Mishawaka Fieldhouse opens to lofty sports tourism aspirations

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Local officials, community partners and other stakeholders gathered to celebrate the opening of the newly completed 220,000 square feet Mishawaka Fieldhouse on Wednesday, more than a decade after the vision was first conceived.

The $43 million project came to life through a public-private partnership involving the City of Mishawaka, the Mishawaka Redevelopment Commission, the Mishawaka Building Corp., the St. Joseph County Hotel and Motel Tax Board, the Northern Indiana Regional Development Authority and Fishers-based Card & Associates Athletic Facilities, bond documents show.

“This represents not only the culmination of a lot of hard work and a ribbon cutting for this building, this represents the ribbon cutting to Mishawaka’s future,” Mishawaka Mayor Dave Wood said. “This project is among the most impressive and biggest economic development decisions the city of Mishawaka has ever undertaken.”

Recalling his days shuttling his kids to various leagues across the country, Wood said he looks forward to welcoming parents with kids involved in amateur league sports and their wallets to the city. 

“As a father who has gone chasing kids to multiple communities all across the United States for amateur athletics, spending my dollars elsewhere, I know that millions will come to this place and do that here and that will have a significant impact,” he said. “This is more than just amateur athletics. This is support for all of our small businesses, all of our hotels and the Mishawaka and regional economy in general.”

The city’s director of planning and community development, Ken Prince, was applauded for the integral role he played in ensuring the project saw the light of day. The efforts of Visit South Bend-Mishawaka were also recognized, so much so that Nick Kleva, who had worked with the organization for seven years in sports tourism development was tapped to lead operations at the new facility.

“He’s running the show here,” Card & Associates Founder Andy Card said. “He grew up here. He knows the community and I’m so proud to have a local here running the facility and being in charge.”

Despite it being opening day, city officials said calls are already pouring in for inquiries about the fieldhouse. And while the vision for the facility was conceived by the city, they decided to leave the details to the professionals, and Card’s company came highly recommended. This is Card’s fifth sports project in Indiana, with most clients trusting his company to own, develop and operate the facility.

“This facility, right here in Mishawaka, Indiana, has set the bar for youth sports,” Card said. “There is nothing even close to this facility in the United States and probably the world.”

With the $43 million price tag, the city made a $35.4 million bond issue, in addition to an initial $1 million cash contribution from the St. Joseph County Hotel-Motel Tax Board and remittances of $960,000 between 2022 and 2024. A $4.1 million READI grant rounded up the project’s funding stack, bond documents show.

“The St. Joseph County Hotel-Motel Tax Board oversees the innkeepers tax with a goal and a responsibility of reinvesting the proceeds to drive more visitor nights and generate more economic impact for the community and clearly, that’s what we see here,” Tax Board President John Anthony said. “Youth sports is really big in St. Joseph County, we win big already and this is only going to make us better.”

In 2023, Anthony said the county hosted 91 youth sports events, generating 43,000 room nights, 168,000 visitors and almost $30 million of economic impact mostly from field sports and ice hockey. With this new indoor facility, Card is aiming to at least double those numbers. 

“This facility will bring in $65 to $80 million of additional revenue that’s not currently coming here,” Card said. “That’s the return for the citizens of Mishawaka. That’s jobs, that’s taxes, that’s retail sales, restaurant sales, gas sales, hotel sales.”

The facility offers 10 multipurpose athletic courts for volleyball and basketball, one turf field, twelve pickleball courts, three batting cages, a weight room, concessions and 15,000 sq. ft. of leasable space. Card added that proper operation of the facility will be key to attracting top tournaments from nearby Michigan, Illinois, Kentucky and Ohio.

“When you have companies like Nike, Puma, Under Armor, the junior NBA, all these different tournaments bring 1000s and 1000s of people, they have to be able to show up to a facility that’s operated correctly,” Card continued. “Good food, good people, good traffic control, good security and good operations.”

After purchasing land from Sen. Linda Rogers, R-Granger, and building the city’s biggest wellfield and water treatment plant, another purchase of farmland from the Penn family was instrumental in moving the needle for this project. As the infrastructure investments grew, the area became the choice location to host the Mishawaka Fieldhouse.

“We started running infrastructure thanks to an agreement with the Penn family that happened 10 plus years ago. That’s what made this area attractive to develop in,” Wood said. “We couldn’t be here without those infrastructure investments. It’s taken a lot of complex partnerships to pull this out of the ground.”

The 2021 passage of Senate Enrolled Act 164, authored by Senator David Niezgodski, Senator Ryan Mishler and Rogers, was crucial to receiving funding from the Hotel-Motel Tax Board. The law enables the board of managers, led by Anthony, to award investment money to projects that have a substantial likelihood of increasing overnight guests in the hotel motel industry of St. Joseph County.

This weekend, the Fieldhouse will host over 400 players for the Mishawaka Midwest Pickleball Open, in partnership with H2 Pickleball. For organizers, creating a memorable experience for the players will go a long way in positioning the region as a hotbed for the sport. Depending on the feedback, the Open could become an annual event.

“We created the pickleball tournament that’s coming here. 409 players from six different states will be coming to Mishawaka to play at this facility and H2 Pickleball down the road,” Visit South Bend-Mishawaka Executive Director Jeff Jarnecke said. “The biggest selling points were the brand new Mishawaka Fieldhouse, the fairly new H2 Pickleball facility and the $19,200 prize purse associated with the event.”

For every project Card takes on, he said his company rejects about 12 others based on a number of factors including easy access to roads and highways, likelihood of success, hotel rooms, safety, parking, surrounding developments amongst others. 

“It’s very complex to put these together and it’s a huge risk on my part because I don’t collect any money until we get the deal done,” Card said. “Mishawaka’s demographic is perfect, the population is here and there’s no capacity or competition to serve this area, so this is going to be really big for the local folks.”

Since bond proceeds can only go towards the cost of construction, Card, who owns and operates the Fieldhouse, will seed the initial capital to start the operation and the facility is also expected to pay taxes.

Card & Associates said it will work to attract tournaments like the Puma Grand National Tournament to the facility and will also create new events for the different sports they cater to.

“We actually run the leagues, we run the tournaments and we do all the selling of the sponsorship, the naming rights and I hire all the employees. This facility will employ over 300 people, mostly part time but they’re good paying jobs,” Card said. “They pay between $15 to $25 an hour. They’re great jobs for people that were in sports in high school or college. We’ve got referees, the concession folk etc.”

The Fieldhouse will serve as the homebase for the Northern Indiana Volleyball Association (NIVA) serving players in the Michiana area from 3rd through 12th grade; 5Star Life Basketball, providing youth with basketball training and programming aimed at cultivating young minds; and Canes Baseball, an organization taking high school players to the collegiate level.

Fishers-based Meyer Najem led construction, Carmel-based Bondry Consulting and Indy-based Ice Miller served as bond counsel to the developers while Indy-based Barnes & Thornburg served as bond counsel to the city. Milwaukee, Wisconsin-based Baird & Co. served as the underwriters.

Wednesday’s ribbon-cutting was only phase one of three and acts as an anchor for further development in the area. Card anticipates new single- and multi-family homes, hotel developments, restaurant and retail spaces, a new hospital, as well as expanded sports offerings.

“This project is probably somewhere between a six and seven year total plan to get it finished, and it’ll constantly be changing every year, with additional amenities coming to Mishawaka, like a 40,000-square-foot family entertainment center,” Card said. “We’re really working hard to bring hockey here, we’re talking about a three to four sheet arena. Lacrosse, soccer, outdoor baseball, softball, this will be the sports mecca for Northern Indiana.”

The facility offers monthly and yearly pickleball memberships for members of the general public ranging from $60 to $1900 and will also offer private lessons and drill sessions. Construction on phase two is projected to start early summer 2025.

“This is going to bring a lot of revenue, a lot of people, a lot of exposure,” Card said. “We’re going to sell a lot of hotel rooms, retail, food and we’re just getting started.”