to plan. For almost any project I’ve been involved in, it seems like the local government, in general, takes a little longer to develop the plan.

Growing up, I was not always a patient person. I’ve learned that you need to be patient and if you’re patient and willing to put in time and effort and develop a plan, it will pay off. I’m going to go back to 2012, we didn’t know what we wanted to do, but we wanted to do something big. We wanted a big bang, a big ‘wow,’ but we didn’t know what that was. The city manager and city council could have pushed us hard and said, ‘Hey, make something happen.’ But even they were patient enough for us to get through a process that took ten years before we opened the doors (of Legends Event Center in Bryan, Texas). Tenacity, patience, and planning. I think all go hand in hand if you want to end up with a successful product.

What’s something you wish your residents knew about working in government?

Government isn’t the bad guy. I think there is a general distrust of government because of national politics. Local governments don’t operate under the political environment that often polarizes our nation. At the municipal level, our goal is to provide high-level service to our citizens and make decisions that will ensure the future is brighter than the past.

What’s a tool that’s been invaluable to your success?

Staff. You are only successful as your team. Take care of your team and they will take care of the rest.

How has the rise of social media impacted your communication strategy?

I think it complicates a lot. People are used to instant gratification. It’s an unrealistic expectation. I’m actually considering deleting all the city’s social media accounts. I think it complicates the management of necessary and required local government functions.

Hugh Walker Deputy City Manager Bryan, Texas (pop. 86,866)

Julie Wilkie City Manager Greenwood, South Carolina (pop. 22,221)

What advice would you give to someone young starting out in municipal leadership?

I think you need your heart to be in the right place. If you love the community and you love helping people public service is a great thing, and we need good young people to be there.

What I’ve enjoyed is that I don’t worry about knowing all the answers. I think if you have a good heart and you’re willing to work with people and listen, you’ll get to where you want to go.

The one thing with this business is you can have a lot of fun and have a lot of success, but it can also make you very weary and you’ve got to have that heart and that desire to get through. Sometimes, I think that’s the hardest part.

What’s a tool that’s been invaluable to your success?

I think the sky’s the limit on what you can do and there are lots of great organizations that will teach you how to do stuff. I was a past president of The Florida Association of Counties and I’m a huge supporter of what they do. They have a leadership program that I’ve participated in.

What keeps you going through tough times?

Just knowing that there’s light at the end of the tunnel. I mean, when you’re in a leadership position, you’re not going to get everything right all the time. But, just being able to listen to folks and be sincere in your actions, I just think that makes everything better.

How has the rise of social media impacted your communication strategy?

I think it allows, from a government standpoint, for us to be a little nimbler and quicker. The old days of having a bunch of red tape, several people in the ‘process of review’ before information gets out with it then going to the newspapers. Those days are kind of gone now.

We try to be proactive, so we know when things are going on within the community, whether good or bad. We try to get in front of it. And so, we actually have a social media team that develops those responses. We try not to react to social media. We try to be proactive. We don’t let speed get in the way.

Grover Robinson IV Former Mayor Pensacola, Florida (pop. 53,678)

Elton Daniels Assistant City Manager Rocky Mount, North Carolina (pop. 53,957)

The American Dream, in the minds of many, is to find a great place to live and raise a family.

Seaside, Oregon is one such place. Situated along the Oregon coastline, Seaside has beautiful, sweeping views, a picturesque beach, and a great community vibe. The area has all the quality-of-life amenities on parents’ checklists, including an abundant supply of opportunities for recreation.

There was just one thing missing, and it was a big factor in the “raising a family” equation: daycare. The town of Seaside, for all its advantages, was considered a “childcare desert,” the term used to describe a community with more than

By Playmaker Staff

three times as many children under the age of five as available slots in licensed childcare facilities.

This is not an uncommon situation— unfortunately, it is occurring in many communities nationwide. According to ChildcareDeserts.org, a Center for American Progress project, 51 percent of all people in the United States live in a childcare desert. In Oregon, that number climbs to 60 percent.

The Impact of Childcare Deserts

A lack of daycare drives a crippling ripple effect on an area’s economy and quality of life. With limited childcare options, parents often must travel further from their

homes to find daycare facilities. This can affect the types of employment they are able to pursue and can even prevent them from finding work. It can give them just cause for moving out of an area after having children – or discourage them from moving in altogether.

“It is not necessarily a unique problem,” says Skyler Archibald, executive director of Sunset Empire Park & Recreation District, or SEPRD, a local government department that maintains recreational assets and develops programming for the town of Seaside and nearby communities. “We have a high cost of housing and living. Having two parents who work full-time jobs to support a family is common, and there was a waitlist for every available preschool.”

Even the area’s existing preschool programs faced numerous challenges, according to Archibald. Administrators struggled not only to run programs but to maintain both staff and the necessary licensure. That cut deep into budgets, forcing preschools to charge exponentially higher fees. What was needed was an

affordable program that was available to families living in the area.

Beyond these challenges, the community also needed a venue to promote health and recreation for residents of all ages, abilities, and cultures. They also wanted to drive economic impact outside of the peak tourist season, which runs from June through September. To keep the events they already had in place and build new income streams, the Sunset Empire area needed a bold new strategy.

Recreation to the Rescue

To help tackle those challenges, SEPRD turned to The Sports Facilities Companies (SFC), a company that partners with communities to plan, develop, and operate sports and recreation facilities. The two organizations began evaluating existing resources with an eye on how they might be used.

SFC and its project partner, Scott Edwards Architecture (SEA), designed a highest and best use (HBU) model for Sunset Recreation Center. HBU mod-

eling involves assessing the ability of the existing facility to support new and current programs that drive SEPRD’s goals from a physical and financial standpoint. They also examined associated uses for the neighboring Aquatic Center and Broadway Park to meet the recreational needs of the community and to broaden its economic reach and ability to feasibly support sports tourism events. Based on analysis coming from this work, a program plan was developed that called for the facility to be broken into four components that aligned with SEPRD’s goals and community needs. This included spaces for administration, gymnasiums and locker rooms, and community recreation – as well as early childhood care.

“The first thing we wanted to do was expand our preschool,” says Archibald. “We had cut one of the rooms we were using in half in order to create a second room; unfortunately, we still weren’t meeting the demand.”

A local middle school and the available space in the Sunset Recreation Center provided a ready-made answer.

Image Source: Skyler Archibald/SEPRD

of

“We rented space from the middle school and ultimately wound up purchasing it (the middle school property),” said Archibald. “It has worked out really well for us.”

Separate spaces were carved out for preschoolers and after-school care programs for elementary school-age students. This

was done in tandem with the addition of an infant and toddler room and indoor gymnasium space. This space restructuring created the programming areas needed to accomplish their objective and doubled their capacity to serve children.

According to ChildcareDeserts.org, a Center for American Progress project, 51 percent of all people in the United States live in a childcare desert. In Oregon, that number climbs to 60 percent.

While this had a profound impact on the functionality of the space, it is just a step towards their ultimate goal. Currently, SEPRD is working in partnership with SFC and SEA to develop a master plan that will serve as a roadmap for renovations and expanded use of the Sunset Recreation Center.

“I know exactly how committed our staff has been to these programs, and how crucial they are to its success. From teachers to preschool assistants to after-school rec leaders – those are all the people who are showing up and doing the really hard stuff day after day, even though there are lots of employment opportunities in other places. I am very proud and inspired by these people and I try, and encourage others to try, to build a culture of appreciation and acknowledgment for the important work they are doing.”

Other communities reach out to Archibald periodically for advice; however, he notes the situation in Seaside was unique, in part, because the parks department didn’t have to compete with other departments for attention. “We have a great coalition of support and a great network; all of us were heavily invested and interested in solving this problem. We have hospitals, school districts, Head Start, a supportive elected board of directors, and plenty of others, and we have the very best resources.”

When reflecting on the impact of the program, Archibald added, “What we started to see was that kids in the childcare program were flourishing, maturing, and becoming so much more kindergarten-ready. This is a niche that our community was desperately begging for us to fill, and we have.”

What we started to see was that kids in the childcare program were flourishing, maturing, and becoming so much more kindergarten ready.

SkylerExecutiveArchibald Director

Sunset Empire Park & Recreation District

CITY GROWTH, DEEP IN THE HEART OF

By Michael LoRé

Situated in the heart of the Texas Triangle, outlined by the state’s four main urban centers—Austin, Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston, and San Antonio—is Bryan.

With a population under 100,000, the city in Brazos County named for Texas’ founding father Stephen F. Austin’s nephew William Joel Bryan may pale in comparison to its larger metropolitan neighbors. However, Bryan and its bordering sister city College Station, home to Texas A&M University, play a vital role in the region, particularly when it comes to sports and recreation.

“We’re not New York, we’re not Orlando and that’s OK,” former Bryan Mayor

Andrew Nelson said. “We love the size of our community. We’re a wonderful midpoint for four of the 10 largest cities in the United States.”

Knowing its role in the Texas Triangle, Bryan has undergone a metamorphosis of late, specifically in Travis Bryan Midtown Park, located halfway between Texas A&M’s main campus and downtown Bryan. The city’s commitment pays homage to its 150-plus-year history with an eye on the future.

Bryan’s Golf Course Problem

Despite golf’s growing popularity in the last few years, having too many courses in a finite area has proven to be detri-

mental in Bryan-College Station, which was home to Travis B. Bryan Municipal Golf Course, City Course at the Phillips Event Center, and The Golf Club at Texas A&M— all located within three miles of each other.

With Travis B. Bryan Municipal losing an estimated $200,000 to $350,000 annually, while “inexorably getting in worse shape year after year,” a decision had to be made. Knowing that when The Golf Club at Texas A&M was closed for a year, the other two courses made a profit, the answer was obvious: one had to go.

City Course at Phillips Event Center, formerly known as Briarcrest Golf Course, was generously donated by local develop -

Image Source: Legends Event Center

er Wallace Phillips to the city of Bryan, which took over the 107-acre course in December 2017.

“That is the light that allowed this whole thing to start,” Nelson said. “Wallace Phillips should be recognized for sure because none of this would have happened without him. He’s the most important part of it.”

Transformation through Redevelopment

Knowing Travis B. Bryan Municipal Golf Course would be sacrificed, what could the city do with the land? Scouting similarly sized cities within the Texas Triangle, like Waco, Killeen, and Temple, while comparing the park and recreational

amenities and sports facilities in nearby College Station, the Bryan City Council determined a mixed-use development would be beneficial to residents and tourists alike.

After five years and hundreds of hours of planning and construction, the 150-acre Travis Bryan Midtown Park went from vision to reality, starting with the opening of BigShots Aggieland (a 40,000 squarefoot golf and entertainment venue) and Travis Fields (a youth and amateur baseball facility) in the first part of 2022. Additionally, Travis Bryan Midtown Park is home to a 4,000-foot-long walking path and Midtown Lake. The complex is anchored by the 122,000-square-foot multipurpose Legends Event Center, which

is home to indoor sports like basketball, volleyball, wrestling, and cheerleading. The $41 million venue opened on December 10, 2022.

“For us, it gives our population a place to go and a place to spend quality time, outside and inside, so no matter what the weather is, you’re able to do something in our Midtown Park,” said Bryan Mayor Bobby Gutierrez. “It’s very important for bringing in tourism, for our own population, and for the businesses and restaurants around there as well.”

Since opening its doors seven months ago, Legends Event Center has attracted more than 36,000 tourism event attendees and generated more than $10.8 million in to -

Image Source: Legends Event Center

Since opening its doors seven months ago, Legends Event Center has attracted more than 36,000 tourism event attendees and generated more than $10.8 million in total economic impact for the local economy, with more than $7.2 million of that coming from new events to the community.

All Images Sourced By: Legends Event Center

tal economic impact for the community, with more than $7.2 million of that coming from new events. The facility is operated by The Sports Facilities Companies, a professional firm that partners with cities to plan, develop, and manage sports, recreation, and event venues.

The key to building Legends was to offer amenities that couldn’t be found in neighboring cities while complementing — not competing with — existing sports facilities and parks. One such facility is College Station’s Veterans Park & Athletic Complex, which boasts 13 multi-purpose fields and five natural grass softball fields for outdoor sports like football, soccer, baseball, and softball.

“We knew it would not be successful if we went and did something that was already being done inside the Texas Triangle,” said Nelson, mayor of Bryan from 20162022. “Inside that triangle is the majority of people (in Texas), so we wanted something that could allow them to meet, but it was critical that we not repeat a facility or activity that a similarly sized community or mid-sized town was doing.

The Future: More to Come in the Heart of Texas

With more amenities and improvements still to come, Travis Bryan Midtown Park now serves as an integral part of Bryan’s own triangle, or catalyst zones, according to Gutierrez, connecting Midtown Park to Union Hill and Downtown.

Bryan City Council approved a new recreation and entertainment facility that will include at least 24 bowling lanes, six pickleball courts, an outdoor amphitheater, an arcade, movie theater rooms, and premium concessions. The City Council also approved a $5.1 million construction contract for new outdoor amenities at Legends and Midtown Lake, including four NCAA-approved

sand volleyball courts, a boathouse, and a multipurpose trail.

The park’s revitalization also includes dredging, cleaning, expanding, and deepening the lake, previously nicknamed “arsenic lake” due to a chemical spill and pollution from a nearby fertilizer plant upstream in the 1960s.

Despite being approved by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality for the safe use of the lake, there was still a negative perception caused by the prior contamination. However, the city is changing that.

“It’s going to be the cleanest body of water in the state of Texas,” Nelson said.

While the city celebrated its 150th anniversary of incorporation on November 29, 2021, the future certainly looks bright from the beating heart of the Texas Triangle thanks to the redevelopment of Travis Bryan Midtown Park and everything it will bring—to residents and visitors alike.

“It’s a really exciting time to be the mayor of Bryan,” Gutierrez said.

Image Source: Legends Event Center

BIG BOX REDEVELOPMENT: NEW OPPORTUNITIES IN OLD MALLS

By Joey Johnston

Image Courtesy of Joey Johnston

For nearly two decades, the 128,000-square-foot Sears store was a cornerstone of the Citrus Park Town Center, which opened in 1999 as a suburban shopping hub near Tampa, Florida. But, now it’s gone. A reflection of the nation’s ever-evolving purchasing habits. The iconic retailer has painfully disappeared; more than 700 brick-andmortar Sears locations have closed since 2018, bringing a feeling of decay to malls across America.

Over the next five years, investment bank UBS projects about 50,000 additional retail closures in the United States. But in Tampa— and hundreds of other loca-

tions— the abandoned storefronts have returned to life after being “repurposed” for other uses, such as sports facilities or entertainment centers.

An Exciting Reinvention

Where there was once a Sears, now there’s Elev8 Fun, a sports and entertainment center already gaining traction with local families. The old Sears store was purchased for $ 5.5 million by Prime Time Amusements, a South Florida firm, and the colorful, vibrant fun center formally opened in late May, welcoming the summertime crowd. Two other locations will open in Florida— coincidentally, in former Sears stores.

“We don’t pay rent, we buy the boxes (store locations),” said Keith Baldwin, Elev8 Fun’s director of operations. “It works well. It’s a lot more efficient than buying some land and putting up a building from the ground up. We get into an established location and we believe we give people another reason to visit the mall.”

Baldwin noted that shopping malls were declining prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. “Online shopping has changed malls forever. As the rents went up and the foot traffic declined, you saw closures all over the country. But that has also created new opportunities.”

These opportunities include:

• Sports and entertainment centers such as Elev8 Fun.

• Indoor pickleball facilities, fueling the demand for that fast-rising sport.

• Niche sports centers and fitness gyms or BMX racing tracks.

• Medical centers

• Small businesses such as do-it-yourself cooking/art classes or physical therapy centers

Why Mall Redevelopment Is So Important

The mall closure trend has not only drawn the attention of business leaders and real estate professionals but city leaders as well. Vacated malls can become havens for crime. Repurposed malls provide cities with centrally located property for land development, along with popular assets such as pickleball courts. And if pickleball facilities exist in the private sector, it takes the pressure off a city’s parks department, which faces increasing demands to fund those assets.

When the Moorestown Mall in New Jersey underwent a 2022 facelift— an abandoned Sears became a three-floor

Image Source: Dylan Lowdermilk

CLOSED SHOPS

sity Health Care system, while a family entertainment center moved into an old Lord & Taylor. Mayor Nicole Gillespie was enthused.

long time,’’ Gillespie told the Philadelphia Inquirer. “We have a lot of hope it will turn into something that feels very different. It’s a really fabulous version of what’s to come here.’’

The concern of cities over vacated big-box stores is very real. There’s the potential loss of property taxes. And, vacated stores are never a good look.

“We don’t like to see buildings sitting empty,’’ said Greenwood, Indiana Mayor Mark Meyers in an interview with the Daily Journal of Franklin, Indiana. “They become an eyesore.

“We don’t like to see buildings sitting empty,’’ said Greenwood, Indiana Mayor Mark Myers in an interview with the Daily Journal of Franklin, Indiana. “They become an eyesore. They generally aren’t taking care of the exterior. Big-box stores are designed for a certain use, and a lot of the time, it is hard to reconfigure them.’’

In recent years, Myers has helped to find new tenants for vacated storefronts in his suburban Indianapolis community.

“I think there’s a real widespread problem for many cities, for the older malls closing up and these big-box stores that are just going vacant,” said Sara Baker, a Tuc-

report for the Pima County Real Estate Research Council.

The report, prepared by Tucson’s Baker, Peterson, Baker & Associates, Inc., said there are increasing numbers of “owners seeking out service users to ‘Amazon-proof’ their retail centers” and “occupancy by these nontraditional users in retail centers is the biggest factor in driving down the retail vacancy rate.”

“It’s encouraging for the mall owners to have answers to questions such as, ‘What are we going to do with all of these empty buildings,” Baker said. “If you can find the right building in the right location, it seems like a win-win situation. Especially with construction costs so high, it’s so much more financially viable to renovate an existing facility. They’re looking for the right fit and the right space.”

Mall Redevelopment and the Rise of Pickleball

For pickleball, which has been taking over

700+

brick-and-mortar Sears locations have closed since 2018

additional retail closures in the United States.

parks and competing for tennis court space, the hollowed-out store spaces have been particularly appealing. According to the Sports and Fitness Industry Association, more than 9 million Americans are playing pickleball, a year-over-year increase of 85.7 percent. When it’s raining or snowing, when the heat is brutal, and when the park spaces are full, where can pickleball players go?

How about a former Burlington Coat Factory store?

That’s the scenario in southern New Jersey, where Proshot Pickleball opened with eight cushioned courts, viewing decks, a pro shop, and a players’ lounge. Andrew Pessano and his partners originally considered building it from scratch, but changed course after studying construction costs and the time necessary to acquire the land and permits.

The old Burlington site had everything— high ceilings (for lobs), lighting, restrooms, parking, and accessibility to the main roads. Pessano isn’t the only entrepreneur who has made this discovery.

is moving into sites where Bed Bath & Beyond, Old Navy, and Saks Off 5th used to dwell.

“You can’t deny the popularity of pickleball and it’s going to continue to grow because anyone can play this sport,” Pessano said. “In these outdoor court situations, there’s always a situation with (lack of) parking and noise complaints, so taking it to an indoor facility makes so much sense.’’

Proshot Pickleball took 22,000 square feet, while the other 63,000 is occupied by a Restaurant Depot.

“I’m not a builder and none of my partners are builders, but we did help to build this place,” Pessano said. “We did some of the sub-work to get it open. We didn’t just write a big check. It was a dream of ours, and we built it well, within a budget, and now, it’s working. If we had chosen the other route, just starting from scratch and trying to build a new place, I don’t know where we’d be. I’m grateful this space was available to us.’’

the Answer?

While cities throughout the United States are losing their old mainstays for commerce and connection, they’re gaining a generation of innovative hubs that serve their communities by providing economic drivers, including restaurants and shops, and quality-of-life amenities like parks and walking trails. They’re elevating property values with their presence, and they are adding assets that can supplement those owned by city parks departments. In a word, they are adding opportunity. Less ‘run down’ and more ‘revitalized,’ there is new life for malls just waiting to be imagined.

HOW FORT BEND COUNTY, TEXAS’ FAIRGROUNDS IS LEADING THE ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT CHARGE

By Michael LoRé

The residents of Fort Bend County, Texas longed for more.

Tired of traveling across the county and into Houston and the populous Harris County for everything from youth sports to graduation ceremonies, residents made their voices heard, and more importantly, the Fort Bend County Commissioners Court listened.

In 2017, County Commissioners Vincent Morales (Precinct 1) and Grady Prestage (Precinct 2) proposed the court engage with a consulting firm to validate the community’s concerns and establish

what sort of facility could be built, where it would be located, and how much it would cost.

And thus, the Fort Bend Epicenter was born.

A New Venue on Old Fairgrounds

“The Epicenter is a new focal point that the court, as well as councils across the county, is looking for to move the county into the future — thinking 30, 50 years from now, well beyond their own terms,” Fort Bend County Auditor Ed Sturdivant said.

As the site for the annual Fort Bend County Fair, first hosted in 1933, this property is part of a growing trend of fairgrounds that are either being enhanced or repurposed to meet the needs of their surrounding communities.

The Fort Bend Epicenter is a 230,000-square-foot multipurpose facility located in the county’s geographic center — hence the name “epicenter” — and will serve as a one-stop shop for the local and regional community.

Located adjacent to the Fort Bend County Fairgrounds, the county commissioners expect both attractions to boost and further develop the surrounding area. The Fort Bend Epicenter is also expected to complement the offerings of nearby venues, like the Smart Financial Centre in nearby Sugar Land, which is more of an arts, performance, and concert venue. The $100 million Fort Bend Epicenter in Rosenberg features a 17,000-square-foot multipurpose area and an outdoor openair pavilion for livestock and other special events. The venue also features five versatile and unique event spaces, six basketball courts, 12 volleyball courts, and seating for over 10,000 guests.

As the site for the annual Fort Bend County Fair, first hosted in 1933, this property is part of a growing trend of fairgrounds that are either being enhanced or repurposed to meet the needs of their surrounding communities.

“The Fairgrounds has been an asset to the county for many years — a needed asset,” said Kevin Matocha, whose Stonehenge Companies was brought in to support and expedite the development process. “It houses our annual County Fair, but the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo uses it as well.”

Matocha noted that the new venue will be a hybrid of sorts, fulfilling its traditional role while offering the capacity for many more events.

“When we look at a lot of the cattle, horse, and livestock breeders

“We demonstrated that if the county did this process under the standard procurement process, it would take them 19 months longer to deliver the building than it would through our delivery method.”

that bring in large groups for a weekend or a week-long event, yes, they need the pen space and all the stuff that typical fairgrounds can offer, but they also need meeting space, and they need large gathering spaces, and they would like to keep them around the site.”

Matocha went on to say, “We can bring dirt in the middle of the facility to show livestock at noon and that evening, I can have seats on the floor for a speaker or a concert.”

The facility will not only host events yearround and be an asset to the community, but because it’s located at the county’s highest elevation, it will also provide a nearby safe haven during any natural disasters. Unfortunately, the county struggled with this in August 2017 as Hurricane Harvey became the first Category 4 hurricane to make landfall along the Middle Texas coast since 1970.

“We all know what happened back in 2017 with all the flooding we got from

Harvey,” said Sturdivant. “We didn’t have a good place to shelter large numbers of people when they were getting pushed out of their homes due to the flooding. This center will be prioritized in those circumstances to be a mass shelter for the community.

That’s really what drove this thing home, to make sure we moved on it now rather than waiting until later.”

How P3 is Driving Facility Development and Funding

With discussions for the project beginning as early as 2017, the Fort Bend County Commissioners Court enlisted the assistance of Stonehenge Companies, rather than waiting for the upcoming November bond election where it would go up against other projects and priorities, potentially delaying the process, according to Sturdivant.

The firm, which has experience developing and managing various projects throughout the state from medical buildings to student housing and town squares, determined a public-private partnership, or P3, would be the most effective and efficient scenario to get the project up and running as soon as possible.

“The market clearly showed that interest rates were going to go up in the future so the quicker we could deliver the project due to interest rate creep as well as supply chain issues, the better,” said Matocha. “We demonstrated that if the county did this process under the standard procurement process, it would take them 19 months longer to deliver the building than it would through our delivery method. And in fact, we put our money where our mouth was at the end of the day.”

While P3 is helping finance the project, the county is taking on the burden of op -

erations at Fort Bend Epicenter by approving advance funding of up to $27 million over 10 years. While Sturdivant estimates the costs will be approximately $1 million through year three and will be repaid by year four, the $27 million in funding is a worst-case scenario if the facility “didn’t collect a penny.” With such high goals, the county made the strategic move to hire The Sports Facilities Companies, a company that partners with communities to plan, develop, and manage sports, recreation, and events facilities, to operate the venue.

The pricing structure of the facility is expected to cover its operating costs, while Sturdivant said that the facility’s revenue stream will grow through naming rights on the building and concessions, among other items.

Image Courtesy of Fort Bend Epicenter

Image Courtesy of Fort Bend Epicenter

The Fort Bend Epicenter officially opened its doors on Saturday, August 19, 2023, and is already making an economic splash, driving over $800,000 in sponsorship revenue. Sponsorship partners include Southwest Mitsubishi, Energy Texas, GFL Environmental, Bud Light, PepsiCo, Inc., and Chick-fil-A.

Impact at the Epicenter

With the finances in place to support the facility for at least a decade, now is the time for Fort Bend Epicenter to elevate and improve the community.

Sturdivant said the Commissioners Court authorized unissued mobility

bonds of approximately $400 million to promote mobility and road infrastructure throughout the county, with the next potential mobility bond authorization, in the neighborhood of $500 million, taking place in November.

There are also initiatives to potentially build a full-service hotel, convention center, and parking structure adjacent to the Epicenter, with the city of Rosenberg already approved to receive a rebate on sales tax, hotel occupancy tax, and mixed-beverage tax generated within 1,000 feet of the facility to funnel money back into the community for further development and improvements.

“What this facility’s going to do is breed trade for consumers and it’s going to breed commerce amongst our businesses,” Sturdivant said. “The Commissioners Court as well as cities across our county are fully engaged to make sure this development occurs — not just the Epicenter, but the development of the county through the unincorporated and undeveloped areas of the county — in a way that will make people 30 years from now proud to still be living here.”

“With LS&S, we have been able to significantly increase the level of service to the community, while also reducing annual costs.”

- Mayor of Moreno Valley, CA

In the 1940s and 1950s, the urban lifestyle was preferred by many Americans. People shopped local whether for groceries, clothes, or other day-to-day needs. It wasn’t uncommon to have a coffee shop within walking distance. Bars and restaurants may be located downstairs, not across town.

The American love affair with mixeduse development is nothing new. Cities, large and small, stacked buildings with

multiple purposes into one area, giving people the ability to take care of all their needs and build a community within a short walking distance. What changed? The emergence of affordable automobile travel led a pied-piper-like movement to the suburbs for the promise of more land and safer neighborhoods.

However, in the last decade, the pendulum has swung back towards communities

that provide walking access to a variety of amenities. In a study conducted by the International Council of Shopping Centers, 78 percent of adults and 85 percent of millennials said they would consider moving to an area that had working, shopping, and “play” amenities nearby. The latter stat is particularly important for city leaders and developers as millennials make up

28 percent of homebuyers, according to a report from the National Association of REALTORS.

In response to this trend, mixed-use developments are sprouting in cities of various sizes and demographics. Whether it’s the fountains and brick facades of Branson Landing in Missouri or the posh feel of Brickell City Centre near South Beach in Miami, these areas serve the primary purposes of enhancing the quality of life of residents and driving revenue from visitors.

One of the most successful examples of mixed-use areas is the Kansas City Power & Light District (KCP&L), a dining, shopping, office, and entertainment district in Downtown Kansas City, Missouri. The $850 million district—named after the art deco Kansas City Power and Light Building—comprises nine blocks on the south side of the downtown loop and is one of the largest development projects in the Midwestern United States. It includes more than 50 bars, restaurants, and shops, and a oneblock entertainment area called KC Live! that contains two floors of bars and restaurants, as well as a covered outdoor

courtyard and concert venue. KC Live! hosts more than 150 free events annually and is directly across the street from the T-Mobile Center, one of the nation’s busiest arenas.

The KC Power & Light District Story

The impetus for the project, which kicked off 15 years ago, was the decision by Big 12 (then Big 8) Conference organizers to move their basketball tournament from Downtown Kansas City. “At that time, there really wasn’t a lot going on,” explains Rob Hunden, president and CEO of Chicago-based Hunden Partners, a real estate development advisory practice that worked with the city’s Economic Development Commission on an analysis of the initial proposal for development.

“Downtown was mostly surface parking lots and government buildings and [after the loss of the tournament] there was concern about the center, the heartbeat of the community, being hollowed out. The city was also losing conventions at the Kansas City Convention Center.”

In short, the mission was to fix and expand the convention center and to build hotels within walking distance. Moreover, “there was a need to create a district to tie it all together so that when people came out of the convention center or came downtown for a concert, there would be something fun to do before and after, and all the times between events,” Hunden says. “We wanted this to be a place where residents will want to go, where downtown workers will want to be, and where people will purposely want to live. All of these projects, when taken together, created incredible synergy and are driving this live-work-play-visit energy that exists today.”

KCP&L has attracted more than 95 million visitors over the past decade and was instrumental in igniting the revitalization of Downtown Kansas City. In KCP&L’s annual community impact report, Kathy Nelson, the president and CEO of Visit KC and the Kansas City Sports Commission said this of the development, “As we continue attracting large conventions

Image Source: The Cordish Companies

to Kansas City, the Power & Light District is an important amenity for guests staying downtown. The combination of local restaurants, bars, and entertainment venues creates a multifaceted offering for business travelers, tourists, and Kansas Citians looking to experience the best of our city center.”

KCP&L has also been a key driver in the local real estate market. Since its opening, The Cordish Companies, the developer responsible for KCP&L, has also built three luxury towers: One Light, Two Light, and, in 2023, Three Light. The tower trio added nearly 900 homes to the area and along with other development projects have helped Kansas City

KCP&L’s president, told local news station KSHB 41 that the city now draws 60 percent of Downtown Kansas City’s building residents from “out of the market.” In KCP&L’s community impact report, the development states that more than 30,000 people call the area home, a 75 percent increase from 2020.

In a press release regarding Three Light, Brian Platt, city manager of Kansas City said, “The real estate market in Kansas City is strong and continuing to build momentum, and we look forward to future mixed-income developments here that also include workforce and affordable housing.”

developments are becoming increasingly valuable because of their ability to change perceptions of overlooked communities. In Fairfax County, Virginia, the Lorton Correctional Complex, a 3,500-acre correctional facility dating back to 1910, was considered one of the nation’s toughest prisons. This led many to view Lorton, Virginia as an undesirable place to live. In a Washington Post article from 2016, Rep. Gerry E. Connolly (D-Va.) pointed to the prison’s closing in 2001 as a turning point for the community and said prior to that people were “desperate” to not have a Lorton address.

Today, the majority of the correctional complex has been reimagined as Lib -

Image Source: The Cordish Companies

from home, they’re going to want to work from the office because they’re part of a great location,” said Hunden.

Considerations for Cities

For a mixed-use district to succeed and be sustainable long-term, diversity and inclusion are crucial because they equal authenticity. “It’s not a mission statement, it’s a success factor,” says Hunden. “The idea is to create something that reflects who you want to be, not who everybody else is. A mixed-use district should be a reflection of its people and place and should involve local entrepreneurs. It should be compelling and interesting, not a typical collection of national chains. That type of diversity is critical.”

At KCP&L, that’s reflected in the presence of their distinct set of homegrown and regional businesses, including County Road Ice House BBQ & Bar, Cosentino’s Market, and Posh KC.

Additionally, city leadership should understand that creating mixed-use districts takes a lot of time, energy, and money, and while the process isn’t quick or easy, it’s worth it. “A lot of times people feel, ‘it

shouldn’t be this hard, there shouldn’t be a public subsidy, and we can do this overnight,’ but those things just aren’t true,” notes Hunden.

Funding Mixed-Use Development: The Biggest Consideration

Regarding funding mixed-use projects, the rules, opportunities, and tools that each community has are different across the country and are usually dictated by state legislation.

“Typically, what we see is that every compelling project uses multiple funding tools to help make a deal happen,” Hunden explains. “Oftentimes, we want to start with what we call project-generated financing. For example, every project generates a variety of taxes including sales, hotel, food and beverage, property, and income. There are many different types of taxes that, for the existence of this development, would not exist. We can rationalize reinvesting those project-generated taxes back into the project. So, let’s use the first 10 to 15 to 20 years of taxes generated by this project to get it off the ground, and after that, it’s all gravy to the city because [the project] will be on the tax rolls. In the end, you get the benefit of all the jobs and other activities that the project is creating.”

In the case of KCP&L, public-private partnerships were a prominent component of funding. “It’s easier to lease up something to a nationally branded ‘XYZ’ than it is to create something authentic, and therein lies the rub,” says Hunden. “The public sector has to prime the pump to help create critical mass with the private sector developer, so all of a sudden, you’re coming out of the ground with something that has critical mass and in fact induces lots of demand. You can’t just start off with one little coffee shop and think that’s going to start attracting people overnight. It’s a long process. You can’t change who you are, but you can add to who you are.”

Advice for Cities

In the case of the KCP&L project, a huge effort was required by the city, including generating nine different revenue streams, and the tireless work of dedicated leaders and many people coming together to make it happen. “Downtown has been transformed and it is a great example of what can be accomplished even when you think there’s no way.”

Hunden also points out that it doesn’t matter how big or small a city is—what counts is the ability to put key ingredients together to create a compelling, transformative place. “It’s about the alchemy of trying to make sure you’re filling day and nighttime hours and days of week and months of the year with concurrent and related activities that support each other. So that’s why we talk about live, work, play, visit, and enjoy.”

KCP&L has attracted more than 95 million visitors over the past decade and was instrumental in igniting the revitalization of downtown Kansas City.

HOW AN EVENT CENTER HELPED REVITALIZE ROCKY MOUNT, NORTH CAROLINA’S DOWNTOWN CORE

By Tyler Williams

About 15 years ago, there was really nothing downtown,” Elton Daniels, Rocky Mount’s assistant city manager said. “I’d say over the last 20 years, there’s been ebbs and flows [in Downtown’s progress], but I think [Downtown] is on a high point now. We have a lot of new restaurants and a lot of new businesses that are opening up just because they were able to get the property at a very deep discount. And now that the property values are rising and things are starting to take place Downtown, it is starting to have a nightlife. That’s something that we hadn’t previously had.”

Downtown wouldn’t be at a high point, as Daniels described, without the im-

pact of the Rocky Mount Event Center (RMEC). The 165,000-square-foot facility transformed the perception of the former textile town from the moment it opened its doors in 2018 in the Downtown area. The announcement of its opening alone drove several purchases of once-shuttered buildings. It also coincided with the development of a mixeduse area on the site of the 200-year-old Rocky Mount Mills. The interest in Downtown Rocky Mount and surrounding areas is a testament to the belief that businesses would be able to capitalize on RMEC’s presence.

While RMEC is fast becoming a success story today, not everyone supported the

Image Source: Rocky Mount Event Center

vision for Downtown. Many residents argued that the small North Carolina city couldn’t afford the $50 million price tag and questioned whether the investment would be worth it. However, the mayor and city council were serious about investing in the downtown core and saw sports and entertainment as an avenue for achieving their goal.

A Versatile Venue

The Rocky Mount Event Center’s strength is in its versatility. With the ability to host multiple event types, including indoor sports, concerts, conferences, and private events, the facility is a Swiss Army knife of sorts. “The event center is just so multifaceted in that it’s unique that we have the gym operation, which is the basketball courts and the volleyball courts, but we also have a banquet area and a family entertainment area where they have arcade games, rope climbing, wall climbing, and a combination of all sorts of things,” Daniels said.

Though Daniels was familiar with the event center’s versatility before visiting himself, he still had a moment of surprise when he visited RMEC for a monster truck show with his kids.

“I had my hat turned backward with my jeans on, and I’m waiting in line, and there are people with three-piece suits and ball-

room dresses not far away. I’m like, man, what in the world? Why would they wear this to a monster truck show? I found out [later] that they actually had a wedding going on at the same time, and we didn’t even know because you couldn’t hear the wedding or the monster truck show in [other parts] of the venue,” he said.

It’s also about the atmosphere we create… offering first-class services, offering transit shuttles from hotels to the event center, and back and forth to different places in Downtown Rocky Mount. We make it about a whole customer service experience rather than just about a facility. A lot of people can build a facility, but what we offer around the facility is what makes us stand out,” remarks Daniels.

The Event Center’s Impact on Downtown

In 2022, 77,000 guests, many of whom supported downtown businesses and restaurants, visited the event center. The overall economic impact for the city totaled $15 million, a 66 percent increase from the $9 million impact the city experienced in 2021.

Daniels also noted that his city added additional value to the event center by including services that connect the state-ofthe-art facility to other parts of the area, including Downtown.

“[It’s not all] about the physical building.

Besides driving significant economic impact for the city, the Rocky Mount Event Center has also established a vibrant vibe downtown. “It brings people together because we have concerts, we have festivals, just so many different things,” Daniels said. “When people talk about going to a new city, they’re typically not going because you have a good HR department or a good finance department. They’re typically coming to your city because there are some leisure activities that they want to participate in. There are [many

Image Source: Rocky Mount Event Center

events] going on within the city, and the event center provides [the space for] that.”

“Every weekend that we have something going on at the event center, [people] have a hard time parking. But that’s a good problem to have because that means people are visiting our event center, they’re visiting our downtown areas. That means they’re staying in our hotels and they are spending money in our restaurants. It’s a good problem to have,” according to Daniels.

Urban Residences Underway

With more activity returning to Downtown Rocky Mount, the city hopes new residents will follow. Right now, an affordable housing project is under construction in the neighborhood, and the city plans on building more residential units in the coming years. As of the beginning of 2023, there were around 150 apartments in the area and 200 more in the planning stages.

“Historically, there’s no public knowledge of people living in the Downtown area, but they are focused on getting people there now,” Kevin Harris, Rocky Mount’s former downtown development manager, recently told a local news outlet. “We have a goal of 500 housing units in Downtown Rocky Mount within five years.”

“A lot of people have moved to the suburbs in the past, but now we’re focusing on the inner city and starting there and building out. I would say the event center, the [residential development], and some of the redevelopment activities that we have with our local pubs and restaurants is really [just] the start.”

Daniels mentioned that Downtown Rocky Mount still has some challenges to overcome, such as lingering retail vacancies. However, the

area is on the upswing due to effective local leadership and a strong vision for the neighborhood. With the addition of the Rocky Mount Event Center and new residents, Downtown Rocky Mount is well on its way toward renewed vibrancy and prosperity.

“About 15 years ago, there was really nothing downtown,” Daniels said. “I’d say over the last 20 years, there’s been ebbs and flows [in Downtown’s progress], but I think [Downtown] is on the high point now.”

EVERYBODY’S GOIN’ SURFIN’

SURF PARKS OFFER NEW TOURISM AND ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITIES

By Judy Leand

With a 35 percent increase in surf participants in the United States in the last decade, it might feel like everybody’s surfing.

Contrary to popular opinion, surfers don’t just live on the coasts — they live in landlocked states as well. A major contributing factor to surfing’s recent ascendence is its new Olympic status.

The sport will be included in the Paris 2024 Olympic Games as well as the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games, which typically results in a surge of money and exposure that will fuel participation and spectatorship well into the future.

For those of us without access to killer waves along the coast — the rise of human-made surf parks is bringing the sport inland and making it more accessible to

the masses. At its heart, surfing is more than just riding waves — it’s a culture that brings people into the outdoor and coastal lifestyle, and similar to rock gyms, human-made surf parks have the potential to spread that “pura vida” feeling and become a tourist destination.

With multiple surf pool technologies available, there are many operators and investors, as well as residential and com-

Image Source: Phil Dixon Jr.

mercial developers, who are looking at the potential of this quickly evolving market. While first-generation wave pools were novel, they didn’t provide surf-worthy rides. However, today’s advanced wave-generation technology provides consistent, quality waves. It has been a game changer for the sport — and for a growing number of communities that are getting in on the action, including Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. It’s there where American Surf Parks, a leading developer and operator of surf parks, is partnering with the city of Myrtle Beach to build its first surf and adventure park in the U.S.

“It started as a passion project. Just trying to solve our own problems. We love to surf, but being a surfer in Myrtle Beach is like living in Purgatory,” said Phil Dixon Jr., CEO of American Surf Parks. “We have the ocean right there, but the way we sit on the coast, it’s very infrequent that we get good waves. So even though we

live a few seconds from the beach, we’re still driving an hour and a half north or south in the hopes of catching waves.”

The park’s centerpiece, Wavegarden Cove

Surf Lagoon, is designed to accommodate up to 84 surfers at a time. The surfable wave pool will be over five acres in size and hold seven million gallons of water.

When completed, Surfworks Myrtle Beach will encompass about 23 acres between Broadway at the Beach and the Myrtle Beach Convention Center. The park’s centerpiece, Wavegarden Cove Surf Lagoon, is designed to accommodate up to 84 surfers at a time. The surfable wave pool will be over five acres in size and hold seven million gallons of water. A pier will cut through the middle of the wave pool, and underneath it will be the module system that generates up to 900 waves per hour with each wave lasting up to 20 seconds. There will be four areas within the cove, each offering waves of different sizes and power, making it ideal for beginners and high-performance surfing and coaching alike. The hope is that new athletes and competitors will emerge.

Surfworks Myrtle Beach will also feature a walkable viewing pier, Adventure Lagoon (which includes a pool), Slip n’ Fly

Slide, a free solo climbing wall and diving platform, bungalow rentals, plus a volleyball court, a kids’ playground, a surf training facility, a skatepark, the Sunset Cantina, and an amphitheater that will seat up to 10,000 people. The total cost of the project is $54 million and is expected to drive over $1 million in tax revenue per year.

“You can do big things here in Myrtle Beach. This is one of those things. Grand Park was big. The Sports Center was big, especially when we built it. There aren’t many surf parks. This is another big thing. . . We’re very bullish on it,” said Myrtle Beach City Manager Jonathon “Fox” Simons Jr. about the project.

Simons’ excitement for the project is palpable, which is understandable when you consider the success of another wave park located nearly 1,200 miles away in the heart of Texas.

Waco, Texas is about as landlocked as it gets. However, it’s home to appropriately named Waco Surf, a resort featuring

Image Source: Phil Dixon Jr.

Playmaker Trends & Innovations

the Waco Surf Hotel, a cable park, a lazy river, and the surfing lake which is about two acres in size. The park has similar provisions for various skill levels to the planned Myrtle Beach project and has gained praise and notoriety from fans and industry insiders because of its combination of realistic waves and affordable prices. Waco Surf is open to the public and can be surfed for just over $100 an hour. However, the venue is often booked by private parties.

The resort complex is having a notable impact on Waco’s burgeoning tourism industry. A heat map report from Placer.ai, a location analytics company that tracks a location’s traffic via cellphone

data, showed the following regarding Waco Surf: “Approximately 62 percent of the visitors to Waco Surf traveled to the property from a hotel, indicating that the majority of the visitors live further away from the Waco and Austin areas, and that approximately one-third of the overall visitors traveled more than 250 miles to the property.”

The report went on to say that the lack of surf parks is the primary cause for this trend and is an indicator of its potential popularity.

Dixon and Simons hope that the waves of success in Waco, a city not known as a tourist destination, can be a tsunami in

a city known for drawing millions of visitors. “Myrtle Beach is a very established tourist destination, so we get the numbers, which make a project like this viable,” says Dixon. The Myrtle Beach Area Convention & Visitors Bureau reports that the area receives over 20 million visitors annually.

For Surfworks Myrtle Beach to go from a viable idea to reality, there are several considerations. Dixon noted that some of the challenges that a project of this magnitude faces are “finding the right piece of land, securing funding, determining the engineering, and a water treatment plan.”

Equally important is community buy-in. “The city of Myrtle Beach has been exceptionally supportive, and we couldn’t have done this without them. Collaboration is the biggest thing when working with the city,” said Dixon.

“You can do big things here in Myrtle Beach. This is one of those things. Grand Park was big. The Sports Center was big, especially when we built it. There aren’t many surf parks. This is another big thing”

- Myrtle Beach City Manager Jonathon “Fox” Simons, Jr. on the project.

Image Source: Phil Dixon Jr.

Along with selling the land to Surfworks for the project, the city has worked closely with the company to ensure that the plan for the park positions it to achieve revenue goals and attracts families locally and from other parts of the country. “The site plan would look very different without them, and we love our site plan. It’s turning into something really special,” said Dixon.

With construction and completion of Surfworks Myrtle Beach still two to three

years away, the excitement for its arrival is tangible — as much for the park itself as for its potential to capture a rising movement in consumer interests. It’s the latter that’s exciting for Matt Hayden, chief strategy officer of Surfworks, who is hoping the emerging interest in surfing will push the project over the top. “Surfing is highly addictive, and in places where there are waves, soaring numbers of kids and women have taken up the sport, turning it into a family activity. Similar to when ski lifts were introduced, we believe

surfing will follow a similar trajectory with the big exception that, at our park, it’s a powder day, every day.”

Dixon adds, “There’s not a day that goes by that I don’t get asked multiple times about the surf park — surfers, non-surfers, everyone’s interested in it. Over the next one to two years, wave parks will start to become more of a known entity. Once we start moving dirt in Myrtle Beach and people see it, it will become much more real.”

Image Source: Phil Dixon Jr.

BIG-TIME THRILLS, SMALL COASTAL VIBE:

HOW A FLORIDA TOWN USED THEIR NATURAL ASSETS TO BECOME AN ADVENTURE HOTSPOT

By Joey Johnston

Thanks to a creative publicprivate partnership, the tiny burg of Oldsmar, Florida has built a winning reputation around adventure sports.

Oldsmar — a coastal community of just over 13,000 residents, located about a half-hour drive from either downtown Tampa or the Gulf Coast’s white-sand beaches — has more park space per mile than anywhere else in the Sunshine State. The stately suburb is located at the top of Old Tampa Bay, so boat ramps and canoe launches are spotted throughout the neighborhoods of porch homes.

But, the area known for its small-town charm has also become a can’t-miss des-

tination for fraternities, sororities, birthday organizers, church groups, youth sports organizations, school classes, parks and recreation groups, cheerleading squads, vacationers, corporate convention attendees, bachelor and bachelorette parties, date-night couples, and even professional sports teams.

For seven years, Empower Adventures Tampa Bay has provided a local attraction with 3,000 feet of zip lines, an aerial obstacle course, and a suspension bridge over water, all situated in the Mobbly Bayou Wilderness Preserve’s breathtaking setting. What’s your preference? Thrill-seeking? Stepping out of your comfort zone? Communing with nature? Learning team-building skills? Using the

physical challenges as part of a big-picture leadership curriculum?

It’s all here.

Even the most courageous daredevils might think twice about soaring over treetops, 65 feet above the ground while cascading down a 650-foot zipline. Practically everyone who completes the exhilarating experience raves about the adrenaline flow and the unexpected bonding.

Oldsmar’s Reputation for Outdoor Adventure

For the city of Oldsmar, which partners with Empower Adventures Tampa Bay, it has become a huge victory. It provides

Image Source: Empower Adventures Tampa Bay

another adventure-sports offering to complement Oldsmar’s internationally known BMX Supercross track. It was also a part of the revitalization of the Mobbly Bayou Wilderness Preserve, a gorgeous, but underutilized piece of shoreline. Empower’s presence offered a unique way to showcase the park to visitors and residents.

“The leadership from years and years ago decided that having open spaces, an ecological landscape, and environmentfriendly parks were important,” said Oldsmar City Manager Felicia Donnelly. “Those things were developed long before I was here, and they set the foundation for what makes Oldsmar a very special place. We use that as the foundation for everything we do.”

Donnelly said Empower has become an invaluable component of the city’s strategic brand of outdoor sports adventures. She uses the acronym of CHEER (Community Building, Health, Environment, Economy, Repeat) to determine the success of the city’s recreation program offerings and Empower checks each of those boxes.

“It’s such a unique partnership because the city of Oldsmar really thought outside the box, utilizing this chunk of property that was in conservation to produce an eco-friendly adventure activity that brings awareness, along with revenue,” said Joe DeRing, founder and president of Empower Adventures.

The Empower Experience

“I truly believe that parks and recreation experiences will change your life,” Donnelly said. “In this case, with Empower Adventures, that bird’s-eye view changes your perspective of the world. We probably don’t have a good view of where we live due to our busy, busy lives. But when you get up there, when you see the

tree canopies, the mangroves, and the bay, it’s overwhelmingly beautiful.”

“I went up there myself with my brother and nephew and it was amazing to see their faces light up as they saw the world through a different lens. We did a log-

rolling event, and my legs were shaking even though I was in a harness, and it was perfectly safe. All of us were pushed from our comfort zone and given a unique experience. People were rooting for each other— You can do it! — even if they were strangers. This is a big attractor to our city. I have gotten lots of feedback and not even one complaint and I credit Empower’s organization and professionalism. This is an activity that people will remember forever.”

DeRing became fascinated with leadership and team-building skills while serving as an infantry officer for the U.S. Army in

Afghanistan and Iraq. “I learned that the most important form of leadership was leadership of self,” DeRing said.

He believes that Empower’s challenge can allow anyone to coach themselves through adversity, fear, and temptation. In addition to thrill-seeking, DeRing notes that skills are learned in selfcoaching and leadership, which is why Empower often appeals to CEOs, coaches, teachers, administrators, religious leaders, and parents.

He went on to say that sometimes, people stay a week in the Tampa Bay area and then block off a few hours before their plane departs, getting in some last-minute ziplining fun at Empower before being whisked away to the airport.

Empower’s Impact on Oldsmar

Sara Stirling, Director of Marketing for Empower, said the facility is aggressively promoted through advertising, social media, and partnerships with the city of

“The leadership from years and years ago decided that having open spaces, an ecological landscape, and environmentfriendly parks were important.’’

Image Source: Empower Adventures Tampa Bay

“Empower provides an experience-maker, not just a retail transaction. So hopefully after experiencing something like Empower, people will come back to Oldsmar again and again.’’

Oldsmar and Visit Tampa Bay, a nonprofit tourism corporation. Empower has 125,000 followers on Tik Tok and one of its videos generated over 10 million views.

“The values of Empower Adventures

are perfectly aligned with the things that are invaluable to a community,” Donnelly said. “We believe we have a very robust community that values the outdoors, park spaces, and natural beauty. Empower is an experience-maker, not just

a retail transaction. So hopefully after experiencing something like Empower, people will come back to Oldsmar again and again.”

All Images Sourced by Empower Adventures Tampa Bay

UPCOMING PLAYMAKER EVENT

10.19.23

PLAYMAKER SUMMIT:TX

Location

Legends Event Center Bryan, Texas

Community Playmaker’s second gathering of regional civic leaders will make a stop in Texas’ Legends Event Center, a state-of-the-art sports, event, and gaming complex that will play host to Summit:TX . The event will take place on Thursday, October 19th and topics for discussion will include innovations in the funding, design, and management of multipurpose complexes, economic impact through case studies, the convergence of sports tourism and outdoor recreation, and much more.

It’s our hope that the information provided, and the peer-to-peer connections attained will spark new ideas and be a source of inspiration for new projects in your community. For more information on speakers and times visit:

communityplaymaker.com/events

Image Source: Cedar Point Sports Center

In Riverside, California, the Riverside County Library System is doing its part to bolster literacy in their community with its Library Connect Vans. The vans provide library services to underserved communities. Along with story time, the vans provide job readiness programs, Wi-Fi, educational craft kits, and laptops.

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