Youth Sports Megaplex Planned For Oakland County

METRO DETROIT, MI — If you’ve ever tried to coordinate travel plans for a youth sports team, you know it can be difficult and downright frustrating. If often means booking rooms a fair distance from where games will be played. A proposed Oakland County mega youth sports and entertainment complex could change all of that for the better.

The former Summit Place Mall along Telegraph in Waterford Township is the site of the proposed complex, which would host a dozen basketball courts, four hockey rinks and three indoor/outdoor soccer fields, among other amenities. The developer of the project, whose identity is not being revealed at this time by township officials, recently obtained a 150-day extension to purchase the 77-acre site.

“It is a state-of-the art sports and entertainment facility that concentrates — although not exclusively — on youth sports," Eric Banks, executive principal at Core Partners, who represents the mall property's owner, Los Angeles-based SD Capital, told the Detroit Free Press. "Anyone who has kids in youth sports knows this is how a lot of families spend their entire weekends, traveling around and going to sporting events.”

If the deal is finalized, plans for the megaplex include:

• 12 basketball courts
• 4 hockey rinks
• 3 indoor/outdoor soccer and football fields
• A 12,000-seat arena with 32 luxury areas
• 300- to 400-room hotel
• A "surf park" with a wave pool and lap pools
• Sports-themed retail stores
• IMAX theater
• Food court
• A "Pet hotel"

The proposal is aimed at attracting young athletes and their families from distances of 100 miles or more, the Free Press reported.

Summit Place Mall opened in 1962 and closed in September 2009. The mall’s major anchors, which included, J.C. Penney and Macy's closed later with Sears being the last to shut down in 2014. Most of the abandoned mall would be demolished under the megaplex proposal.

“I think they are leaning towards major demolition and may preserve some areas for the food court and family fun center and daycare," Banks told the Detroit Free Press. “If this thing happens, it’s going to be a significant development. There’s talk of bringing 500, 600, 700 jobs.”

Demolition and remediation of the mall structure could begin as early as November if the deal proceeds, the newspaper reported. Waterford Township Trustee Anthony Bartolotta said that he is cautiously excited about the project.

"This will be a destination for Oakland County, for Waterford especially," Bartolotta told the Free Press. "I'm still leery. I'm not 100% that it's going to happen but I hope it does."

Image courtesy of Waterford Township