Jan. 22–GoodSports Enterprises Global has picked a site in Chesterfield to build a new $23 million hotel and fieldhouse that will cater to traveling athletes and their families. It’s part of the Florida-based company’s plan to build 25 such “villages” nationwide.
The location is at the Chesterfield Blue Valley development, adjacent to the new St. Louis Premium Outlets. Construction on the 130-room hotel and 85,000-square-foot fieldhouse will begin this fall, the Sarasota, Fla.-based company said, and the facilities should be open in 2015.
GoodSports says it’s seeking to meet demand for hotel and fieldhouse space in what the company estimates is a $7.1 billion dollar traveling sports market with 53 million participants.
“It’s a great demographic for us,” vice president of development Anthony Homer said of the Chesterfield site. “The St. Louis market already does a good deal of amateur sports tourism. There’s a lot of pent-up demand, particularly with volleyball.”
GoodSports plans to break ground on two other hotel projects this spring, in Ohio and Kansas. The Chesterfield location will be the company’s third village development, Homer said. The purchase price for the land was not disclosed.
“This is a continuation of what we planned for the mixed-use development from day one,” said Dean Wolfe, president and CEO of Clayton-based Wolfe Properties, the majority owner and manager of Chesterfield Blue Valley.
The new hotel will be built at the southwest quadrant of Premium Way and Outlet Boulevard. Chesterfield Blue Valley is projected to total $300 million in development, including the outlet mall.
St. Louis Premium Outlets owns 50 acres of the 132-acre Chesterfield Blue Valley site on Olive Street Road and Interstate 64 (Highway 40), and between 60 and 65 acres remain available for development.
“Eventually, we hope to have some sort of office space there and additional entertainment and restaurants,” Wolfe said.
