New $2M Indoor Sports Complex To Go Up In Bay Terrace

BAYSIDE, QUEENS -- A Bayside community center will soon be home to the neighborhood's first indoor sports complex, and patrons of all ages already have their own ideas of what it should hold.

Local lawmakers gathered at the Bay Terrace Center of Samuel Field Y on Tuesday to announce the $2.1 million they'd pooled for a 40,000-square-foot indoor sports complex in the community center, giving patrons their first of many chances to offer their suggestions for the space.

When children in the center's day programs were asked what they'd like to see in it, suggestions ranged from golf to ice hockey to wiffle ball.

It's their and other patrons' input that will help decided what exactly will go into the new sports complex, said City Councilman Paul Vallone (D-Bayside).

"The beauty of it is, we can design it together," said Vallone, who contributed $500,000 to the project and secured another $1.1 million from City Council Speaker Corey Johnson.

Still $500,000 short, Vallone said he reached out to Queens Borough President Melinda Katz, who happily agreed to foot the bill.

"You find the money, because this organization for generations has been there for our families throughout the borough of Queens," said Katz.

The project will replace the Samuel Field Y's temporary tennis bubble with a year-round indoor space that would house football, soccer, baseball and lacrosse turf fields, two to three basketball courts, a tennis court and a fitness and wellness space, Vallone said.

"The idea is to expand on what's already there," he said.

That would also mean expanding year-round senior, after-school and Pre-K for All programs at the center by offering a heated indoor recreation space during the cold winter months.

The Samual Field Y for more than 60 years has provided such social services to Queens residents of all ages at more than 50 sites across the borough. It now serves more than 35,000 people annually.

Katz said both the network and its new sports center are close to her heart. The Forest Hills native grew up frequenting the Central Queens Y and came to love the sense of community it provided.

"It was a community in the same way that this place right behind us represents a community," she said. "We want to make sure that Queens remains the place where families come to raise their kids."

Lead photo by Danielle Woodward/Patch