Auburn Sports Park to Move Forward with Commission Approval
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The Auburn Plan Commission has given its approval for a planned $42 million sports park. Our partners at WPTA-TV report the vote, which had been delayed for several months, will allow developer Auburn Sports Group to begin work on the project.
ASG first unveiled plans for the 400-acre park, located at the former Auburn Auction Park along I-69, in January. The project calls for 16 basketball/volleyball courts, a domed indoor facility, eight baseball/softball fields and three artificial turf soccer/football fields.
“To get to this point is extremely exciting and it’s been a dream for a long time and to actually get here and pass this is something we’ve been looking forward to for quite some time,” Rodney Sinn with Auburn Sport Group told WPTA after the commission’s meeting Tuesday.
Developers initially aimed to open the new sports park this summer. Following the delays, construction is now expected to be complete next spring.
The approval came just one day after the latest moves in a lawsuit filed by Grand Park Fieldhouse LLC in Westfield against Sinn and ASG.
The suit claims Sinn improperly used confidential information obtained from his time as president of operations at the fieldhouse in 2015 and 2016 to entice third parties to invest in the Auburn sports park and disclosed Grand Park Fieldhouse’s business plan for the project.
Sinn and ASG on Monday filed a motion to withdraw a Motion to Dismiss and voluntarily agreed to a preliminary injunction and permanent injunction order along with Grand Park Fieldhouse.
In the motion to withdraw, the defendants said they had “entered into an agreement by terms to settle the case,” though Grand Park Fieldhouse called the settlement claim inaccurate, saying a potential resolution to the litigation could only come if the defendants fully complied with the injunction order.
The lawsuit does not seek to prevent the Auburn sports park from being developed.
The plaintiffs are calling for ASG to refrain from further using Grand Park Fieldhouse’s confidential information, remove all of the confidential information from the defendants’ documents and marketing materials, and to return or destroy the confidential information in its possession.